What does a tax preparer do when it's not tax season?

The short, somewhat facetious answer is: not much!

Or at least that was the short answer. For many years, the huge bulk of work in the tax business was during tax season, and the rest of the year Pronto was just open to make sure that if any clients had any questions or problems, we take care of our clients (often at little or no cost, mind you).

But now...things are a bit different and we actually do work fairly hard year round. Not as hard as we work during tax season, naturally, but we are definitely keeping busy. Our Monrovia, Carson, and West L.A. locations are open five days per week year round to serve you. Our East L.A. office is open by appointment.

Here are some of the services that Pronto Income Tax offers in the off-season:

-- Tax problem resolution. For example, this post-season we have already prepared three Offers-In-Compromise to help people settle their tax debt for less than they owe. Do you know someone who has a tax problem that they don't think is fixable? Let us have a shot at it, we have a proven track record of getting results.

-- Bookkeeping. So many business owners struggle to stay organized with their bookkeeping. It is just so hard to keep track of everything financial when you are busy running your actual business, trying to get customers, trying to keep customers happy. Bookkeeping is such a hassle! That's why Pronto has been working to develop a SIMPLE bookkeeping system that ANY business owner can use to keep great records of income and expenses. Best of all, the cost is only $40 per month!

-- Notary Public. We maintain notary public service in all of our locations. We also offer mobile notary public services, for example if you are a senior citizen and you neeed a notary to come to your home, we will do it. So if you need a notary public, call Pronto at 310-577-7530 and we will do our best to meet your needs.

-- Records retention. This is a new product line that we may pursue more aggressively in the future, but for right now, we are just trying to evaluate if people have a need for this service. By records retention, we mean that we will scan all of your paper documents and records into PDF files, we will organize them logically, and then we will give you everything on a flash drive so that you can either shred your paper records, or have a digital backup. We have purchased a high-powered scanner that can scan up to 200 pages per hour, so please contact us at 310-577-7530 if you have paper files that you want to digitize. You won't believe how great you will feel to go paperless!

-- Tax education. This is an area that are really excited about! We have a tax class pending with the California Tax Education Council (CTEC) and we are hoping that this class will be accepted this summer. This class will enable us to teach people how to do taxes, how to become registered and licensed to prepare tax returns for pay. With the economic downturn, there are so many people who are looking for new job opportunities, hopefully we can help some people find something new. This class will include a textbook, video instruction, and practice tax returns. This new education division is being headed up by Andy and Kent, who have more than 50 years combined experience preparing taxes. If you are interested in learning how to do taxes, make sure to email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .  The Pronto Tax School is coming soon, all aboard!

And now, last but not least, now that we've talked about all the hard work we do during the off season...

It's time to head to the beach :)