What is return preparation support?
Computations and supporting schedules prepared for a licensed preparer to review and sign.
A CPA or EA practice that takes on more returns than its own preparer headcount can carry in filing season has two ways to close the gap: hire seasonally, which means recruiting, training and onboarding people who leave again by June, or extend the capacity of the preparers already on staff by handing them a finished computation to review instead of a stack of source documents to work up from scratch. What we build is the second path — the return computation, the supporting schedules, and the reconciliations that get a return to the point where a PTIN holder can review it line by line and sign, without the practice adding headcount for a season that lasts twelve weeks.
The work sits upstream of the signature, never past it. We take the client's source documents — W-2s, 1099s, K-1s, prior-year return, trial balance for a business return — and produce the computation: the return itself in draft form inside the practice's own tax software, supporting schedules (depreciation, basis, passive activity, the book-to-tax adjustments a Schedule M-1 or M-3 requires), and a reconciliation memo flagging anything that needs the preparer's judgment call. The PTIN holder reviews that draft against the source documents, makes the calls that require a preparer's judgment, and files under their own authority. Every draft leaves our hands unsigned and unfiled — only the PTIN holder's review turns it into something signed, e-filed, and final.
Who files this
Your firm, as the licensed preparer files or lodges this. We prepare, reconcile and support the numbers behind it; the submission itself is theirs, every time.
Who does what
| Your CapEasy team | Return preparation support, the reconciliations and reporting behind it, and the questions list that keeps it honest. |
| Your CPA or enrolled agent | Everything that carries a licence in United States — rendered exactly as written: issue compilation, review or audit reports — those are restricted to licensed cpa firms. |
| You | One conversation with one named person, and the decisions that are genuinely yours. |
Return preparation support in United States
A PTIN, not a person, is what makes a return preparer under IRC §6109
Preparing a federal tax return for compensation requires a Preparer Tax Identification Number under IRC §6109, and the PTIN holder is the one accountable for the return's accuracy under the preparer penalty provisions of IRC §6694. Your practice's PTIN holder carries the PTIN and the signature on everything that goes out — the computation we produce is a draft that becomes a filed return only once your practice's PTIN holder has reviewed it and signed. That review is not a formality we ask the firm to skip; it is the point where the return legally becomes theirs.
Circular 230 representation authority never transfers
Representing a client before the IRS — responding to a notice, handling an examination, negotiating a payment plan — requires Circular 230 authority (an enrolled agent, CPA, or attorney with a valid power of attorney on file). Representation stays with whoever on your team holds that authority; any correspondence or notice a client receives is routed straight back to your practice, for handling and response on the practice's own letterhead.
Form 8655 Reporting Agent authorisation stays with the firm, not with us
A Reporting Agent authorized under Form 8655 to file payroll returns or make deposits on a client's behalf is a specific, revocable IRS authorization tied to the agent's own EIN. The Reporting Agent named on any client's Form 8655 is always the practice's own EIN holder; if a practice holds that authorization for a client, the filings under it stay in the practice's own systems and under the practice's own authorization, with our work limited to the computations that feed the filing.
A book-to-tax adjustment is a computation; the position it reflects is a preparer judgment call
Reconciling book income to taxable income — the Schedule M-1 or M-3 adjustments, a Section 481(a) computation for an accounting method change, the treatment of a borderline expense as capitalized versus deducted — has a mechanical side (the arithmetic tying book to tax) and a judgment side (which position the return actually takes when the treatment is debatable). We produce the mechanical computation and flag the judgment calls explicitly in the reconciliation memo; which position the return takes is the reviewing preparer's decision, documented in their own workpapers.
What your CPA or enrolled agent receives from us
- A draft return computation prepared inside the practice's own tax software (or delivered in a format that imports cleanly into it), matched line-by-line to the source documents provided.
- Supporting schedules built to the return's actual complexity — depreciation and Section 179/bonus schedules, partner or shareholder basis schedules, passive activity loss tracking, K-1 allocation worksheets — not a bare summary number.
- A book-to-tax reconciliation (Schedule M-1/M-3 detail) showing each adjustment and its source, so the preparer can trace every difference between book income and taxable income back to a specific item.
- A prior-year comparison flagging material swings — a deduction that dropped out, an item that moved categories, a carryforward that changed — so the reviewing preparer sees what changed before signing off on why.
- A reconciliation memo listing every item that required a judgment call rather than a mechanical computation, so the PTIN holder's review time goes to the calls that actually need it.
- Multi-state apportionment schedules where the return requires them, built from the client's own activity data rather than a default allocation.
