“So glad I changed to Holmes and Associates. They picked up on and corrected some MAJOR errors that my prior accountants had made. The correction saved me a lot of money and now I have the confidence that my filings are correct. ”
Long Beach’s Top Certified Public Accountants
We are a full service CPA Firm specializing in small business accounting, bookkeeping, tax services, tax preparation, IRS audits, business structure and entity analysis, tax write offs, deductions, QuickBooks, payroll services, real estate accounting, and tax preparation services to name a few.
There is virtually no tax related issue we can’t tackle with ease. Our CPA firm has over 100 years of combined experience. At this stage of the game, there is no tax scenario we haven’t already solved successfully for one our clients.
Holmes & Associates, CPAs has been servicing the greater Long Beach area since 1986. Currently located in Union Bank Building in downtown Long Beach.
Small Business Accounting
The key difference between us and other CPA firms is the exclusive tax services we offer that aren’t available elsewhere.
Our founder, Larry Holmes, earned his Masters in Taxation from USC. From there, he went to work for one of the top tax offices in the world - Ernst and Young. Larry mastered exclusive tax service usually only available to big corporations. A few years later, he set out on his own and started a tax office specializing in small businesses. Holmes & Associates was born and now all the premium and exclusive tax services previously only available to the elite are now accessible to everyone for a fraction of the cost.
The tailor-made tax services and money saving solutions at Holmes & Associates are a cut above any other CPA firm you can find.
Reach out to us today for a Free Consultation. Find out how we can improve your bottom-line.
Free Tax Analysis and Consultation
Holmes & Associates, CPAs offers a Free Tax Return Analysis. This is a fast, but thorough process where we go through the financial health of your small business and financials. Our CPAs look at your books, tax write offs, tax deductions, financial statements and in less than hour we will have a full report on how you can increase your bottom line and save money.
This is a totally FREE service. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain by letting our CPA firm analyze your small business.
Call us now at (562) 495-3331 or SCHEDULE A FREE TAX CONSULTATION
*NOTE - We will NEVER give your contact information out for any reason.
Certified Public Accountants
Holmes & Associates, CPAs was founded in 1986 by Larry Holmes. We are a full-service CPA firm in Long Beach, specializing in small business accounting. Our goal is to deliver beyond your expectations and help your bottom-line results. Our CPA firm boasts a professional tax team of CPAs with over 100 years of combined experience in tax services, tax law, and accounting.
Holmes & Associates was built on the principle of customer service and understanding. Many CPA firms will charge large fees and throw technical jargon around resulting in confusion and mistakes. We don’t do either. Our tax office will give you simple tax solutions and tax planning tailored for your specific needs.
We offer a plethora of services to meet all your personal and small businesses accounting needs: Handling tax write-offs, financial statements, tax deductions, tax credits, pension planning, succession planning, and Solo 401ks to name a few. Below are a few examples of the different accounting services our CPA firm offers.
Small Business Accounting:
After getting his Master in Business Taxation from USC, Larry Holmes started out working for one of the top accounting tax offices in the world, Ernst and Young. While there, he became an expert in premium and exclusive tax services that were only available to big corporations. After mastering his skills as a CPA, Larry set out on his own and started a tax office built for small businesses. All the premium and exclusive tax services that were only available to the elite are now accessible through Holmes & Associates, CPAs.
Tax Write Offs:
We are highly experienced in finding tax write offs for small businesses. Tax write offs help to reduce the amount of taxes that you pay. Many small business need help in identifying what they can write off. We make the process simple for you and help to legally maximize what you can write off.
We offer a free tax consultation and can tell you within one hour how you are paying more in taxes than you should. The bottom line is that 90% of the small businesses we review are missing tax write offs because they aren’t aware of the legal loopholes the government will allow them to take advantage of.
Financial Statements:
We prepare financial statements that are simple to read and assist in the preparation of your tax returns. We offer Reviews, Compilations and Financial Statement Preparation services.
We offer a free tax consultation and can tell you rapidly which level of financial statement service is best for you or your small business. Not all financial statement services are the same. The correct choice can go a long way in helping the financial health of your small business.
Tax Credits:
Tax credits are better than tax deductions. They reduce your taxes by more than a tax deduction, so you want to claim these valuable goodies whenever you can.
We are experts at a variety of Tax Credits. Research and Development credits can create big tax savings and we know how to legally maximize them for you. We also do energy tax credits (like solar energy installations), hiring credits, health insurance tax credits, pension plan tax credits, educational tax credits, adoption tax credits, the new saver’s tax credit, earned income tax credits, foreign tax credits, enterprise zone tax credits, child tax credits, disability access tax credits, rehabilitation tax credits, and childcare facilities and services tax credits....just to name a few.
Small business accounting is most successful when it is done thoroughly and with great attention to detail. Our CPAs will look at your small business from top to bottom. When we are done with our analysis, there won’t be anything we don’t understand about your financials. Most tax offices perform a quick, cookie-cutter review and slap together a perfectly legal but non-optimum tax plan. Holmes & Associates, CPAs takes great pride in over the top small business accounting and every tax credit, tax write off and tax deduction you could possibly benefit from will be woven into your return.
Pensions & Retirement Planning:
Our CPA firm works directly with pension design professionals to help you select the perfect retirement plan for you. Pension and retirement planning is important to both high net worth individuals and to everyday working people. The tax law allows for simple retirement plans like IRAs and Roth IRAs as well as more advanced pension plans that allow business owners to shelter their income.
In today’s world, retirement planning isn’t just done through IRAs and qualified pension plans. There are many other types of pension and retirement opportunities that are available to you. Real estate investments can be a terrific retirement planning opportunity. Life insurance can work well too for retirement planning. Financial assets of all kinds exist today that work to help with retirement planning. We help guide you through all these opportunities and get the best retirement and pension plan solutions that fit your specific desires.
Holmes & Associates, CPAs stands out from the pack of tax offices as one of the few full-service CPA firms that not only takes care of your business but also all your pension and retirement needs. Our accounting services see to it that your future retirement and pension are woven into the present financial growth of your business.
Solo 401k:
Many small business owners don’t have any employees other than themselves and maybe a spouse. There is a Solo 401K opportunity for such people that fits many of these small business people. We can help you set up a Solo 401K and calculate the annual contribution that you can make. The Solo 401k is an often overlooked opportunity and our CPAs can tell you whether or not it's a good fit.
Succession Planning:
Succession planning is what you plan for the future when you want to leave the business. Can you sell the business to your employees (an ESOP might work here)? Are you going to sell the business to a bigger company (how do you maximize the after-tax money you will get from the sale)? Maybe you want to pass the business to your children or other business partners.
Our CPAs will walk you through the various tax ramifications to all these strategies. Most tax offices will have a simple outline which they use for succession planning, but we tailor our approach to the specific financial position of the small business we are handling.
Tax services to meet your every need.
Holmes & Associates, CPAs is a full-service CPA firm that specializes in small business accounting services. To grow in today’s complex tax environment can prove challenging. Our tax services provide clients with expert guidance through the tangle of changing tax laws and pitfalls. There is virtually no financial issue we can’t tackle.
THESE ARE SOME OF THE TAX SERVICES WE ARE EXPERT IN:
IRS AUDITS
We have been successfully negotiating with the IRS for over 35 years. Our CPAs have a success rate that most tax offices envy; especially when it comes tough issues and less than perfect tax records. Through years of experience working before the IRS, we know how to represent taxpayers. It is a matter of negotiating settlements with the IRS, knowing the details of the law and positioning the law to work in your favor with the IRS. We know how to get the IRS to trust us and our understanding of the law. It is very technical but it can also be as simple as knowing how negotiate in a credible manner using the tax law.
REAL ESTATE ACCOUNTING
We know how to maintain books and records for most types of real estate (such as apartment rentals and commercial real estate) so that tax compliance is a breeze. Real Estate Accounting can be streamlined so that is not complex and yet arrives at the lowest possible tax. Real Estate Accounting is for individuals that own real estate as well as LLC, partnerships and real estate professionals. We understand Section 1031 exchanges and how to account for them.
SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTING & BOOKKEEPING
We do everything from entering all of the transactions into the accounting system, to checking over the bookkeeping that the client has done. It is a spectrum of services tailored to fit exactly what the small business needs. We do the accounting and bookkeeping accurately and efficiently. We make the adjustments need to the accounting and bookkeeping to facilitate the tax-preparation process.
1041
Trust income tax returns. Many people have trusts tax returns to file either because they have created them or they are a beneficiary of them. Either way, we prepare many trust tax returns and 1041s for our clients.
BUSINESS ENTITY
Should you be an S Corp or LLC? We get that question all the time. Many times people don’t even consider a C Corp. Which is best? It depends of course on the goals of the business owner. We start with goals and then we analyze the various types of business entities to see which fits the goals of the business owner. It can be very complex, but usually boils down to a few key items. After years of experience with all types of business entities we are uniquely qualified to analyze which is best for the owner’s goals.
BUSINESS STRUCTURE
How many entities should the business have? Should there be tiered or levels of entities? Special purposes entities? Brother sister entities? Different year ends? Different accounting methods? Maybe a mixture of different types of entities works best? Maybe it is best to have a single entity?
There is no clear-cut answer. Business Structure is best handled on a case by case basis. After a thorough analysis of your financials, we will guide you through a simple and tailored process resulting in the perfect business structure. We offer the best tax and business advise in this area to help you reach your goals.
LLC VS S CORPS
We get this one all the time. Probably most CPAs get asked this question, LLC vs S Corp. We find that attorneys frequently have a viewpoint that is purely legal in nature without fully understanding the income tax consequences. So we help you make the best possible choice from a tax viewpoint.
CORPORATION VS LLC
LLCs are very popular today. There are lots of good reasons for that in the tax law. However, we also find that people do not consider the benefits of C Corporations (probably because they are not as popular today). However, there can be significant advantages to C Corporations and they need to be understood to make an intelligent decision. We know the ins and outs of both C Corporations and LLCs in tax law and can provide you with thoughtful intelligent advise. You will know that you are choosing the right one for you and that you have not overlooked something.