BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Monitor Editor
KEYSTONE HEIGHTS— An accountant offered money-saving tips to business owners during the March meeting of the Lake Region Prosperity Council.
Patrick Fields of DuVal Fields CPA Group said his firm was originally based in Orange Park but moved to Green Cove Springs in 2000.
“In January of 2019, we purchased a business right in downtown Keystone on Nightingale Street,” he said, “so we also have a satellite office there that’s open a few days a week.”
Fields added that with 15 staff members, his firm can handle a wide range of accounting, business and tax issues.
“We try to be a one-stop shop,” he said. “We try to have the relationships with everybody so when you come to me, and you want to start your business I can send you to a banker, I can send you to the chamber to get involved, I can send you everywhere.”
Fields added that the core of his practice consists of construction contractors and real estate developers.
The CPA said it is essential for new businesses to select the right legal form and to set up an accounting system before they begin operations. He added that the failure to put forethought into those activities often results in problems emerging later down the timeline.
“Everybody starts with an LLC,” he said of choosing the legal form of a business.
Fields added the do-it-yourselfers often neglect considering other legal forms like an S corporation, partnership, or C corporation.
“People can really cost themselves a lot of money by choosing that wrong designation,” he said.
Fields added that an accurate and efficient accounting and reporting system pays off when business owners are seeking a loan or later when they sell their businesses.
He also said clean records will help in the event of an IRS audit.
Fields also addressed what he said is a common misconception in the tax preparation field: the belief that taxpayers who file extensions are more likely to get audited by the IRS.
“That’s absolutely the opposite of the fact,” he said. “In 2019, 4% of tax returns were audited out of all tax returns.”
He added that returns extended to October have about one-half the chance of being audited than those not extended.
