Common questions
What people ask before they get in touch.
Straight answers about how the practice works, what it costs, and who it is for. If your question is not here, the form on the contact page reaches me directly.
- What is the difference between a tax advisor and a tax preparer?
- A tax preparer records decisions you have already made, which is why a return is a report on last year. A tax advisor works before those decisions are final, while the choices themselves can still change: when to sell, how to structure an entity, whether to convert to a Roth this year or next, whether a property is held in the right place. Savage Tax Advisory leads with advisory and treats the return as the reporting step that follows it, not the service being bought.
- How much does tax advisory cost?
- First-year advisory at Savage Tax Advisory runs $6,500 to $25,000, depending on the complexity of your situation. Later years are usually similar, adjusting up or down if your situation changes or you want a different level of access. Tax return preparation is billed separately and scales with the complexity of that year, beginning at $1,500 for individuals and $2,000 for businesses. Costs are quoted before any engagement begins.
- Do you prepare tax returns?
- Yes, but only for ongoing advisory clients, and it is billed separately from the advisory cost. Preparation is priced on the complexity of the year, beginning at $1,500 for individuals and $2,000 for businesses. The practice does not take on return preparation on its own, because preparing a return without knowing the plan behind it is how planning opportunities get missed.
- What happens in the first 30 days?
- Alex Savage reviews your returns, entities, income, properties, and retirement accounts. Within the first 30 days you have two one-hour strategy calls built around your situation, and you receive a written Savage Tax Roadmap setting out the planning priorities and the order to act on them. After that the plan is reviewed through the year as your circumstances change.
- Who does Savage Tax Advisory work with?
- Savage Tax Advisory works with high-income professionals, business owners, real estate investors, and families with substantial assets. Common situations include owning rental property or evaluating a first acquisition, running a business through an S corporation or partnership, planning the exit from a property or a business, and approaching retirement with large pre-tax balances that will eventually be subject to required minimum distributions.
- Do you work with clients outside Iowa?
- Yes. Savage Tax Advisory is based in Des Moines, Iowa and works with clients across the United States. Federal tax planning does not depend on where your advisor sits, and multi-state filing is a routine part of the work for clients who own property or run businesses in more than one state.
- Do you work with real estate investors?
- Yes, and it is a significant part of the practice. That includes first-time acquisitions, real estate professional status, short-term rental strategy, self-rentals and entity structure, depreciation and cost segregation, passive activity planning, qualified opportunity zone and qualified opportunity fund planning, and the tax treatment of an eventual sale or exit. The work covers both people who already hold property and people evaluating a first purchase who want the tax consequences understood before they commit capital.
- Can you review my K-1s and tell me how my entities are structured?
- Yes. K-1 review is a regular part of the work, particularly for clients who receive several from partnerships, syndications, or family entities and have never had anyone explain what is actually on them. Entity structure is reviewed from a tax perspective: whether the current setup still fits the income and the activity, what an S corporation election would and would not change, how self-rentals and holding structures are treated, and where a structure is creating cost rather than saving it.
- How do I become a client?
- Start by describing your situation through the form on the contact page. It takes about 90 seconds. Every inquiry is read personally, and where an ongoing advisory relationship looks like a fit, you receive a link to book a 30-minute introductory call. If it looks like a good fit for your situation, I will reach out directly with a scheduling link.