Case Studies

Popular Statewide Ballot Initiative Campaign

Our firm has a strong track record in providing political treasury and compliance reporting services to political campaigns. For the 2012 election cycle, we were asked to help open a California statewide ballot measure committee. Our firm hit the ground running, working with the committee from the beginning to gather signatures to maximize the fundraising and in-kind contributions support. As a result, the campaign quickly began to receive funding from thousands of supporters in California and around the United States.

With the huge, and somewhat unanticipated, outpouring of financial support during the campaign, our team swiftly set up and monitored procedures and systems to handle the flow of funds. This encompassed receiving and depositing checks and cash, managing an overwhelmingly effective online fundraising campaign, paying bills, reconciling accounts and preparing campaign statements. The streamlined, technology-based system we used for recording, tracking and reporting fundraising enabled the political committee to efficiently understand and manage its budget, and maximize every dollar that had been donated.

Revoked Status of Tax-Exempt Group

A tax-exempt organization came to us because it was receiving notices from the IRS, the Franchise Tax Board and the Attorney General’s office. The reason? The organization was delinquent in filing its annual information returns and as a result, the IRS revoked its status as a tax-exempt organization. Working closely with the organization, we were able to bring it back into compliance and to get impending penalties abated. We also worked with the organization to regain its exempt status, and our efforts were successful. The group is now recognized as a 501c3 organization, exempt from tax.

Forensic Accounting for Divorce Settlement

We were hired as a forensic CPA by one spouse in a divorce settlement, in order to determine if certain real properties were separate or community property. Using a specialized software program to input the dates of property acquisition and other large financial transactions, we quickly determined the source and uses of the funds going in and out of the real estate transactions. Our work was accepted by the other spouse and attorney, and a settlement was reached.

Re-evaluation of Individual Tax Issues

During the interview process with a new individual client, one of our CPAs was reviewing the client’s prior-year tax returns. He noticed that the client had a high tax liability that was inconsistent with her prior-year returns. He questioned the client about the high tax liability and learned that the liability originated from the disposition of an investment property. After gathering the complete information and applying our firm’s knowledge of real estate transactions, our staff was able to identify an opportunity to lower the client’s tax bill that her prior CPA had missed. We were able to help our client by amending the prior-year returns in a timely fashion, and as a result of our work the client received a substantial refund.