Technical review of prepared returns
Your staff prepares the return. We read it before it goes out — the positions taken, the elections made and missed, the carryforwards, the things a diagnostic does not catch because the software has no opinion about them.
Then it goes back to you. You review, you sign, you file. We are not in the paid-preparer box and we never contact your client.
- We work inside your software — Lacerte, UltraTax, CCH, Drake, whatever you run. The return never leaves your environment and nothing gets re-keyed.
- Your name on the return, always. We do not sign work for other firms.
- One licensed CPA reads it. Not a pool, not a queue, not a name you never learn.
- We will sign your confidentiality agreement, or provide ours if you would rather start from one.
AI, for an accounting practice specifically
Every practice in the country is being sold AI right now, mostly by people who have never prepared a return. The useful questions are narrower than the pitch: where does this actually save a preparer time, where does it quietly cost you accuracy, and what must never go into a prompt.
That last one is a confidentiality question before it is a technology question, and it is the one most firms have not worked through.
- Where AI genuinely helps in a tax workflow — and, more usefully, where it does not.
- What client information can and cannot go into a tool, written down as a policy your staff can actually follow.
- Tool selection without the vendor in the room.
- Hands-on training for the people who will use it, not a slide deck for the partners.
The part most outsourcing pages skip
You will see it claimed that using a US-based provider means no §7216 consent to worry about. That is not right, and you probably already know it.
Treas. Reg. §301.7216-2(d)(1) lets you disclose to another preparer in the United States without consent only where the work does not involve substantive determinations or advice affecting the tax liability reported. A technical review is substantive determinations — that is the entire point of it. Being domestic does not move this service inside that exception.
So the consent question stays yours. What we can do is make the other half easy: under AICPA Interpretation 1.700.040 you may either obtain specific client consent or enter into a confidentiality agreement with the service provider. We will sign yours.
What being US-based does buy you is simpler than a paperwork shortcut, and it is the thing your clients would actually care about if they asked: their return information never leaves the country, and because we work inside your system it never leaves your environment either. There is no file transfer, no second copy, and no offshore hop.
If a provider tells you the consent question goes away, ask them which paragraph of the regulation they are relying on.
Who is actually reading your returns
Ron Federico, Jr., CPA. Ten years in public accounting, including a tax supervisory role at a top-10 national firm, before founding Federico & Company.
New Jersey CPA license 20CC04810800 and firm registration 20CB00796400, both verifiable through the Division of Consumer Affairs — firm registrations are under Business Search, individuals under Person Search.
The firm is virtual-first and works with firms across state lines.
What we will not do
- We will not solicit your clients. Not during an engagement, not after one. It is in the agreement, and it is the reason we do not want to be in the paid-preparer box.
- We will not sign returns for you. Review or preparation support, your signature.
- We will not take audit, review or compilation work for other firms. This service is technical review of tax returns and AI guidance, nothing more.
- We will not take on more than we can read properly. Capacity is agreed before a season, not discovered during one.
Tell us what your season looks like
Volume, software, the forms you need covered, and when. We will tell you honestly whether we are the right fit before quoting anything.
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