Tax Preparation
The service in full: what we file, how the digital process works, and what CPA review covers.
Learn moreTax Preparation · Manhattan Beach, CA
Tax preparation for Manhattan Beach equity and spike-income households.
Returns built around RSUs, options, and the years when income jumps. Prepared with the cost basis checked rather than assumed, reviewed by a CPA, and filed electronically.
Book Your Free ConsultationEquity compensation is where returns quietly go wrong
Manhattan Beach households carry the kind of income that tax software handles badly: restricted stock that vested, options exercised at one price and sold at another, a bonus or a buyout that made one year look nothing like the last. The numbers all show up on forms, but the forms do not agree with each other, and the return has to reconcile them.
The most expensive error we see on transferred-in returns is not exotic. Shares vest, the value is already taxed through your W-2, you sell them, and the brokerage reports a cost basis that leaves that income out. Nothing on the return objects. The same income simply gets taxed twice, quietly, and it stays that way until someone opens the vesting records and compares them to the sale.
Preparing these returns is careful clerical work more than it is judgment. Grant records, vest dates, exercise prices, the equity income sitting inside your W-2, and every sale confirmation have to line up before a number goes on a form. That is what we do here. The decisions about when to exercise or sell belong to planning, and that is a separate page.
What we need from an equity household
More than a W-2 and a 1099. The detail behind them is what makes the return correct.
- 01Grant and vesting records
Grant agreements, vest schedules, and the plan portal statements showing what vested, at what price, and on what date.
- 02Exercise and sale confirmations
Every exercise and every sale, including same-day and sell-to-cover transactions and shares withheld to pay tax.
- 03Brokerage statements with basis detail
The full statement, not just the summary. Adjusted basis for equity shares is often reported low or left blank, and we correct it from your own records.
- 04The W-2 with equity income identified
The wage statement and any supplemental detail showing how much equity income is already included in it.
- 05Employee stock plan tax forms
The information statements your plan issues for stock purchase plans and incentive stock options, which drive both basis and alternative minimum tax.
- 06Everything else in a spike year
Deferred compensation, K-1s, a property sale, or a payout. In a year with a jump in income, one missed item changes the whole picture.
What we check before the return is filed
Review here is specific to equity, not a generic second look.
- 01Basis on every equity sale
Each lot is traced back to its vest or exercise so income already reported through wages is not taxed a second time.
- 02Withholding against the actual rate
Statutory withholding on equity is frequently short of what a high earner owes. We find the gap while there is still time to fix it, not after a penalty notice.
- 03Alternative minimum tax exposure
Incentive stock options exercised and held create an AMT item, along with credits that carry forward and get forgotten by whoever files next year.
- 04Estimated payments for the spike
A bonus or liquidity year changes what each remaining quarter should be. We recalculate rather than repeat last year’s figures.
- 05California and any other state
Equity earned partly outside California, or vesting after a move, has to be sourced and allocated instead of assigned to one state by default.
The corrected statement, and why it sets the calendar
Brokerages routinely reissue tax statements after the original goes out, and accounts holding funds or partnership interests are the most likely to be revised. Filing on the first version and amending later costs more time than waiting a few weeks. So we track which of your accounts historically get corrected, and we plan the filing date around them.
That is how an extension decision gets made here: deliberately, in writing, and early, when a statement or a K-1 is genuinely still outstanding. It moves the filing date and nothing else. What is owed is estimated and paid on the original schedule, which we calculate with you rather than leave to a guess.
When the file is complete, a CPA reviews the return against your grant records and against last year, you walk through it with us on video, and you e-sign. Nothing is transmitted until you have seen where each number came from.
Where this connects
Preparation is one piece of an equity-heavy picture.
Tax Planning in Manhattan Beach
The decisions ahead of the return: when to exercise, when to sell, and how to shape a spike-income year before it closes.
Learn moreManhattan Beach CPA Services
The wider view of what we do for founders, executives, and high-net-worth households here.
Learn moreMonthly Accounting
For clients who also own a business, reconciled monthly books so the entity return is ready when the personal one needs it.
Learn moreGet an equity-aware set of eyes on your return.
Book a discovery call. Thirty minutes, and an honest read on whether your last few returns handled your equity correctly.
Book Your Free Consultation No pressure, no obligation. Just clarity.Questions we hear most.
01My last return was prepared by a national firm. Would you check the basis on my old sales?+
Yes, and it is the first thing we look at. Double-counted equity income is the most common recoverable error we find on returns transferred in from elsewhere. Where a prior year is still open and the money is real, we amend.
02How do you handle a year with a bonus or a liquidity event?+
We reconcile every source of the spike, then recalculate what is owed and when. Withholding on a large one-time payment is often far below the rate that actually applies, and finding that during preparation rather than after is what avoids a penalty.
03Do I need to be in Manhattan Beach to work with you?+
No. We are based nearby in Torrance and have served the South Bay for years, but preparation runs through a secure portal, video review, and e-signature. Nothing about the process requires driving anywhere.
04What if I still hold shares I have not sold?+
Unsold shares still matter to the return. Vesting can already have created taxable income, held incentive stock options can create an alternative minimum tax item, and the basis you will need on a future sale is set now. We record it while the documentation exists.
05Can you prepare returns for more than one state?+
Yes. Equity earned across a move or a remote assignment has to be sourced by where the work was done, not by where you live at filing. We prepare the California return and any other state involved, and make sure the credit for tax paid elsewhere is claimed.