Home services accounting

Business Tax Services for Clovis Companies

Tax preparation and planning for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical contractors, built around your S corp or LLC, your ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro job data, and the states your crews actually work in.

Built for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical contractors running trucks, techs, and service agreements out of QuickBooks Online, ServiceTitan, and Housecall Pro.

Schedule Your Free Strategy Call (559) 203-3450

What sends contractors looking for this

We file every year but never talk to our accountant until the deadline is close

Most contractors we meet have a preparer who assembles a return once a year and nothing else. There is no call in September about whether the owner's salary from the S corp still makes sense, no heads up before a new service van is bought in December, and no warning that a strong summer blew through the quarterly estimate. By the time the return shows up in March, the truck is already paid for and the tax bill is already locked in.

This happens because most firms staff up for filing season and have nobody left over to plan during the year. The owner assumes no news means everything is fine, when nobody has actually looked closely enough to know one way or the other.

Left alone, this costs real money every year: an S corp salary set too low draws IRS attention and can be reclassified with back payroll taxes, penalties, and interest; a quarterly estimate that falls short after a busy summer adds an IRS underpayment penalty on top of the tax itself; and a December equipment purchase timed wrong can push a deduction into the wrong tax year and cost thousands in cash you didn't need to spend that April.

A strong summer blows through our quarterly estimates and the bill in April is a shock

AC season or a run of storm damage calls can double a shop's normal quarter of profit, but the estimated tax payment for that quarter was calculated back in January off a slower year. Nobody recalculates it mid-summer, so the shortfall just sits there quietly until the return is finished the following spring.

Owners are usually surprised twice: once by how much is owed for last year, and again by the first quarter estimate for the current year that's due on the very same date. Both come out of the same checking account at the same time.

The IRS charges an underpayment penalty, currently running around 8 percent annualized on the shortfall, calculated separately for each quarter the estimate fell short, so a summer spike that isn't caught until year end can easily add a few thousand dollars in penalty and interest on top of the actual tax owed.

We are not sure the owner's S corp salary is set correctly

An S corp lets an owner split their income between a salary, which owes payroll tax, and distributions, which do not. The IRS calls the salary piece reasonable compensation, meaning it has to look like what you'd actually pay someone else to run the shop and work the same hours. Owners often set that number years ago and never touch it again, even as the business tripled in size, or they pay themselves almost nothing and pull the rest out as distributions.

Either mistake gets noticed. A salary that's too low is one of the most common audit triggers for a trades S corp, and a salary that's too high hands the IRS payroll tax money you didn't have to give up.

If the IRS reclassifies distributions as wages during an audit, the shop owes back payroll taxes on every year the salary was set too low, plus penalties and interest, and that exposure keeps growing every year the same number is never revisited.

Our crews worked a job outside California and we don't know what that changed

A mechanical contractor sent to install equipment at a job site in Nevada or Arizona, or a crew that spends a few weeks on a project across the state line, can create a tax filing obligation in that state even without an office there. The rules differ by state, and most shops never check them until after the crew has already come home.

Nobody connects a single out-of-state job to a new tax filing requirement, because the crew's time gets logged for payroll and job costing in ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro, not for tax nexus.

Once a state notices unregistered activity, it can assess back income tax, penalties, and interest going back several years, turning one out-of-state job that might have owed a few hundred dollars in tax into a five-figure settlement by the time it's caught.

Our 1099 installers should probably be on payroll and we are worried about what that means

Plenty of shops bring on installers or helpers as 1099 subcontractors to skip payroll taxes and workers' comp, but if the shop sets their schedule, supplies the truck and tools, and tells them which jobs to run, the IRS and California's EDD generally see that as an employee, not an independent contractor. The label on the paperwork doesn't decide the answer, the actual working relationship does.

Owners usually don't find out this was a problem until a worker gets hurt without workers' comp coverage, or files for unemployment after being let go and the state opens a worker classification investigation on the whole crew.

A reclassification can trigger back payroll taxes, unemployment insurance, and workers' comp premiums for every misclassified worker going back several years, plus penalties from both the IRS and the state of California, easily running into the tens of thousands of dollars for a shop with even a handful of long-term 1099 installers.

How we fix each of those

01
Year-round contact tied to your job calendar, not just a filing season transaction
We check in with you mid-summer, right when a busy season could be quietly blowing through your quarterly estimate, and again in the fall before you buy that next van or piece of equipment. Questions about a new hire, a job outside California, or an owner's salary get answered while there's still time to act, not discovered after the return is already filed.
02
A tax projection before December 31, run off your real numbers
In October or November we pull actual year-to-date results from QuickBooks and ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro and calculate what you'll owe. You'll know before the year ends whether to buy that van now or wait, fund retirement, or send in a catch-up estimated payment, instead of finding out in April.
03
An annual review of the owner's salary and entity setup
Each year we recalculate a defensible reasonable compensation figure for the owner based on current profit and comparable trade wages, and we check whether the S corp election, or a different structure, still fits your revenue. We put the number in writing so it holds up if the IRS ever asks.
04
A check on every job outside California before it becomes a filing problem
Before or shortly after a crew works a job across the state line, we check whether that state's rules create a filing obligation, register where needed, and file the required return, so one out-of-state job never turns into years of back tax exposure.
05
A worker classification check on every 1099 installer
We review each 1099 relationship against IRS and California EDD rules on control, tools, and schedule, and tell you plainly which workers need to move to W-2 payroll and when, coordinating the switch with payroll so it happens cleanly instead of under audit pressure.

Everything included

Federal corporate, S corporation, and partnership return preparation
State and local business tax return preparation
Quarterly estimated tax calculations and vouchers, rechecked mid-summer
Fall tax projection based on actual year-to-date results
Entity structure and S corporation election review
Reasonable compensation analysis for owner-employees
Out-of-state job and multi-state nexus review
Sales tax review for parts versus labor billing
1099 versus W-2 worker classification review
Fixed asset and depreciation schedule maintenance for vehicles and equipment
Coordination with bookkeeping and payroll for accurate return data
Response support for federal and state tax notices
Direct access to your preparer for questions during the year

Inside Business Tax Services

Business Tax Preparation

Accurate, on-time federal and state returns for HVAC, plumbing, and electrical S corps and LLCs, built from books that already match your ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro job data.

View Business Tax Preparation

Business Tax Planning

Projections, S corp salary review, and December equipment decisions made while there's still time to act, not after the return is already drafted.

View Business Tax Planning

S Corporation Tax

Form 1120-S preparation, an owner salary number that holds up, and election upkeep for HVAC, plumbing, electrical, and mechanical shops running through ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro.

View S Corporation Tax

Partnership Tax

Form 1065 preparation, accurate K-1s, and buy-in accounting for two-owner shops, like a pair of electricians or plumbers who own the business together.

View Partnership Tax

Sales Tax Compliance

Parts versus labor billing reviewed line by line, resale certificates kept current, and every filing tracked across every location, so you stop guessing what to charge sales tax on.

View Sales Tax Compliance

Multi-State Tax

A plain answer on what a job across the state line actually triggers, apportionment done right, and coordinated filing everywhere your crews work.

View Multi-State Tax

Contractors who have already done this

Real Google reviews from owners we work with, next to the engagements behind the numbers.

Google review
I have been so genuinely pleased with High Velocity Accounting's services. I feel I have an extension of our team in Brett and his team. They always make time for my questions and look for strategic ways to build our businesses mutually. I rest easy knowing our books are kept in good order and our taxes are prepared professionally. I never hesitate to recommend this firm to any service business owners looking for professional book keeping and tax services.
Texas Medley
Owner, Service Contracting
Clovis, CA
Case study
How a Construction Company Cleaned Up Two Years of Books and Financed New Equipment
Construction · $2.8M - $4.1M annual revenue
Books brought current
22 months
Equipment loan approved
$680,000
Read the full breakdown
Google review
As a home services company, I feel that High Velocity Accounting has elevated our business to the next level. We are able to dig deeper into our numbers, report accurately and make adjustments where needed. They are very responsive, detail oriented and an extension of our team.
Cathleen Helin
Owner, Home Services
Clovis, CA
Google review
We have been using High Velocity Accounting for a couple years now and are so thankful for their service! They are meticulous, thorough, dependable and always ready to deal with a curveball. Kind, patient, gracious. Thank you for your service and the relationship we've developed together.
Grant Schoenberger
Client, Trades
Clovis, CA
Google review
Brett Neal has been our family's accountant for over six years now, because he is the most dependable professional in this business. We started with Brett as two separate single-filers with simple W-2's and quickly graduated to a married couple having multiple types of complicated business/tax filings. Brett took every shift in stride; every transition has been carried out smoothly and without any hiccups. Trust that this is the guy for all your filing, bookkeeping, and financial consulting needs.
Alyssa Cotrina
Business Owner, Trades
Clovis, CA

Where we do this work

Our office is in Clovis and we work with home services contractors across the Central Valley and nationwide. Pick your city to see how business tax services works for shops in that market.

Not on the list? We run every engagement over QuickBooks Online, ServiceTitan, and Housecall Pro, so distance does not change the work. Call (559) 203-3450.

Talk to a CPA who will actually pick up the phone

Start with a 30-minute consultation at no cost. You will leave it knowing what the work involves, what it costs, and what happens next.