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Home› Service Areas› Business Tax Preparation — Arlington, VA
📍 Arlington, VA · Tax Prep Service

Business Tax Preparation
in Arlington, VA

Small business tax preparation support in Arlington, VA for the businesses navigating multi-jurisdictional filings — federal subcontractors threading Form 6765 R&D credits and Section 174 capitalization, S-corp owners weighing the Virginia PTET election, sole proprietors filing Schedule C, restaurants reconciling FICA tip credits and Form 8027. We organize tax-ready records throughout the year and coordinate directly with your CPA at year-end so they file from clean books — not from a year-end rebuild. Verified Intuit QuickBooks ProAdvisor.

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★★★★★5.0on Google
✓Business and personal tax returns filed for Arlington, VA small businesses
✓S-Corp, LLC, sole prop, partnership — all entity types
✓Year-round Arlington, VA tax planning — not just April filing
✓IRS notice response included — we handle the letters
Arlington, VA Tax Tracker
Example
Business return (1120-S)Mar 17st-ok
Personal 1040Apr 15st-ok
Q2 Estimated paymentJun 15st-due
Year-end tax planningDecst-ok
📍 Arlington, VA — local noteVirginia state income tax, PTET elections, and Arlington County BPOL filings all run on separate timelines. We coordinate every filing so nothing falls through.
Your Arlington, VA tax prep plan

Everything included — no hidden
add-ons or surprise fees

Every CPA tax accountant Arlington VA client in Arlington, VA gets the complete service.

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All entity types
S-Corp (1120-S), LLC, Partnership, Sole Proprietor, and personal 1040. Every return filed correctly and on time.
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Year-round planning
Tax planning that starts in January — not March. We flag deductions and make strategic moves while there's still time.
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State & local expertise
Federal plus every state and local filing your business needs. No missed deadlines, no overlooked forms.
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Maximize deductions
We review every deduction category relevant to your industry and entity type — nothing left on the table.
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IRS correspondence
If the IRS or state sends a notice, we handle it. You don't have to figure out what to do alone.
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Estimated payments
We calculate your quarterly estimated tax payments and remind you before each deadline — no underpayment penalties.
Arlington-specific tax prep

What Arlington tax prep
actually requires.

Arlington's tax-prep workload isn't standard. The county sits in a federal-government concentration zone, so most small businesses face multi-state apportionment, federal R&D Tax Credit (Form 6765) eligibility, Section 174 capitalization, and the Virginia Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) decision — on top of the standard federal return + Virginia state return + Arlington County BPOL stack. Below is what we handle as part of standard year-end tax prep coordination with your CPA. We are bookkeepers and a verified Intuit QuickBooks ProAdvisor — your CPA files the return; we make sure the books support a clean filing.

Federal returns by entity type
Sole props file Schedule C with Form 1040. Single-member LLCs default to Schedule C unless they've elected S-corp. Multi-member LLCs file Form 1065 with K-1s. S-corps file Form 1120-S with K-1s. C-corps file Form 1120. Most Arlington consultants we open used the wrong entity election or never elected S-corp to save FICA on owner compensation. We organize the books to support whichever return your CPA files — entity choice is a CPA + attorney decision.
Virginia state returns (760, 502, 502PTET)
Virginia residents file Form 760. Pass-throughs file Form 502 with K-1s for partners. The Virginia Pass-Through Entity Tax (PTET) election uses Form 502PTET — paid at the entity level to preserve the federal SALT deduction. Worth modeling each year before the deadline. Your CPA decides whether to elect; we make sure the bookkeeping cleanly supports the choice and that estimated payments hit the right account.
Arlington County BPOL year-end true-up
Arlington's BPOL is filed annually on prior-year gross receipts. After the calendar year ends, we reconcile actual gross receipts against any estimated filings, prepare the BPOL return for your CPA's review, and submit through the Commissioner of the Revenue's portal. Misclassification (professional vs. business service vs. retailer) is the single most common BPOL adjustment we see in tax-prep season.
1099-NEC + 1099-K reconciliation
Federal subcontractors typically receive 1099-NECs from primes. If you also accept Stripe, Square, or PayPal payments, you'll get 1099-Ks. Reconciling 1099-NEC + 1099-K against your gross receipts before filing avoids the most common IRS notice we see at year-end — phantom income from double-reported payments where a prime sent both a 1099-NEC and a 1099-K covered the same dollars.
R&D Tax Credit (Form 6765) + Section 174
The federal R&D credit applies to GovCon subs developing software, methodologies, or proprietary tooling — qualified research expenses include direct labor on R&D, supplies, and 65% of contract research. Section 174 capitalization is now mandatory: 5-year domestic, 15-year foreign. We organize qualified-research expense documentation through the year so your CPA can compile Form 6765 efficiently rather than reconstructing it.
Multi-state apportionment
Many Arlington consulting firms work in DC and Maryland too. Multi-state apportionment requires tracking sales factor by state, payroll factor by state, and — for some older state regimes — property factor. We tag client revenue and contractor invoices by jurisdiction throughout the year so apportionment rolls cleanly into the state returns at filing time.
If you also need ongoing bookkeeping support, see Arlington, VA bookkeeping. For Arlington payroll filings (VA-5/VA-6, 940/941, FUTA/SUTA): see Arlington, VA payroll. Crossing into Alexandria? Tax prep for Alexandria, VA covers City of Alexandria BPOL and the Old Town / Del Ray industry mix. Across the river: Washington, DC tax prep covers D-30 unincorporated franchise tax and FR-500.
Sound familiar?

Why Arlington business owners
stop filing their own taxes

→Dreading Tax Season
→Got An Irs Notice
→Years Behind On Filing
→Paying Too Much In Taxes
→Switching From Turbotax
→Need A Real Tax Accountant
→Missed Quarterly Estimates
→Surprised By A Big Tax Bill
→Don't Know What You Can Deduct
→First Year In Business Taxes

If any of these hit home, we should talk. Free 15-minute consultation, no pressure.

Book a free call →
Industries we know cold

Tax prep for the businesses
that actually run Arlington.

Three Arlington economies, three different tax-prep workloads. We focus where we can do the most good for your CPA at filing time.

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Federal subcontractors & GovCon
Section 174 R&D capitalization tracking, Form 6765 R&D credit substantiation, Form 1099-NEC reconciliation against 1099-Ks, multi-state apportionment for DMV-spanning contracts, foreign tax credit (Form 1116) where applicable, and S-corp election analysis for owner W-2 vs. distribution mix. We coordinate with your CPA on Form 8332 dependents, Form 1118 if cross-border, and Schedule K-1 distributions.
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Restaurants & bars
FICA tip credit (Form 8846), allocated tips on W-2s, Form 8027 for large food/beverage establishments, Section 263A inventory capitalization for food costs, qualified business income deduction (Section 199A) modeling for pass-through restaurant entities, and Arlington meals-tax reconciliation. Clarendon, Ballston, Pentagon City, Shirlington, Crystal City — we know the operating realities of each.
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Professional services (Rosslyn–Ballston)
S-corp election analysis (Schedule SE vs. S-corp FICA savings), reasonable compensation documentation, IOLTA trust account three-way reconciliation feeding into year-end tax prep, retainer accounting per the matching principle, and professional service classification under Virginia BPOL. Law firms, design studios, architecture and engineering firms, healthcare practices, real estate brokerages.
Local expertise

Why Arlington, VA businesses choose
Capital Accounting Group

We're not a national chain. We understand Arlington, VA's local tax rules, industry mix, and what defense contractors owners actually need from a CPA tax accountant Arlington VA.

What we know about Arlington, VA tax prep
  • →Arlington's BPOL (Business, Professional & Occupational License) tax has strict annual deadlines
  • →Virginia PTET elections opened major savings for VA pass-through entities
  • →Virginia Employment Commission (VEC) filings are quarterly — missed ones trigger penalties
  • →Arlington has some of the highest commercial rents in the DMV — cash flow is critical
Book a free Arlington, VA consultation →
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Weekly — not monthly
Most bookkeeping services in the area reconcile once a month. We do it every week — your numbers are never more than 7 days stale.
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Risk-free guarantee
We get your books in order within 30 days — or your first month is free. We stand behind the work.
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Fast onboarding
Most Arlington, VA tax prep clients are up and running within 1–2 weeks. No long contracts, no setup headaches.
How it works

From first call to clean books —
in less than two weeks.

1
Free consultation
15 min — we learn your Arlington, VA business, current setup, and what tax prep you need most.
2
Secure access
You grant read-only account access. No sensitive data ever emailed back and forth.
3
We get to work
Your first tax prep cycle starts within 1–2 weeks. Clean, fast, no drama.
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Ongoing support
Reports, proactive updates, and real humans who flag problems before they become penalties.
A representative tax-prep engagement

What a typical Arlington
tax-prep engagement looks like.

A small Arlington-based GovCon subcontractor (S-corp, two owners, six W-2 employees, three 1099 contractors) came to us mid-fiscal-year with a question their CPA had just raised: "Are you tracking Section 174 R&D capitalization?" They weren't. They had two prior years of fully-expensed software development costs that should have been capitalized and amortized over 5 years per the 2022 tax law change. They also hadn't elected Virginia PTET — leaving the federal SALT deduction on the table for both owners.

Over three weeks, we reorganized the QuickBooks chart of accounts to track Section 174 qualified expenditures by project, built a Form 6765 R&D credit substantiation file from contemporaneous documentation (project descriptions, qualified labor hours, contract research), and modeled the PTET election impact for their CPA. Their CPA filed an amended return for the prior year claiming the R&D credit they'd missed; current-year Section 174 amortization is now correctly tracked; and they elected PTET starting that fiscal year. We now close their books weekly and prepare a quarterly tax-prep readiness file for their CPA to review before each estimated payment.

That's a representative composite — not a single real client — but it's a pattern we see two or three times a quarter in Arlington's GovCon community.

Frequently asked questions

Arlington, VA tax prep
FAQ.

How much does small business tax prep cost in Arlington, VA?+
For an Arlington small business, ongoing tax-prep coordination (year-round bookkeeping that produces tax-ready records + year-end CPA coordination) typically runs $350–$1,500 per month. Our published plans start at $350/month for sole proprietors and small LLCs, $650/month for established businesses needing weekly close and AR/AP, and $1,500/month for the CFO Partner tier. Note: our fee covers bookkeeping and CPA coordination — your CPA's separate tax-return preparation fee is in addition. Most Arlington S-corps see CPA fees of $1,200–$3,500 for a return depending on complexity, with R&D credit substantiation typically extra.
Should my Arlington S-corp elect Virginia PTET?+
Virginia PTET (Pass-Through Entity Tax) is elective. It allows S-corps and partnerships to pay Virginia state tax at the entity level rather than passing it through to owners — preserving the federal SALT deduction at the entity level. Whether it makes sense depends on your other state tax exposure, your federal AGI, and whether you'll itemize. Your CPA models the math; we make sure the books support the choice and that estimated PTET payments hit the right account. Election is annual via Form 502PTET.
How does the federal R&D Tax Credit (Form 6765) work for an Arlington GovCon firm?+
Federal R&D credit applies to qualified research expenses — direct labor on R&D activities, supplies, and 65% of contract research. For Arlington GovCon subs developing software, methodologies, or proprietary tooling, this can be material. We organize project-level documentation throughout the year (qualified labor hours, project descriptions, contract research) so your CPA can compile Form 6765 efficiently. Note: Section 174 capitalization is now required regardless of whether you claim the R&D credit (5-year domestic, 15-year foreign amortization).
What's the difference between Arlington BPOL and Virginia state income tax?+
BPOL (Business, Professional & Occupational License tax) is Arlington County's local business license tax, paid annually based on prior-year gross receipts. It's filed with the Commissioner of the Revenue, with rates that vary by classification (contractor, retailer, professional, business service). Virginia state income tax is filed separately with Virginia Tax — Form 760 for individuals, Form 502 for pass-throughs, Form 500 for C-corps. The two are entirely separate filings; one does not substitute for the other. We handle BPOL year-end true-up as part of standard Arlington engagements.
Can you handle multi-state tax filing if my Arlington consulting firm works in DC and Maryland too?+
Yes. Many Arlington consultancies have engagements across the DMV. We tag transactions by client jurisdiction throughout the year so multi-state apportionment (sales factor, payroll factor, and where applicable property factor) rolls cleanly into your state returns. Your CPA files DC's D-30 (if required), Maryland's Form 510, and Virginia's 502 — we make sure the QuickBooks data ties to each state filing. See our DC tax prep and Bethesda, MD tax prep pages for cross-river specifics.
How does Section 174 R&D capitalization affect my Arlington biotech or software company?+
Since 2022, federal tax law requires capitalizing and amortizing R&D expenditures (5 years domestic, 15 years foreign R&D) rather than expensing them in the year incurred. For pre-revenue biotechs and bootstrapped software companies, this can produce taxable income on paper despite operating losses. Tracking qualified Section 174 expenses through QuickBooks classes and projects gives your CPA clean source data for the amortization schedule and avoids reconstructing it from memory at year-end.
What deadline does my Arlington S-corp need to hit for federal and Virginia state taxes?+
Federal Form 1120-S is due March 15 (extension to September 15 via Form 7004). Virginia Form 502 is due April 15 (extension to October 15). Arlington County BPOL is due March 1. Estimated tax payments (federal and state) follow quarterly schedules. We prepare a quarterly tax-prep readiness file by month-end of months 3, 6, 9, and 12 so your CPA has running visibility into year-to-date positions rather than scrambling in March.
More service areas

Tax Prep across the DMV

We serve small businesses throughout Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia.

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