Why I publish this

Every year we hear questions about income tax: what about this or that, what's new; no one has written them down plainly. This publication is those answers. I wrote it for the people who have to file, not for other preparers.

I don’t think of the tax code as a trap. It is our social code, written into law: what we have decided to encourage, what we have decided to carry, and who pays. Most of its rules are fair, and the people who come out ahead are the ones who learn which rules apply to them before the year ends, not after. If you read one article here and find yourself curious about the next one, this was written for you.

If something in these pages raises a question about your own return, the box at the foot of every article comes to me. Ask it. If you want the return prepared, the Tax Shop is in Lone Tree and works with clients across Colorado and well beyond, in person, by mail, and by portal, all year. And if you already have a preparer you trust, keep them and use this to ask them better questions.

Charles Trautman, EA
Tax Shop, Lone Tree