A tax return is a record. A tax plan is a decision you make in March, not April.
We work with owner-managed companies and the families behind them across Rhode Island and Massachusetts. Clean books every month, an entity structure that fits how you actually earn, and a partner who picks up the phone before you sign anything — not after the K-1 arrives.
Prefer to talk first? (888) 555-0142 — Monday to Thursday, 8:30 to 5:30.
CPA · RI Lic. #4821
IRS Enrolled Agent
QuickBooks ProAdvisor
AICPA Member Firm
Index of services
Six engagements. One relationship.
Most clients start with one line below and end up with three. We price each piece separately so you are never paying for advisory you have not asked for.
Not sure which line applies to you? Call (888) 555-0142 and we will tell you plainly, including when the answer is that you do not need us yet.
Who we serve
Two kinds of client, one standard of care.
For individuals & families
When the return stopped being simple
Equity compensation, a rental in another state, a first year of self-employment, an inheritance, a parent whose affairs you now manage. The software stops helping right about the time the stakes start rising.
RSUs, ISOs and ESPP sales reconciled against the broker's basis, which is wrong more often than not
Multi-state residency, remote work and the RI/MA credit questions that follow
Rental property depreciation, cost segregation and passive-loss limits
Estate, gift and trust returns handled with the family's attorney in the room
Contractors, practices, agencies, restaurants and light manufacturers between $400K and $12M in revenue. You need numbers you trust by mid-month and a structure that does not quietly overpay tax every quarter.
S-corp election and reasonable-salary analysis documented well enough to defend
Monthly close with job or department margin, not just a lump profit figure
Solo 401(k), SEP and defined-benefit plans sized against real cash flow
Lender and bonding packages prepared to the format the underwriter expects
Onboarding takes about three weeks from the first call to a signed engagement letter. Nothing is billed until you have seen the scope and the fee in writing.
Next deadline of note: S-corp and partnership returns, March 16. Extensions are a planning tool, not a failure.
Phase 01
Discovery call
Thirty minutes, no charge, no sales script. We ask what your entity is, how you pay yourself, what last year's return cost you and what has been keeping you up. If you are better served by a bookkeeper alone, we will say so.
Phase 02
Document review
You upload two years of returns and a trial balance to our encrypted portal. We read them properly — missed elections, misclassified draws, depreciation that stopped early — and come back with a written summary of what we found and what it is worth.
Phase 03
Strategy & filing
We agree the plan for the current year — structure, salary, retirement contributions, estimated payments — and then execute it. Every return is prepared by a staff accountant and reviewed by a partner before your signature is requested.
Phase 04
Year-round advisory
Quarterly projections, a call before any large purchase, hire or sale, and an answer to an email within one business day. The point of the first three phases is that the fourth is uneventful.
Engagement packages
Fixed monthly fees, agreed before we start.
No hourly meter, no invoice for a ten-minute phone call. You will know the number before you sign, and we revisit it once a year rather than quietly raising it.
Essentials
Sole proprietors and single-member LLCs with straightforward books.
An honest note on price: these are starting figures. Final fees depend on entity type, transaction volume, the number of states you file in and the condition of the prior year's records. We quote a fixed number after the document review in Phase 02, and it does not move mid-year.
“We had been an LLC taxed as a sole proprietorship for six years because nobody ever told us there was another option. Merritt & Vance ran the numbers in the second meeting, elected S-corp status for the following January, set a defensible salary and rebuilt the books in QuickBooks. The first full year under the new structure, our combined tax bill came down by just under nineteen thousand dollars — and for the first time I could tell you our margin by job.”
Dana KowalczykOwner · Kowalczyk Mechanical · Warwick, RI · Client since 2019
96%
Client retention, five-year average
$4.6M
Tax reduced for clients in 2025
1 day
Average response to client email
The firm
You will know whose desk your file sits on.
Every engagement is assigned to a named accountant and reviewed by a named partner. No call centre, no rotating account manager, no work sent offshore.
Thomas Merritt
CPA, MST · Managing Partner
Entity structuring and multi-state filing for construction and trades businesses.
Adaeze Vance
CPA, EA · Partner, Tax
Equity compensation, trusts and IRS examination representation.
Priya Raghunathan
CPA · Director, Client Accounting
Monthly close, payroll compliance and cash-flow forecasting.
Thirty minutes with Thomas or Adaeze, not a coordinator. Bring last year's return if you have it; if you do not, bring the question that brought you here. You will leave with a straight answer on whether we can help and what it would cost.
