Our Services

Our service philosophy combines superior technical expertise with a full understanding of your company's business and goals, producing a long-term relationship with Comyns, Smith as your trusted financial advisor.

Meeting the needs of small and mid-market businesses requires a thorough understanding of business operations, and the interplay of those operations with the U.S. tax code.

We also have significant experience assisting clients with mergers and acquisitions, raising capital finances, and preparing them to offer publicly traded securities. Our experience has led us to develop specialty practice areas including the application of Subchapter K of the Internal Revenue Code (“IRC”) to complex partnership allocations, the implementation of the loss limitation rules of IRC Section 382, the application of the rules related to tax free reorganizations under Subchapter C of the IRC, and compliance with the complex and often misunderstood rules of related to international tax in Subchapter N of the IRC, all of which can be of great benefit to our business clients.

The cornerstone of our service philosophy is the recognition that the real value of a professional advisor is never measured only by the advisor’s technical skills. Instead, our philosophy combines superior technical expertise with a full understanding of the company’s business and goals, producing a long-term relationship with Comyns, Smith as its trusted financial advisor. Our clients have a service partner who becomes intimately familiar with their business and account and is the leading CPA on their account throughout the firm’s engagement. This continuity is paramount to the success of our service philosophy and distinguishes us from other accounting firms.

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I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.

Winston Churchill

Our Clientele

We serve an extremely broad base of clients. Our clientele consists of both business clients and individuals. Because most of our business clients are closely held or family owned, we recognize that tax and business planning must take into account not just the business, but the owners as well. Our business clients run the gamut of industries and organizational types, from sole proprietorships to consolidated C-corporations. We work with many pass-through entities, such as partnerships, limited liability companies, and S-corporations. We serve clients in many industries, including real estate, manufacturing, construction, high technology, healthcare, employee benefit plans and ERISA, leasing, financial and professional services, wineries, private foundations, not-for-profit foundations, collective bargaining organizations, franchise companies, automotive repair, distribution, technology, restaurants and hospitality, exporters, and retail. We serve clients with multi-state operations, as well as clients with both in-bound and out-bound international operations.

In working with our individual clients, we recognize that the CPA is one member of a team of advisors and we work to coordinate the tax aspects of your personal situation with your other advisors – be they estate planners, financial planners, investment advisors, or others.

Services Offered

Tax Planning

While accurate preparation of tax returns and other filings is a hallmark of a good accounting firm, an excellent one focuses on helping clients structure their affairs in such a way as to pay the minimum amount of tax they can legally pay. We pride ourselves on providing such planning services to our clients. We review each new significant piece of tax legislation with an eye to how it might benefit our clients. We regularly review tax related developments such as new court cases or new regulations in business and professional publications, newsletters, and in our research services. Because the volume of new material is vast and ever changing, as a partner group, we share the things we learn so all of our clients can benefit. Whether it is a part of a specific engagement to help you structure a transaction or as part of our ongoing work on your tax related matters, we are always on the look-out for ways to help you reduce your tax liability.

Tax Preparation & Compliance

Preparation of tax filings is central to our practice. We have the capabilities to handle the following types of filings:

C-corporation federal and state returns
S-corporation federal and state returns, including composite state returns for non-resident shareholders
Partnership//Limited Liability Company federal and state returns, including composite returns for non-resident partners/members
Trust federal and state returns
Individual federal and state returns
Gift and Generation Skipping Transfer Tax Returns
Estate Tax Returns
Federal and State Withholding Tax Returns for payments to non-residents
Information Returns related to holdings of foreign bank and investment accounts, Controlled Foreign Corporations, foreign partnerships, disregarded entities and trusts

In addition, we can assist you as needed with certain returns that where your internal accounting department may not have the capacity or expertise:

Information returns such as Form 1099-MISC
Sales & Use Tax Returns
SF Business Tax Returns
State of Washington Business & Occupations Tax Returns
Local Business License Returns and Filings

Tax Controversy Representation

An IRS audit or an examination by any other taxing authority can be a stressful and time intensive process. Because of the adversarial nature of the process, it is always advisable to have someone who understands the process and can manage the risks associated with it for you. Whether we prepared the return in question or not, we stand ready to help you work through a federal or state income tax audit. We add value by understanding the tax law and by working to get you the benefit of all of the protections afforded you under the law.
We also understand that the government does cause undue burden on you or your business as you go through the process. We are experienced at negotiating fair settlements while insuring that you receive the benefit of all permissible deductions and credits. Oftentimes we will resort to using the appeals process to obtain a better result than the one initially offered by the examining agent. In the event that you do not receive a satisfactory result in the appeals process, we can work with your tax attorneys to support them should you decide to litigate the matter in court.

Litigation Support & Forensic Accounting

Legal counsel at times requires the assistance of CPAs to understand and analyze financial aspects of matters contested in court. Initially we can serve as consultants to advise you about the merits and risks of your case. We can assist you with analysis of financial data and provide expert witness testimony in civil courts related to financial or tax matters. We are experienced in such matters as divorce, lost profits, tax disputes, and accounting malpractice. We can provide you with written analysis of evidence to be provided in the course of a trial, either by you or by the opposing counsel. We have testified as an expert witness in both state and federal courts.

Assurance Services: Financial Statement Audits, Reviews & Compilations

We provide assurance services for privately- held, non- publicly-traded businesses, which include financial statement audits, reviews and compilations performed in accordance with applicable professional standards.

Our Audit approach includes an assessment of our client’s unique and industry specific issues with detailed planning and ongoing client communication. We believe that our audit process is among the most efficient available and that combined with our use of current technology, it distinguishes us from our competition.

Our service approach when performing Financial Statement Reviews and Compilations is very similar to our Audit approach. As such, we believe that the key to successful completion of these services is effective planning and communication, effective use of technology, performance of efficient and effective procedures, and prompt report issuance.

Business Advisory: Financial Modeling, Capital Expenditure Planning, Cost Containment

Business enterprises often encounter an array of business challenges and opportunities each year. Our firm provides business advisory services to assist business owners in making optimal business decisions. We have assisted clients with a wide variety of business advisory services, including:

Mergers and Acquisitions
Cost Reductions and Cost Containment Projects
Due Diligence
Building and Equipment Purchases
Business Modeling
Accounting and Bookkeeping Services

These services can be vital in providing business owners the critical information they need to make sound business decisions.

Capital Transactions: Mergers, Acquisitions, Divestitures, & New Capital Transactions

At Comyns, Smith, McCleary & Deaver, LLP we are focused on getting the most out of a transaction for you, our client. Our multi-disciplinary team includes former Big-4 partners and senior managers, as well as CFO’s of closely-held organizations that have gone through what you are doing right now. Our team can assist you in purchasing a company, selling your business and recapitalization or restructuring of the existing structure of your company.

When acquiring a business, we can assist by providing due diligence services, including review of the target’s financial and non-financial information. We can evaluate EBITDA, analyze customer receivables and cash flows and identify trends in the business not apparent on the surface. Our team has the experience to evaluate internal controls, tax positions, and key accounting procedures. Most importantly our experienced team of partners and senior managers is able to perform this service quickly, because we all know that deals don’t wait until Monday. We look at acquisitions from a long-term perspective. The tax structure of an acquisition can have implications for the ongoing tax liabilities of the acquired business, as well as the tax liability on the gain when it is ultimately sold.

As your business grows, you may need additional equity or debt to reach your goals. We can assist with understanding the accounting and tax implications of issuing debt, issuing new equity, or bringing in new partners to your business.

As you prepare to sell your business, we can help you to position your business to maximize your proceeds from sale. We can provide a pre-review or audit of the financial statements to allow for a smooth transaction, or review of internal policies and procedures to improve the perceived value of the organization. Long before this happens, we can also help you with considering the best structure to adopt for a disposition in the future.