Julie Duda would rather meet the decision before it becomes a line on the return.
CPA-led tax planning, preparation, and accounting for individuals and small-business owners who want important choices examined before filing season records the result.
The return is the record.
The useful conversation happened earlier.
Decisions involving income, business activity, payroll, sales tax, retirement, property, investments, or major life changes can produce tax effects long before a return is prepared. Once April arrives, most of those choices are already fixed on paper.
Julie treats tax preparation as one part of a continuous professional relationship — not the entire engagement. The work is more useful, and often more accurate, when the conversation happens in the quarter the decision is being made.
Three ways an engagement typically begins.
Prepare a Complete Tax Picture
Individual and business tax preparation supported by careful records, current tax knowledge, and attention to the events that shaped the year.
Discuss Tax PreparationEvaluate the Decision Before Year-End
Proactive planning for estimated taxes, business activity, investments, retirement, major purchases, charitable decisions, and other tax-sensitive events.
Plan Before the DeadlineKeep the Business Records Decision-Ready
Accounting, bookkeeping, payroll-tax, sales-tax, and financial-record support for owners who need reliable information throughout the year.
Strengthen the Accounting
National-firm tax training shaped Julie's technical range.
Independent practice changed how closely she could use it.
Julie began her career in the tax departments of national accounting firms, working across taxation and general accounting alongside individuals, business owners, partnerships, and closely held companies.
For more than thirty-five years, she has led an independent CPA practice serving clients in Santa Cruz, throughout California, and across all fifty states — supporting tax preparation with year-round planning, bookkeeping, payroll-tax work, sales-tax guidance, and honest, direct advice on the choices that shape a return.
Many of her client relationships span decades. That continuity is a deliberate part of the work: knowing the history makes the current conversation more useful.
April records the answer to questions that appeared in June, September, and December.
A representative view of when planning conversations tend to matter. Timing and applicability vary by client.
Review projected income, safe-harbor thresholds, and January's estimate before it becomes a penalty.
Look at what the year is doing versus what was projected — and whether owner compensation, entity election, or benefits still fit.
Update the estimate for realized gains, business activity, and any income event that has already happened.
Trace the impact of pending decisions: retirement funding, charitable timing, purchases, sales, and elections that must land inside the calendar year.
Prepare the individual and business returns as the record of what the year actually became.
Review notices, adjustments, planning takeaways, and set up next year's early conversations.
The right time to call is when the facts change — not when the forms arrive.
A short list of the situations that typically produce a useful conversation.
- 01Starting or restructuring a business
- 02Income changing materially
- 03Hiring employees
- 04Creating sales-tax obligations
- 05Buying or selling property
- 06Receiving an inheritance
- 07Planning retirement distributions
- 08Making a major charitable gift
- 09Moving between states
- 10Correcting unreliable books
Long relationships tell the story better than a headline can.
"I have been going with Julie for almost my entire tax history. She has always been attentive, responsive and most of all has always managed to get me a refund. I highly recommend her."
"Julie has been my tax account for the past twenty-eight years and has always provided me with good advice. She has taken care of all of my problems with the IRS. Julie and her staff are knowledgeable and very efficient. I highly recommend her."
"Ms. Duda is an outstanding CPA. She is always up to date on the continuous evolving tax reform. Her expertise is second to none."
"As a client of Julie Duda for over twenty years she has put her heart and soul into preparing my taxes so that I may get the best tax advantage possible. Her work ethic is impeccable, she delivers on schedule and is always willing to give advice and answer any questions."
Verified reviews via TaxBuzz professional profile.
Name the decision. Trace the tax effect.
Preserve the record.
Establish the Facts
Understand what has happened or is being considered — the transaction, the change, the timing, and the parties involved.
Identify the Tax Connections
Surface the relevant federal, state, business, or personal considerations that touch the decision.
Choose and Document the Approach
Explain the available options, discuss trade-offs, and record the client's decision in writing.
Carry It Into the Return
Ensure the filing reflects the completed transaction and the documentation supports it.
A year-round relationship needs more than a once-a-year upload link.
The secure client portal keeps documents, signatures, invoices, and planning conversations in one place — accessible from anywhere in the country, all year long.
If the choice can still change, the tax conversation is still on time.
Tell Julie what you are considering, what changed, or which part of the financial picture needs to be evaluated.