All businesses need to do tax returns, and if you want them done by a professional then you need a CPA. A CPA is a CERTIFIED Professional Accountant – not just some guy or gal who “does” taxes. That means that a CPA has had their expertise certified by the State of California.If you want a professional to do your taxes, you need a CPA.

This is what we are a Safe Harbor – CPAs. We have had to study, and we have passed all the exams, otherwise we would not be certified.

So far, so good. But being a certified accountant even in the Bay Area only goes so far. That’s about the same as being a dentist, attorney, or even a hair stylist. But at Safe Harbor we go one step further because we aim to be the BEST CPA, and that can only happen one client at a time.

We always go the extra mile because we happen to believe that just doing your tax returns is not enough. Our aim is to ensure that the way that your tax returns are done will mean that you have to pay the absolute minimum amount of tax required by the law. And that is a whole different ball game.

Loopholes

It means knowing the tax laws inside and out – obviously – but also knowing how each client’s taxes can be prepared taking advantage of every possible “loophole” in the law so that those taxes that are payable are reduced to the minimum while still remaining within the law. And that requires a whole lot of different expertise.

No, we are most definitely not “fiddling the books”. We use our expertise and our knowledge to take advantage of the laws and use them for the benefit of each client. So, we may tell a client “if you do this that way, you will pay less tax”.

Every client is different, so there is no “one size fits all”. So, for instance, an electrical engineer may be able to take advantage of a particular section of the law which a retail shop owner may not. And the other way around, as well. So, we are not just doing the “math” but using the law quite legally to keep the client’s actual payable tax as low as possible.

If you think about it, this makes sense both from the client’s point of view and from ours. We want to be the BEST CPA for every client, because we want our clients to be happy with our work. That way, our clients remain our clients for years to come. We get the benefits of ongoing clients, and our clients pay the lowest tax. What could be better?