IMPORTANT CHANGE!!

How the Coronavirus will temporarily affect the way we work with our clients.

Like most businesses all across America, we at Heritage are taking great precautions to protect both our clients and our staff.  Here are some of the things we have already been doing as well as a very important change that we feel we must implement starting Thursday, March 19^th.

Things we have already been doing:

1. As difficult as it has been to do, we have already stopped shaking hands with each other and with our clients.
2. We have been sanitizing door knobs, faucets, and other surfaces that multiple people may touch.
3. We have been washing our hands between every client.
4. We have been providing brand new pens for you to use when signing the paperwork. These pens have not been used and/or reused by previous clients and the pens are given to you to take home with you.

A very important change that we feel we must implement starting Thursday, March 19th:

In order to implement the “social distancing” recommended by the federal government, we are instituting a NEW policy that will require that you drop off your materials for us to work with rather than come into our office and risk exposure to yourself, other clients and our staff.  We regularly have more than 10 people in our office at the same time.  This new policy will protect both our clients and our staff.  We appreciate your understanding in this and look forward to the time when things will get back to normal.

Here’s how this new change will work:

1. First, let me tell you that we have been preparing returns for approximately 20% of our clients this way for many years so this is not something that is new to us.
2. Note that, due to this arrangement, an appointment will not be necessary. Just drop off your paperwork whenever it is convenient for you.
3. Before leaving your home, please place your paperwork in an envelope or bag that can be secured so that the documents will not fall out.
4. When you arrive at our office, please just drop your envelope or bag of paperwork through the large mail slot in our front door.
5. As an alternative, if you need for us to do so, you can also call us on your cell phone to let us know you are there. If you don’t have a cell phone, you could just blow your horn.  Please be patient with us and we’ll come out to collect your paperwork as quickly as possible.
6. We will work with your return as soon as possible, using a first come, first served basis. Although we will try to get your work completed more quickly, please allow at least five (5) business days for us to complete your work.
7. When we have gone as far as we can with your return, we will call you or email you with questions and/or results.
8. Once your return is completed, we will ask you to come by to pick up your returns. We will bring your completed returns out to you with a clipboard for you to sign the required forms.  We will provide you with a brand new pen that no one else has used before. You may keep the pen.

For those of you who are computer savvy, an even better alternative is to exchange documents using our secure portal.  If you wish to use our secure portal, there are instructions at the end of this letter.

Of course, you can also always use the good old U. S. Mail if you prefer.

As a result of this change, we will waive the $18 fee increase that we described in our letter we sent in January. That was scheduled to take place on April 1^st, but will be waived for this year only.

We will greatly miss the opportunity to visit with you as we have done in the past and look forward to doing that once this historic virus situation has passed.  In the meanwhile, we hope you will understand why we feel the need to do this and will work with us as we implement this new policy.

THANKS! Len Boush, Michelle Dail, Frank Gerbus

HOW TO USE THE SECURE PORTAL – IMPORTANT INSTRUCTIONS:

1. You will receive a separate e-mail from [email protected] that allows you to create your own password to access your files from our secure portal.
2. Please note and remember the username and password.
3. Both the username and the password ARE case sensitive.
4. You only have 48 hours to create the password before that e-mail expires. If that happens, please give us a call and we will resend the e-mail.
5. PLEASE closely follow all of the instructions on that e-mail.
6. One very important thing to remember: You will create your own password, as mentioned in step #1 above, to access the secure portal.  You will use a different password that WE create to open any password protected documents.  The password WE create for opening documents will almost always be the first four (4) letters of first taxpayer’s last name followed by the last five (5) digits of the social security number of the taxpayer whose name appeared first on the tax return. For example, if the names on the return were George & Martha Washington and George’s Social security number was 123-45-6789, then your password would be wash56789. The password is all lower case with NO spaces.
7. Don’t hesitate to call us for assistance!

TO ACCESS YOUR FILES FROM OUR SECURE PORTAL,

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING INSTRUCTIONS

1. REMEMBER! The password you used to enter the portal is known only to you. If you have forgotten that password, please call us to ask us to send you instructions to reset your password.
2. To access the portal, go to HeritageTax.com/
3. Click on the box in the upper right hand corner that says “Secure Log-In”.
4. Enter your username and the password you created and click the Sign In button.
5. When the home page displays, notice the My Folder menu to the left.
6. Click on “Documents from Preparer”.
7. In the right column, your documents should appear. Click the Download link for a document.
8. Select to open or save the file. IMPORTANT! A password may have been assigned to one or more of your files that is DIFFERENT from your log-in password. In most cases, this password will be the first four (4) letters of first taxpayer’s last name followed by the last Five (5) digits of the social security number of the taxpayer whose name appeared first on the tax return. For example, if the name was George & Martha Washington and George’s Social security number was 123-45-6789, then your password would be wash56789. The password is all lower case with NO spaces.
9. You may need Adobe Reader to open the file. The program is already on most computers.  If you do not have this program, you can download it for free at http://get.adobe.com/reader/
10. If you select Save, follow the normal procedure you use when saving a file to your computer.

To submit a document to your preparer:

1. Follow instructions #1 – #5 above.
2. Click the Documents to Preparer link under the My Folder section.
3. In the right column, click the Upload
4. Click the Browse Files button to search for the file you would like to upload.
5. The file should display under the button. Click the Upload
6. The file will display in the right column. You have the opportunity at this time to rename or delete the file if necessary.
7. Your preparer will be automatically notified that a file is ready for downloading from you.
8. If you have any questions, please contact your tax preparer.

The deadline for voting for Best of Portsmouth is tomorrow, March 18th.

If you have already voted for us, THANKS!

If not, we’d greatly appreciate it if you would vote for us for “BEST OF PORTSMOUTH” this year.  There are 2 ways to vote.  You can either:

1.       Vote online at http://www.hamptonroads.com/bestof” OR

2.       Text the code AKXZ to 21333

Better yet, please do both!

MANY THANKS!

We are regularly asked, “What is an Enrolled Agent (EA)?”

Although there are over 50,000 Enrolled Agents (EA’s) nationwide,  many folks are not familiar with the term so I thought I’d give a brief review.

I’ll start out with a direct quote from the IRS website, “Enrolled agent status is the highest credential the IRS awards.”

OK, that’s sounds real good but what does an EA actually do?

An EA can prepare your taxes, but so can CPA’s and a half million others at the national chains and the local mom and pop operations.  But that where the similarity stops.

I have prepared a chart to compare the differences.  IMPORTANT:  There are excellent tax preparers who are unlicensed, or who are CPA’s or who are EA’s.  There are also some very bad tax preparers who are unlicensed, or who are CPA’s or who are EA’s.  One of the best tax preparers I know has been preparing taxes for over 30 years but is unlicensed.

The point here is not to make any of the three groups look bad, but to point out the differences.

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It occurred to me that I never thanked those of you who voted for Heritage Income Tax Service as the Best of Portsmouth for 2012.  Because of your votes, Heritage won the Gold as the Best of Portsmouth again this  year, making it our 5th consecutive year.

MANY THANKS!

Click on the image to enlarge:

You could win $100 in our contest to create a new slogan for our company.

When you think of a company, what do you think of?  For example, when you think of McDonalds, you may think of “the cheap hamburger” people or “the good fries people” or whatever.  One is positive while the other is somewhat negative.

When you think of Chick-fil-A, you may think of “the friendly service place” or “the good chicken place”.

And so on.

We are running a contest and will award a $100 CASH prize to whoever comes up with a really good positive slogan we can use in our advertising.

Here’s the contest:

When you think of Heritage Income Tax, you think of Heritage Income Tax, “The______________!”

Fill in the blank.

For example, “Heritage Income Tax, the tax professionals.” (Obviously, you can’t suggest that.)

Here are some thoughts to get the ball rolling:

All of our preparers are Enrolled to practice before the IRS.  There are only about 40,000 Enrolled Agents (EA’s) nationwide out of approximately 750,000 tax preparers.  To become an Enrolled Agent requires passing 10.5 hours of excruciating testing by the IRS as well as a thorough background investigation by the IRS.)

1. We are Fellows of the National Tax Practice Institute (NTPI Fellows).  (Only EA’s qualify to start with and only about 1000 EA’s have gone through the 3 year process to complete this amazing educational program).
2. We are the ONLY tax preparation service inPortsmouth,Chesapeake, orSuffolkwith three EA’s under one roof.  I know of only one other company in the entireCommonwealthofVirginiathat has three EA’s under one roof.
3. We are the ONLY tax preparation service inVirginiaand possibly even in all ofAmerica, as far as I can determine, with three NTPI Fellows under one roof.
4. We provide the BEST guarantee in the industry, bar none.
5. We provide the best service anywhere, bar none.
6. We have the BEST employees in America, bar none.
7. While many office are only open during the tax season, we are open year round.
8. We provide FREE follow up service for our clients.
9. We provide FREE audit service for our clients.  The client does not even have to go to the IRS; we go for them.    We are the ONLY company anywhere that I am aware of who will completely handle a client’s audit for FREE for up to 6 hours of audit work.  Note that six hours will cover the vast majority of non-business audits.
10. We provide tax preparation in the privacy of an office with a closed door totally unlike the national chains who see you in open areas where others can overhear your private affairs.
11. We provide a FREE monthly newsletter for all clients who have e-mail accounts and opt in to receive the e-mail.
12. We provide lots of little, insignificant extras not found at other tax services.  For example:
1. FREE shredding for our clients  – year round.
2. FREE Chick-fil-A coupons (most years)
3. FREE bottled water for our clients while they are in our office
4. FREE business advice year round (limitations apply).
5. FREE copies of their tax returns when a client loses the first one.
6. FREE notary service.
7. FREE speaker to events at a client’s church or other organization.
13. In spite of all of these amazing qualities, our fees still undercut the national chains as well as most CPA firms, usually by a significant percentage.

How can we get at least some idea of some of those qualities across in a very short slogan?  How can we get across the idea that we are radically different from any other tax service out there?  Is it even possible?

How can we bring an image to a person’s mind with a short slogan that will give him/her the “warm fuzzies” that they are going to have the peace of mind that goes with the attributes reviewed above?  Again, is that even possible?

Well, how creative are you?  Can you come up with some good ideas?  Remember, the more ideas you suggest, the more chances you have to win.

I really look forward to hearing your ideas and suggestions!  Respond by e-mail to [email protected].

Michelle Dail, Joan Hughes, and Len Boush all three graduated tonight from the prestigious three year program of the National Tax Practice Institute and are now designated as “Fellows of the National Tax Practice Institute”.

What does it mean to be a Fellow of the National Tax Practice Institute?  The National Association of Enrolled Agents developed NTPI to prepare licensed representatives to protect their clients’ rights and build camaraderie among top practitioners. At NTPI a practitioner increases his/her knowledge of IRS laws and procedures critical to representation—including Circular 230, the document which governs tax practitioners, learn from other Circular 230 practitioners who are actively involved in representation, and gain practical hands-on experience.

At its core, NTPI is a three-level program developed to sharpen the skills of enrolled practitioners at all stages of their careers. With each level of this program, participants expand their knowledge and skills, and gain the confidence needed to successfully guide their clients through the often challenging maze of IRS codes, internal regulations, and agency structure.

Enrolled agents who successfully complete Levels 1, 2 and 3 (in order) join the ranks of the prestigious Fellows of NAEA’s National Tax Practice Institute™. Fellows are the crème de la crème of representation experts, and are highly qualified to represent their clients.

I would appreciate any one who would be willing to vote for our business for “Best of Portsmouth”.

There are 2 ways to do this. You can do either or BOTH.

The 1st way is to TEXT a message to the Virginian Pilot at 21333 and enter code “DRW’ (without the quote marks).

Many thanks for your vote!

Did you know these people trained as accountants before their careers took a different turn?