Author
J. Abel Scott, EA
Enrolled Agent in Loveland, Colorado. Abel prepares the returns, keeps the books, writes everything in the Knowledge Hub, and answers his own email.
Credential
Licensed to practice before the IRS.
- Enrolled Agent (EA)
- Federally licensed by the Department of the Treasury. Enrolled Agents are the only tax practitioners licensed directly by the federal government, and the credential comes with unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS in every state.
- What an EA is not
- An EA is not a CPA. Abel does not perform audits, reviews, or attest work, and Varde Financial is not a CPA firm. If your situation calls for audited financial statements, we will say so and point you to someone who does that work.
- Focus
- Individual and small business returns, monthly bookkeeping, entity selection and S-Corp analysis, owner pay, and quarterly estimates. Clients are mostly freelancers, first-year owners, partnerships, and S-Corps.
- Education
- Finishing a bachelor’s degree in accounting alongside the practice, after a first career that started with numbers he did not understand yet.
Written by Abel
Recent pieces from the Knowledge Hub.
Quarterly taxes, explained one more way
Why the IRS wants four payments, a 30 percent rule you can start using today, what changes when you already run S-corp payroll, and the June date almost everybody misses.
Why running payroll doesn't mean your taxes are handled
Your payroll withholds against your salary, not the K-1 profit above it. Here is where the gap comes from, and why bumping your own withholding beats writing quarterly checks.
What to do about quarterly taxes when you have no idea what you'll make
You are not required to predict the future. Last year's safe harbor, the annualized method for genuinely seasonal income, and why the penalty is really just interest.
How much do I actually have to pay myself?
Reasonable compensation is not a percentage. How to build a salary number from real wage data, write it down in one page, and avoid the December-payroll mistake.
The practice itself, and why it exists, is on the about page. Fees are published on the pricing page.
Next marker
Talk to the person who does the work.
Send a short note about where you are. Abel reads every one himself.