Can we prepare your return?

We can do most straight-forward returns, but there are a few things that we are not trained to handle in a way that is most advantageous for you.

You will need a professional tax-preparation service if you have any of the following situations:

  • You are a non-resident alien (unless you have a green card or meet the substantial presence test) or cannot establish your identity with a photo-id or are a foreign student with F, J, M or Q VISA. However, you may try Virtual VITA or  MakeChange NoCo.
  • State returns other than Colorado. We can do partial year tax returns and the accompanying Colorado return but we cannot do the return for the other state(s). If you cannot do that other state return yourself, you should go to a paid preparer because they will have to do the Federal return in order to do the state return.
  • Income from Farming, Clergy/Minister, Rental (other than land), Non-profit, Reservist, Performing Artists, domestic production activities, or non-taxable combat pay*.
  • Self-employed with net loss, accrual accounting, employees with expenses or requiring a 1099-MISC to be filed, expenses exceeding $25,000, depletion or depreciation, car rentals/leases for more than 30 days, goods inventories, or business use of home. The IRS requires you to report all self-employment expenses – you can’t omit them to prevent a loss.
  • Capital gains/losses other than sale of stocks, mutual funds, or bonds on a brokerage statement or matured with no gain or loss. Most broker statements are OK (see 1099-B below). Wash sales must be clearly identified and totaled.
  • Sale of home ever used for business or with a reduced exclusion or a deferral from a previous home sale or destroyed, condemned or disposed of under threat of condemnation.
  • Deductions of investment interest paid, casualty or theft loss
  • Donations of non-cash items totaling more than $5,000 or with Form 1098-C, property previously depreciated, capital gain property.
  • Virtual currency: If you sold or trade in Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin or other virtual currency, we cannot do your tax return.
  • Other: Household employment taxes, if Alternative Mimimum Tax or Net Investment Income Tax applies (check last year’s return), adjustments to amounts needed on your tax forms, Renewable Energy Tax Credits, IRA conversion to Roth IRA or recharacterization (rollovers and transfers are OK), taxable Roth IRA distributions, state returns other than Colorado.
  • Check also for specific items on your tax forms that we cannot do:
W-2 Box 12 codes Q*, R, T.
K-1 Anything other than interest, dividends and capital gains and any resulting foreign tax credits.
1098-T Boxes 4 and 6 (adjustments).
1099-B Boxes 7 – 13 (Including if in broker statements).
1099-C Bankruptcy, insolvency or box 3 interest. Cancellation of debt for non-business credit cards or a mortgage is OK.
1099-DIV Box 2c (1202 gain) or 8-9 (Liquidation distributions).
FATCA filing requirement box checked.
1099-G Boxes 7-9. (unnumbered box next to box 9 is OK).
1099-INT FATCA filing requirement box checked.
1099-MISC Boxes 5 and 8-15.
FATCA filing requirement box checked.
1099-OID FATCA filing requirement box checked.
1099-Q If all distributed funds were not used for qualified education expenses
1099-R Use of general rule to reclaim after-tax contributions, Box 7 codes 5, 8, 9, A, E, K, L, N, P, R , or U.
Also codes J and T if distribution is wholly or partially taxable.
1099-SA Distribution from an Archer MSA or Medicare Advantage MSA

If you have any of the following forms, you’ll need a professional preparer:

1098-C Contributions of motor vehicles, boats, airplanes over $500
1098-MA Mortgage assistance payments
1099-A Acquisition or abandonment of secured property
1099-H Health coverage tax credit
1099-PATR Taxable distributions received from cooperatives
2439 Notice to shareholder of undistributed long term capital gains

If you know you need to file the following tax forms, you’ll need a professional preparer:

56 Notice concerning fiduciary relationship
982 Reduction of tax attributes due to discharge of indebtedness
1045 Application for tentative refund
1116 Foreign tax credit over $300 single or $600 married filing joint
1127 Extension of time for payment of tax due to undue hardship
2106* Unreimbursed employee business expenses
2210 Underpayment of estimated tax by individuals, estates and trusts. (We zero out penalties and the IRS will notify you if there is a penalty.)
2555* Foreign earned income
3520 foreign trusts, foreign gifts
3800 General business credit
3903* Moving expenses
4136 Credit for federal tax paid on fuels
4562 Depreciation and amortization
4797 Sales of business property
4952 Investment interest expense deduction
4972 Tax on lump-sum distributions
6251 Alternative minimum tax
6252 Installment sales income
8275 Disclosure statement
8396 Mortgage interest credit
8582 Passive activity loss limitations
8615 Tax for certain children who have unearned income of more than $2,100 for tax years 2016-2017
8621 Information return by a shareholder of a passive foreign investment company or qualified electing fund
8801 Credit for prior year minimum tax
8805 Foreign partner’s information statement of section 1446 with holding tax
8814 Parent’s election to report child’s interest and divdends
8815 Exclusion of interest from series EE and I US Savings Bonds issued after 1989
8821 Tax information authorization
8824 Like-kind exchanges
8829 Expenses for business use of your home
8833 Treaty-based return positive disclosure under section 6114 or 7701(b)
8834 Plug-in electric vehicle credit
8839 Qualified adoption expenses
8848 Consent to extend the time to access the branch profits tax under regulations section 1.884-2(a) and (c)
8857 Request for innocent spouse relief (we can handle injured spouse situations)
8865 Return of US persons with respect to certain foreign partnerships
8885 Health coverage tax credit
8886 Reportable transaction disclosure statement
8903 Domestic production activities deduction
8908 Energy efficient home credit (we can handle other home energy credits)
8911 Alternative fuel vehicle refueling property credit
8919 Uncollected Social Security and Medicare tax on wages
8938 Statement of specified foreign assets
8959 Additional Medicare tax
8960 Net Investment Income Tax – Individuals, Estates and Trusts
13844 Application for reduced user fee for installment agreement

Even after checking…

… we may discover that certain conditions exist that do not permit us to continue once we enter your information. We apologize in advance for some additional rare cases that may occur but we take seriously our commitment to provide the most accurate returns possible and so we only stay within our proscribed limits.


* May be allowed if counselors at the site have taken special training. Ask when you set up your appointment.