Tax Professional — Business & Individual Returns (Contract)

Overview Service Squared is a professional services firm supporting 800+ franchise, restaurant, retail, and service-based business locations across 41 states. We are looking for an experienced tax professional to prepare and file returns for a portfolio of small business clients and individuals on a contract basis. Our clients are operators — restaurant owners, franchise holders, retail operators, and service-based business owners. These are not complex enterprise engagements. They are real businesses run by real people who need accurate, timely filings done right. What You Will Be Doing You will be preparing and filing federal and state tax returns for a mix of small business entities and individuals. You will receive client financials, work from trial balances, and be responsible for producing accurate, complete, ready-to-file returns with minimal back-and-forth. Non-Negotiable Requirements — Do Not Apply Without These Intuit Lacerte: you must have active, working experience using Lacerte as your filing platform; applicants using other software exclusively will not be considered Entity returns: C-corporation and S-corporation return preparation and filing (Forms 1120 and 1120-S) Individual returns: personal return preparation and filing including Form 1040 and Schedule C Accrual-to-cash conversion: you must be fully confident taking an accrual-based trial balance and converting it to a cash basis for filing purposes; this is a core part of the work and is non-negotiable Small business experience: all clients are relatively small businesses or individuals; you must be comfortable working at this scale and not require enterprise-level infrastructure to operate effectively Additional Requirements Strong working knowledge of federal and applicable state tax codes for pass-through entities and individuals Ability to identify missing or inconsistent information in client-provided financials and flag it clearly before filing Experience coordinating with bookkeeping or accounting teams who prepare the underlying financials Accurate, organized work product — returns should be complete and review-ready when submitted Ability to manage multiple returns simultaneously and meet deadlines without being chased CPA, EA, or equivalent professional credential preferred; unlicensed preparers with strong verifiable experience will be considered Strongly Preferred Experience working with franchise or multi-location business owners Familiarity with restaurant, retail, or service industry financials Familiarity with Sage Intacct or similar accounting platforms used to produce client trial balances Our Process We will review all proposals and conduct brief interviews with shortlisted candidates before engagement. Please be prepared to speak specifically to your Lacerte experience and your process for handling accrual-to-cash conversions. To Apply In your proposal, please include: Your active credentials (CPA, EA, PTIN, or other) The volume and types of returns you prepare in a typical season Your specific experience with Lacerte — how long you have used it and in what capacity A brief description of how you approach an accrual-to-cash conversion when a client provides accrual-based financials Applications without a substantive response to the above will not be reviewed.