Tax strategy, scanner insight, and field notes for solo practitioners.
Long-form writing on the deductions solo CPAs and enrolled agents miss, the IRC citations that hold up in audit, and the patterns the scanner surfaces on real client returns. 19 posts so far, including the just-shipped Illinois series — newest first, one click to the full article.
- Each post cites the IRC section that supports it — IRS.gov or Cornell LII, same chain the scanner uses
- Newest-first ordering, one click from any card to the full post — no infinite scroll, no paywall
- No signup required to read; subscribe at the bottom if you want the next post in your inbox
A solo retainer that survives the year-2 IRS notice cycle is a retainer whose engagement letter split notice response out of the base fee before the first CP2000, CP2501, or Letter 2201 landed. How to price the per-engagement scope, where flat-fee vs. hourly each wins, and what Treasury Circular 230 §10.35 requires on every written deliverable.
CP2000, CP2501, and Letter 2201 arrive in year 2 — and each one absorbs two to four unpriced hours from the base retainer. Here is how to run the retention math on recurring clients, price a notice-response add-on, and keep Circular 230 §10.35 diligence from eroding the practice margin.
A solo-CPA triage guide to the four nexus triggers (physical, economic, click-through, marketplace facilitator), the UDITPA three-factor apportionment formula, and the per-state filing stack — with the four-step workflow on /tax-planning that absorbs the reciprocity/apportionment layer under the same Circular 230 §10.35 owner review as the federal return.
The Q4 estimated safe-harbor under IRC §6654 and the §174 R&E capitalization rule can be reviewed on the same solo-EA planning record in Q4. The four-step workflow on /tax-planning is presented as a practitioner-review aid, not a Circular 230 conclusion or a promise of time saved.
Eleven deductions every Schedule C filer is entitled to claim — home office, SEHI, mileage, business meals, the Solo 401(k) as both employee + employer, QBI substantiation, plus the §6001 contemporaneous-log discipline that carries each one through exam.
A solo-CPA audit file is not built on retainer day — it is built on the §6001 contemporaneous record one client engagement at a time. Here is the working-paper stack that holds up when an IRS examiner sits down across the table, and where the scanner fits in.
NC G.S. §105-134.6 add-back mechanics meet the federal §280A / §274(n) / §274(d) / §162(l) deduction slice — a one-shop examination of how the four-rule surface actually plays out for solo NC practitioners.
The 2026 engagement letter should explicitly cover §199A QBI documentation, §174 R&E capitalization, and digital-asset disclosure — clients who push back are the ones who need it most.
Six owner-review verification steps every solo CPA closes an engagement against before any AI flag goes on a return — with the IRC §-citation, the source return, the audit-log entry, and the PTIN-stays-on-the-line covenant the reviewer carries under Circular 230. Printable companion at /checklist.
State-coded review now covers IL — Schedule IL-E line-by-line review, base-income add-back interplay under 35 ILCS 5/203, and pass-through withholding on Form IL-941. Same scanner, same IRC + state citation chain, one more state in the registry.
N.J.S.A. §54A:2-1 federal-AGI conformity as the entry point for NJ Gross Income Tax review — paired against the same four-rule federal deduction slice, with §54A:1-1 stating the GIT scope. Why the conformity spot matters more than the ITIN form.
State-coded home-office deduction research now includes NE references — §280A simplified method anchored to selected Neb. Rev. Stat. §77-2717 / §77-2716 federal-conformity material. The registry notes the state reference scope and keeps additional interpretive work on the editorial queue.
Five commonly-overlooked Schedule C deductions — and the IRC section that supports each one. Spot them on your own return before they spot you in an audit.
MI MCL §206.711 federal-AGI conformity and §206.30 CIT base-income add-back mechanics — what the scanner actually proves for MI returns today, and why the Michigan Treasury RAB rows on federal-conformity modifications are still on the editorial queue.
TX Tax Code §171.101 taxable-margin umbrella plus §171.002 / §171.1032 / §171.001 carve-outs on business-meals / standard vehicle-mileage / SEHI — a one-paragraph walk of how the franchise-tax review lane works for TX entities with no state individual income tax.
FL corporate income / franchise tax base plus subsection-level pin-cites on §220.02(13), §220.13(2)(b)2., §220.04(3)(a)1. — and the FL Administrative Code Chapter 12C-1 interpretive rules (12C-1.012, 12C-1.013, 12C-1.015) threading through everything.
Neb. Rev. Stat. §77-2717, §77-2716, §77-2714 as the federal-conformity backbone for the NE Form 1040N line-by-line review — with subsection pin-cites and NE DOR General Information Letter interpretive rows on federal-conformity modifications queued for Drop 2.
The scanner pilot explored review patterns across the six Drop-2 states and the practical gap between "looks right" and the source a practitioner should verify.
Three §469 patterns that flip a real estate investment from passive to non-participation — and the practitioner-side paperwork each one requires to hold up at audit.
For firms evaluating the scanner
Writing that earns a second read.
Each post is an illustrative working example. The deduction pattern named in the article is one the scanner flags on a real return — with the same IRC citation, the same evidence rule, the same human-review caveat that decides whether it holds up. If the post is useful, the scanner is useful.
Solo practitioners reading these on their own time see the same cards their firm reviewer sees inside the scanner, redacted to illustrative patterns. Firms reading them in a partner meeting get the same shape — minus the client data.
How this page is built
Static list, real dates, machine-readable.
- · Source-of-truth: a single typed array — the same one feeds the index, the detail route, and the JSON-LD.
- · No editorial calendar: new posts land as code. The page at
/blogreflects reality, never a draft. - · Sorted newest-first: date DESC, then slug ASC for determinism across RSS, sitemap, and SSR paint.
- · JSON-LD: one
BlogwithblogPostitems, plus aBlogPostingper post for richer card parsing. Server-side; first paint has it.
Read the post, then see it on real returns →
Open a free trial, connect ProConnect, Drake, UltraTax, Lacerte, CCH Axcess, or OLT Pro, and run the scanner against your own engagement queue to see the patterns from this post surface on actual work.