Industries
Accounting and Tax for Attorneys and Law Firms
A law firm keeps two sets of money apart, and one of them is not the firm’s. That single fact makes legal bookkeeping a discipline rather than a variation.
Client funds are not firm funds
Retainers, settlement proceeds and filing fees advanced by clients belong to the client until they are earned or spent. They are held in a separate trust account, and the firm’s obligation is to know at all times how much of that balance belongs to each individual client.
That requires a ledger per client, reconciled against the bank, in addition to the firm’s own books. It is not optional bookkeeping and it is not something to catch up on quarterly — a trust account that cannot be reconciled to the penny is a problem with consequences beyond tax, because the rules governing it come from the bar rather than the revenue service.
The most common failure is not theft. It is a firm that moves earned fees out late, or advances a cost from the wrong account, and cannot afterwards demonstrate which client’s money was where. Clean monthly reconciliation prevents the whole category.
Income that arrives when the case does
Hourly work bills predictably. Contingency work does not — a case that settles in November puts a year’s revenue into one month, and the tax that follows lands with it.
That makes estimated payments genuinely difficult and makes the choice of accounting method matter. Costs advanced on a contingency file are carried for years before they are recovered, and how those are treated affects the picture considerably.
- Solo practitioners and small partnerships
- Contingency practices — personal injury, workers’ compensation
- Hourly practices in family, criminal, business and estate work
- Firms with associates and staff on payroll
- Attorneys weighing an S-Corp election against professional entity rules
One thing to be plain about: law is on the list of fields whose qualified business income deduction is restricted above certain income levels. That does not make planning pointless — it makes the planning different, and it should be done before December rather than discovered in April.
The services behind this
Industry pages describe how our work applies to a sector. These are the services themselves.
Bookkeeping
Clean monthly books, reconciled accounts and reports you can actually use.
Learn moreTax Planning
Year-round strategy so the return in April reflects decisions made all year.
Learn morePayroll Services
Full-service payroll with tax filings, direct deposit and year-end forms.
Learn moreS-Corp Setup
S-Corp elections, reasonable salary and the payroll that has to follow.
Learn moreFrequently asked questions
Can you handle our trust account reconciliation?
Yes, alongside the firm’s own books — a ledger per client reconciled to the bank each month. That is the part that has to be right, because the rules governing it come from the bar as well as from tax, and a trust account that cannot be reconciled is a problem regardless of intent.
How should we handle costs advanced on contingency files?
They are carried, sometimes for years, before recovery, and how they are treated affects both the books and the return. It is worth setting the method deliberately at the outset rather than deciding case by case — see tax planning.
Do attorneys lose the QBI deduction?
Law is one of the fields where the deduction phases out above certain income levels. That changes what planning is available rather than removing it, and the work belongs before year end rather than at filing.
Should my practice be an S-Corp?
Often worth examining once profit is established, though professional entity rules add considerations an ordinary business does not have. Run the payroll tax side through the S-Corp savings calculator and we can look at the rest.
Not the question you had? The full tax FAQ covers more ground, and our client reviews say what the work is actually like.
Other industries we work with
Nonprofits
Exempt status is not the same as no filing obligation — and the bookkeeping that supports a 990 is not ordinary bookkeeping.
Learn moreReal Estate Investors
Rental property is one of the few areas where the tax treatment can matter as much to the return as the rent does.
Learn moreRestaurants & Food Service
Thin margins, daily cash movement, tipped employees and high staff turnover — restaurant books go wrong faster than almost any other sector’s.
Learn moreContractors & Trades
For the independent tradesperson, the tax problem is rarely the return — it is the quarterly payments and the mileage records nobody kept.
Learn moreHealthcare Practices
Practice income arrives late, unevenly and net of adjustments — which makes cash accounting and tax planning unusually easy to get wrong.
Learn moreE-commerce Sellers
Selling online from South Carolina means one income tax return and a sales tax question that can involve many states.
Learn moreConstruction Businesses
For a builder, the question is never how the business did last year — it is whether this job is making money right now.
Learn moreTrucking & Logistics
Almost nothing about an owner-operator’s return works the way a normal small business return works — starting with the meal deduction.
Learn moreSalons, Barbers & Booth Renters
Two completely different tax situations happen under one salon roof, and most people in the chair have never been told which one they are in.
Learn moreShort-Term Rental Hosts
Three questions decide how a short-term rental is taxed, and none of them is how much it earned.
Learn moreChildcare & Daycare
Home daycare is the one small business the tax code gives its own exception to the home office rules — and almost nobody claims it properly.
Learn moreReal Estate & Insurance Agents
Commission income arrives in lumps, nothing is withheld from it, and the deduction list is longer than almost anyone claims.
Learn moreAuto Repair & Body Shops
In South Carolina the parts on a repair order are taxable and the labour generally is not — which means the sales tax line runs straight through every invoice you write.
Learn moreChurches & Ministries
A minister is an employee for income tax and self-employed for Social Security at the same time — and almost every mistake in church payroll starts there.
Learn moreManufacturing & Machine Shops
Inventory is what separates a manufacturer’s books from every service business on this site — and it is where the profit figure is either right or meaningless.
Learn moreFarms & Agriculture
Farming has its own tax return, its own deadlines and a method of levelling out good and bad years that nobody else is allowed to use.
Learn moreLandscaping & Lawn Care
A business that earns most of its money in seven months cannot use an annual average for anything — least of all its tax payments.
Learn moreFitness Studios & Gyms
Money taken in January for a year of membership is not January’s income — and a studio that books it as though it were has no idea how it is doing.
Learn moreFood Trucks & Mobile Vendors
A restaurant owes tax to one municipality. A food truck can owe it to five, and the difference is where it parked.
Learn moreCleaning & Janitorial
In a business where labour is most of the cost, how the people are classified is not an administrative detail — it decides whether the model works.
Learn moreStaffing & Temp Agencies
For a staffing agency payroll tax is not a cost line. It is the business model, and a point of margin either way decides the year.
Learn moreFranchise Owners
The initial franchise fee is not a deduction in the year you pay it, and almost every new franchisee finds that out at the worst moment.
Learn moreConvenience Stores & Fuel
One counter sells items taxed three different ways, plus a state lottery product that is not really a sale at all.
Learn moreProperty Managers
Most of the money in a property manager’s account belongs to somebody else, and the books have to be able to prove whose.
Learn moreEngineering & Architecture
Two provisions treat these firms better than almost any other professional practice, and both are routinely left on the table.
Learn moreTherapists & Counsellors
A private practice is a small business whose owner trained for years in something else entirely — and the accounting usually reflects that.
Learn moreVeterinary Practices
A veterinary practice is a clinic and a pharmacy and a retail shop, and the three are taxed differently on the same invoice.
Learn moreBreweries & Taprooms
A brewery is a manufacturer, a bar and a federally regulated excise taxpayer, and it has to keep books that satisfy all three.
Learn moreIndependent Auto Dealers
Every car on the lot is inventory, financed inventory, and a tax question with a ceiling on it.
Learn morePhotographers & Creatives
The session fee is a service. The prints are goods. That distinction decides whether you owe sales tax, and most photographers have never been asked the question.
Learn moreIT & Software Consultants
Two people doing similar-looking technology work can get different answers on the largest deduction available to them, and the difference is what they are actually selling.
Learn moreEvent Planners & Caterers
Deposits taken twelve months out are not this year’s income, and a business that treats them as such pays tax on money it may still have to refund.
Learn moreHome Health & In-Home Care
Caregivers work in clients’ homes, across long and irregular hours, for an agency paid on someone else’s timetable. Every hard problem in this sector comes from one of those three facts.
Learn moreTell us what you need
Send a short note about your situation and we’ll come back to you with a straight answer — whether that’s a quote, a next step, or a referral if it isn’t something we handle.
Prefer to talk it through first? Book a consultation and we’ll find a time, in the Easley office or virtually.
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