My fee schedule is broken down into four categories:

• Tax Return Preparation

• Consultation

• Representation

• Expert Witness (litigation)

Tax Preparation

My fees for preparation of Federal and State tax returns are based upon the type of return required for reporting your income and expenses, and the number of schedules that need to be completed and attached.  Wage earners require fewer schedules than individuals with rentals and business operations, so the cost for those returns is much less than for the more complicated returns that contain business and/or investment transactions.  Upon request, I will E-mail you an estimate of my fees for preparing Federal and State income tax returns based on your last return filed, and considering any changes in your financial transactions for the year of preparation. 

I do supply you with a Tax Organizer to help you remember all of your deductions to which you are entitled, as well as the various types of income you earned.   This Tax Organizer helps me save time in the return preparation process and enables me to keep my fees very competitive.

50% of the return preparation fee is due when we either meet and go over your records, or you mail/fax copies of documents to me.   The balance will be payable after you have reviewed and approved the draft of your return.  A 10% discount for return preparation at my office is available for:

•  seniors (age 65 and older),

•  law enforcement and fire department personnel, and

• for employees of Fuller Manufacturing, Inc (a corporate client).  

For individuals who live in the San Fernando or San Gabriel valleys and, because of age or disability, have difficulty getting to my office in Burbank, I offer in-home return preparation.  I do charge a very reasonable travel fee to cover my gas expense and time on the road.  My mobility challenged clients appreciate the personal service and convenience  that in-home tax preparation offers them.

The process of having your return prepared by me will begin with you completing a Tax Organizer.  This is available in an Excel spreadsheet format, or in a PDF (Adobe Acrobat) version.  The Organizer and instructions will be provided to you once I have received the deposit and signed engagement letter.

Representation

My fees for representing you before the Internal Revenue Service (for an IRS audit, IRS collection or an IRS appeal of either division's determination), Franchise Tax Board, Board of Equalization or EDD are based upon an hourly rate, plus expenses.   Expenses include travel, parking, photocopying and other related services.  For general collection and examination representation, I do require a retainer.  Your retainer, with the exception of $250, will be applied to your final invoice.  The $250 will be used to cover case closing expenses - such as preparing the termination of engagement letter, notifying the tax agencies (and specific employees, if necessary) that I am no longer representing you, archiving your case information, and inevitably my responding/forwarding post-termination communications I will receive from the client as well as the tax agencies.

For Offer in Compromise cases, I may require a larger retainer depending upon the complexity of your financial situation, and whether there is more than one tax agency involved in your tax controversy situation.   For Corporations and other entities where the work will be more substantial, a larger retainer will typically be required.

I invoice clients usually on the 1st of the month for services rendered and expenses incurred during the prior month.   I  provide all clients with an itemized accounting of my time and expenses.  

IRS Offers in Compromise (a process whereby you settle your tax deficiency for a percentage of what is owed) are handled on an hourly rate basis.  I found through experience that doing these cases for a fixed fee either resulted in my client paying more than they would have on an hourly basis (because the client was efficient in completing forms, assembling and indexing attachments, etc.), or I ended up spending lots of extra time because of problems I encountered in getting the right records, dealing with inconsistent or missing information, etc.  So, with hourly billing, the more time and effort my client is willing to put into the required tasks, the less it will cost for the entire process.  Former clients have appreciated their ability to reduce costs by doing as much of the work as possible under my guidance.  This is particularly important if we have to do an IRS appeal of an adverse determination by the Service Center that does the initial review of the OIC application.

Processing simultaneous Offers (IRS and the State of California) typically result in less of a total cost than submitting them at different times. 

It is important to understand that there is no guarantee that either the IRS or the State tax agency will accept an Offer in Compromise.  Further, there is generally little chance of prevailing in an appeal to the Courts if the taxing authority denies the Offer.  That is why it is so important that you have a representative familiar with the process and able to present your case as persuasively as possible.   Please be sure to read the material on this web site that discusses Offers in Compromise in more depth.

There is no charge for my initial consultation (up to 20 minutes) by telephone or E-mail for discussing your potential qualification for an Offer in Compromise providing that you have submitted a completed questionnaire.   Please read the Consultation page for more information on this. 

Consultation

As noted above, I offer free telephone or E-mail consultation (up to 20 minutes of my time) for determining your potential qualification for an Offer in Compromise to resolve your delinquency - providing you first complete and submit the questionnaire,  

I offer limited free initial E-mail consultation for answering general questions regarding an audit or collection notice you just received.  For instance, you just received a Notice of Intent to Levy (letter CP504) from the IRS, and you want to know what it means, and what likely will happen next.   Free consultation does NOT include giving you specific guidance on how you can protect your assets or your chance of prevailing on an appeal given your situation.  

For your initial telephone or E-mail consultation concerning your personal options for a specific tax audit or collection issue, you will need to remit my fee (minimum of one hour) in advance at my current hourly rate.  This fee may be paid by check, money order, credit card, or if time is of the essence, by an electronic transfer processed through PayPal.   If you subsequently retain me to represent you in resolving your tax controversy, any unused consultation time for which you have paid for will be applied toward your retainer. 

Office consultation is billable at my standard rate for a minimum time of one (1) hour.  Please E-mail me for details.

To remit your consultation retainer by mail, please make your check payable to Richard E. Norton, E. A., and send it to:

Richard E. Norton, EA
513 North Florence Street
Burbank, CA 91505

Please include with your payment a letter or memorandum with your contact information (daytime, evening and mobile phone number, and fax if available), as well as your E-mail address.  Also, please include a brief explanation of the nature of your problem for which you are seeking my assistance.  If your inquiry is regarding a notice you have received or an audit report, please include a copy of the notice or report as this will enable me to better understand your controversy in advance of our consultation. 

If you wish to use a credit card or PayPal for making your advance payment, just E-mail me and I will provide you with instructions by return E-mail.   Please be sure to include all of your contact information in your E-mail so that I can get back to you promptly after confirming your payment.

I understand how stressful the receipt of a tax agency notice - or Notice of Levy or Lien - can be.  For this reason, I am generally available for telephone consultation seven days a week, including evenings if necessary.   Some Notices provide a limited period of appeal.   For that reason, I recommend you act immediately upon receiving a tax agency notice so as to not forfeit your right to an appeal of the proposed action (or action already taken - such as a lien or levy filing). 

Once payment has been received, or confirmed by the credit card company or by PayPal (if you used either  service), I will contact you to set up a mutually agreeable time to discuss your tax controversy.  In advance of this consultation, you will need to fax me your tax agency notice (if you have not already provided it to me) and any other information I ask you to send me for my review so that during our consultation I may best advise you on how you should proceed.

Additional telephone consultation time beyond the time purchased, if needed, is available at my standard hourly rate payable in advance in additional blocks of 30 minutes.  Office consultation is billable at 1/10 of an hour increments (after the initial 1-hour block) at my standard rate. 

As mentioned above, my initial telephone consultation for evaluating your potential qualification for an Offer in Compromise (once you have completed and submitted the Offer questionnaire), is free for up to 20 minutes. 

Expert Witness

My fees for testifying as an IRS expert witness depend upon the case, the location of the trial and other variables that need to be discussed.  If you are an attorney, plaintiff or defendant involved in litigation and are in need of an expert, please contact me and we can discuss your case and the potential value of my testimony.

Accepted for Payments

Last update:
10/15/2007