You don't need to understand the tax law.

Catalina is a tax planning and advisory firm, not just a tax prep shop. Most CPAs are compliance focused: they prepare accurate returns based on what already happened. We start from that same accuracy standard, but the engagement is built around forward looking strategy, identifying what you can legally change before year end, then tracking it throughout the year instead of revisiting it once, annually.

A deep, one time review of your tax and financial situation. You get back a clear, written strategic plan: the specific opportunities available to you, what they're realistically worth, and a roadmap for the next 12 months. We only put a strategy on the plan, and count it toward your projected savings, once we're confident it applies to your facts and is actually implementable, so the numbers you see are grounded, not a sales pitch. It's a paid engagement (flat fee, discussed on your discovery call) and it's delivered quickly rather than left open ended.

It ranges from straightforward moves like an accountable plan, the Augusta Rule, hiring your own kids for real work, and choosing the right retirement plan, up to bigger structural ones like an S corp election or income shifting. For real estate and higher complexity situations, it can also include things like cost segregation or a 1031 exchange, which involve an outside specialist and their own vetting before they're counted as a real number rather than just a possibility. Which of these actually apply to you depends entirely on your facts. That's what the Assessment works out.

Catalina is built as an all in one firm on purpose. Bookkeeping, payroll, entity formation, and compliance live under the same roof as the tax strategy and advisory work, instead of you coordinating a bookkeeper, a payroll provider, and a strategist separately. That matters beyond convenience: a strategy only pays off if it actually shows up correctly in your books and payroll, and when one firm owns both sides, that follow-through happens automatically instead of depending on you being the messenger between disconnected providers.

You choose an annual advisory package sized to your complexity (how many entities/returns are involved, how often we meet, how deep the reporting goes) and we onboard you: one meeting to set up documents and access, then implementation of the strategies from your plan. From there it's an ongoing relationship: regular financial reporting, scheduled strategy reviews, and a year end report showing what was actually implemented and what it was worth. Exact pricing is set case by case and walked through once we know your situation.

If your situation isn't there yet, starter services (bookkeeping, payroll, cleanup, basic compliance, entity setup) are a lower cost doorway toward advisory once your tax bill or complexity grows, and it's the same firm the whole way, so nothing gets lost when you're ready to move up. If an Assessment genuinely shows limited upside, we'll tell you plainly rather than manufacture a plan to justify the fee; a lighter touch arrangement may be the right next step instead of a full annual engagement.