Who this is for
Owners of closely held businesses who bought the building the company operates from, usually through a separate LLC and often with an SBA 504 loan.
Contractors, medical and dental practices, distributors, manufacturers, professional firms. The industry matters less than the shape: a profitable operating company, a property entity that leases to it, and one owner or a small group who own both.
The problem I usually find
The building sits in its own LLC and the return treats it as a rental. That means the depreciation on the property, including anything a cost segregation study would unlock, is trapped as a passive loss while the operating company keeps paying tax on every dollar. The lease between the two entities was written for the lender, not for tax. And the election that would have let the building offset the business income was never made, because the person preparing the return saw a rental and moved on.
Some of this can be fixed at any time. Some of it has a window that closes with the year you bought the property. Either way, the first step is a look at the returns.
What the engagement looks like
Setup
Review of the entities, the lease, the debt, and the prior returns. Fix what's fixable, make the elections that are still available, coordinate a cost segregation study if it pays.
Monthly
I review your books every month and keep the structure clean as things change. Questions get answered in the month they come up, not the following April.
Quarterly
Projections and estimates for the owner, the operating company, and the property entity together, so the numbers move as one picture.
Year-end
Returns for all three. Because the books were reviewed all year, filing is a formality rather than a scramble.
About
I'm David DeLancey, a California CPA. I spent the first part of my career at large firms doing cost segregation and high-level tax planning for some of the nation's wealthiest individuals and their entities. It was good work, but the client was rarely the person in the room.
I started HNW Accounting to build the opposite: a practice where the client comes first and the advisor doing the thinking is the same person picking up the phone. This is a firm for people who value a close, one-to-one relationship with their advisor and want that advisor to actually know their business.
I keep the client list small on purpose. You deal with me.
Getting in touch
I work by introduction and direct outreach, so if you're here, we've most likely already spoken or exchanged email. Reply to that thread and we'll set up a time.