Services

Financial Reporting

HCVT provides audit, review, and compilation services for privately held businesses. Our approach to auditing is management-oriented. We will concentrate on maintaining a close and constructive relationship with you at all times and on being continually responsive to your needs. The assistance of your company’s accounting personnel will be used, where possible, to reduce costs.

Reports are issued only after complete concurrence with report format and content. This approach leads to early identification of problems and a harmonious professional relationship.

Tax Planning and Compliance

Our tax practice concentrates on providing a complete range of tax consulting and tax compliance services. The majority of our tax services are rendered in the area of consulting. Our tax professionals are "active" and include tax attorneys, as well as CPAs. This means you can expect total involvement in your financial affairs and a prompt response to your planning needs. Tax return preparation and other compliance services are an essential part of the tax practice. We have concentrated our efforts on working principally with corporate, partnership, and high-net-worth individuals. This allows us the opportunity to offer our business clients complete corporate and partnership services. In addition, it enables us to provide thorough, timely, and creative individual tax services for the principals of our corporate and partnership clients. See R&D and SALT services below.

Mergers, Acquisitions & Business Restructuring

Our Merger and Acquisition practice delivers a broad range of services to businesses and individuals who are, or may be, contemplating a purchase, sale, or merger of a business. Our services are designed to address the following areas:

• Business plan assistance
• Funding assistance
• Business valuation
• Business structure
• Taxation
• Due diligence

For more information, please click here for our brochure.

Litigation Support/Valuations

Most attorneys ask us to become involved early in the preparation of a case. Through investigative accounting and analysis of financial information, we help determine information regarding liability issues, as well as damage issues. Often we assist counsel in preparing for depositions and in providing a financial or accounting basis for damages alleged, as well as the quantification of such. Attorneys also involve us during the trial to serve as an expert witness, or to assist in the examination of witnesses who testify on financial matters. HCVT provides financial services on a wide range of legal matters, including:

• General business litigation
• Lost profits damages
• Business interruption
• Marriage dissolution
• Fraud
• R&D Credit
  

Affordable Housing/ IRC Section 42 Tax Credit Projects

Holthouse Carlin & Van Trigt LLP is a public accounting firm that is nationally recognized as having expertise in the affordable housing industry. The Firm provides tax, audit, and consulting services to both developers and investors. The Firm specializes within the Affordable Housing Market in IRC Section 42 tax credit projects, including those with and without tax-exempt bond financing. The Firm has expertise in HUD reporting requirements and with electronic filing requirements of REAC.

The Firm performs all aspects of service relating to low-income housing tax credit projects. More specifically, our services related to low-income housing projects have included:

• Projections
• Cost certifications
• Eligible vs. non-eligible basis analysis
• Accounting for building and construction costs
• Tax credit computation
• Rehabilitation (historic) tax credit computation
• Audit, review and compilation reports
• General and limited partnership tax return preparation
• Property management operational reviews
• Compliance testing of low-income tenants
• Original issue discount (OID) issues related to financing
• HUD financial reporting and disclosures
• Review complex partnership income tax issues
• Review treatment of federal grants and subsidies

401(k)/ Benefit Plan Audits

We offer a full range of audit/attest services associated with 401(k)/benefit plans.

HCVT has developed a significant benefit audit practice in the Southern California area. We provide limited scope and full scope audit services for several 401(k) plans and VEBA's. Our satisfied clients range in plan size from just above the minimum 100 participant level to over 25,000 participants. Our audit partners and staff have extensive experience auditing benefit plans.

Since employee benefit plans are a specialty audit practice for HCVT, it is cost effective for us to attend the annual AICPA Employee Benefits Conference so that we are up-to-date on all the current issues surrounding benefit plans. Additionally, we are members and we attend meetings and seminars of the Western Pension Benefit Conference and the National Institute of Pension Actuaries. Our partners and staff are versed and trained to understand the exposure items that are important to a plan sponsor. Additionally, we generally save our clients internal cost by performing our audits in normally no more than one day of fieldwork. Since this is a specialty area for us, we do not waste our client's time or their administrator's time. Our fees are competitive and are generally less than those charged by a "Big 4" firm.

We have several satisfied clients who will provide excellent references. We are quite often referred plan audits by existing clients, third-party administrators, custodial trustee's, other CPA's, including "Big 4" firms and smaller firms that do not perform benefit plan audits. For further information please contact Bill Warburton at Billw@HCVT.com.

R&D Tax Incentives

Research and development tax incentive opportunities vary by industry, company, and state. Few companies have the internal resources, tools or processes to identify, document and maximize the available federal and state R&D tax incentives or evaluate them for financial reporting purposes. HCVT offers a proven methodology for identifying, positioning, valuing and defending these tax incentives. Our specialists have helped companies in over 25 industries with their R&D tax incentives. Whether it’s an end-to-end solution or a customized approach, we provide the right mix of consultative resources and technology to help taxpayers realize more value from their R&D activities.

The most significant of these incentives is the R&D tax credit. California taxpayers may receive total federal and state R&D tax credits up to 13 percent of qualifying expenses. Generally a company can claim federal credits for the 3 prior tax years and California credits for the 4 prior tax years. This cumulative effect can result in total credits ranging from hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars.

Our services include:

Business Management

HCVT has developed a strong Business Management division, which delivers a full spectrum of services to executives, entrepreneurs and their businesses, musicians, actors, sports figures, and other high-net-worth individuals. We will assist you and your businesses with the formulation of goals, development of strategies, and long-range planning.

We will work with you and your advisors (bankers, lawyers, investment advisors, insurance agents) to assist in analyzing any business opportunities that should arise. You will benefit directly from our experience, skills, and flexibility. Our expertise will assist you in making more informed management decisions.

Services we typically provide include:

• Preparation of budgets, forecasts, and projections
• Compiled financial statements (monthly, quarterly and/or annually)
• Cost management analysis
• Business acquisitions, mergers, and sales (due diligence)
  Investment evaluation and cash management advisory services (cash flow)
• Forensic accounting, royalty audits, fraud detection and prevention services
• Deposit and analyze receipts and timely pay personal/business expenses
• Domestic and international tax projections, tax planning, and preparation of quarterly and annual federal, state and local tax returns
• Coordination of personal and business insurance needs