This information is provided for those who have a serious interest in my services as a tax consultant and tax preparer.

I make absolutely no attempt to compete with local tax  accountants on the basis of my hourly fees. I have invested more than six years in learning the nuances of international tax law and a very large part of that time involved research and study without any compensation by any client.  It's as if I went to school for six years to learn about international tax law.  My fees reflect the value of that investment of time and lost income.  On a market comparison basis, it's unlikely that you will find any other tax accountants with comparable experience who charge less. My fees also reflect more than thirty years of experience as a tax consultant working for individuals and entrepreneurs who were seeking help in reducing their taxes.

I generally charge a flat fee for each return or schedule, plus hourly fees for any time required to organize the data needed to complete the forms. Such organization may involve the analysis of account statements provided by foreign banks, currency conversions, conversions of foreign accounting methods to US GAAP or tax accounting methods, the reconstruction of the cost basis of assets that have been sold or gifted and any related time required to gather the information required.

Nearly every client has presented me with some tax issues that have required research to determine what the law and/or regulations permit. However, with each passing year and experience, there are fewer areas of tax law that require in-depth research. Even so, some research will usually be required for each new client. I will not devote time to research where the potential tax benefit is clearly not worth the fee for that work.

After the initial consultation, I generally charge for work in 10 minute increments. If a phone call or other task is for less than 10 minutes, I rarely charge for that time.  I rarely charge a client for minor postage, fax or copying expenses, long distance telephone costs, tax software license fees or any negligible expenses incidental to any of the services that I provide.  I will charge for express mail services if such services are requested by the client. 

Prospective clients who are pre-occupied with the cost of my services can save a lot of money by buying any of my books or by subscribing to my on-line Wealth Protection Research Library for $120 per year. 

I intentionally make an effort to provide services that are not readily available elsewhere at a comparable price. My focus is on international (cross-border) tax services for individuals or for companies that are not large enough to be of interest to the big CPA firms. The large CPA firms charge much more than I, for the kind of work that I choose to do.

I prefer to work with your local tax preparer to provide him or her with the special forms and schedules that may be required to report offshore investments, foreign trusts, foreign partnerships or foreign corporations. I am not interested in preparing domestic tax returns or doing any traditional domestic accounting work.
 

The best way to get the most out of my time without the risk of an open ended invoice is to set a limit on the number of hours you want me to spend on a particular task. I will do the best I can in the time prescribed, but I may not be able to complete the task in that time.

You are wasting your money to ask me to do the kind of bookkeeping or accounting work that I knew how to do before I even graduated from college. But if you insist, I will do it as part of a larger task at the rates shown above. 

If you are looking for help in preparing amendments to prior tax returns with unreported income or to prepare returns that were not previously prepared, I will strongly encourage you to consult with a tax attorney of my choosing before I agree to do the work. 

Just as you need to make enough inquiries to decide if you want to hire me to assist you with your sensitive and very private financial and tax matters, I need to assure myself that you will not cause me more aggravation and grief than the fee is worth to me. I'm a "senior citizen" in the financial services industry and a few more bucks isn't worth as much to me as it used to be. I also need to assure myself that you are not going to get me dragged into being included with you in some illegal activity, such as money laundering.

I will not give you the names and contact information of any present or former clients and I will not ever give your name to anyone else as a reference. However, I can provide you with the names and phone numbers of a number of lawyers and other professionals who have worked with me and will accept inquires about my qualifications. 

You are not a client of mine until you sign an engagement letter and pay a retainer.

Vernon Jacobs