Terms and Conditions For Doing Business With Us, EC3 of Florida, Inc. dba EC3 Small Business Solutions:

Tax Code is forever Evolving –

          Since the most sweeping tax law legislation in the modern millennia went into effect (in 2018 [TCJA]), tax returns have been subject to completely different calculations based on sliding scales.  There are only limited ways you can reduce your taxes and they are consolidated to either putting your maximum deferred amounts in your retirement accounts (401k for example), starting a new company, taking advantage of rare but legal tax credits, or coming to the table with larger Schedule A deductions than the standard deduction (very difficult to achieve), etc. 

           This means you cannot under-withhold from your paycheck and expect any sort of refund on your taxes!  (Emphasis added).  Also, the many other states with state income tax do not honor many of the credits the new tax laws created and typically reduce federal tax items such as losses, depreciation, or child tax credits, etc.      

          Your tax preparer and their families are affected by all tax laws exactly like you are.  Post year 2020 and the shutdown, things like inflation and taxes have gone up significantly as well as earnings have declined (see economic reports), housing prices and local taxes have accelerated, and the costs of life have skyrocketed.  These types of unavoidable pressure-points place our company in a position where we often have to relay that you may owe taxes, and that you may owe a lot of taxes depending on your unique tax situation.  

          For whatever reason, paying taxes is/are a passion-point that yield unique reactions from everyone.  This is why it is critical to work with a tax preparer who understands your overall tax picture and can help you plan ahead. These terms and conditions are designed to protect your tax preparer, or accounting professional from any harm which may arise from the use of our services, since we are exclusively dependent on your performance, your honesty, your candor, your timeliness, and your conduct.

I) Please carefully read these Terms and Conditions, including all introductory parts, before choosing to do business with EC3 Small Business Solutions, a division of EC3 of Florida, Inc.; and 

II) By tendering payment on any invoice we prepare and send to you then you expressly agree and accept these Terms and Conditions which are (all) contained herein above and below on this page; and

III)  If you are represented by a third party agent, then these terms and conditions apply to both your agent and yourself jointly and severally; and

IV)  If you are working with a third party such as an attorney, etc., then you agree to waive the Power of Attorney provision for discussing your tax situation, handling your tax documents, or making tax return decisions, with said third party for your tax return, or any information that is used to create a tax return for you.  You are further bound by whatever decision your third party creates for you, and your third party doing business with us on your behalf is assumed to have discussed all possible outcomes with you;

V)  If any one provision of these Terms and Conditions, is stricken, then all other provisions of these Terms and Conditions remain in full force;

VI)  YOUR ACCEPTANCE AND AGREEMENT(S) are as follows:

1. 1. By tendering payment on any invoice that we prepare and send to you, then you agree to these Terms and Conditions with our firm,  EC3 of Florida, Inc. doing business as EC3 Small Business Solutions, and you agree that you are legally bound by these Terms and Conditions;
   2. You agree before doing business with us that our policy is typically to service U.S. small businesses with combined revenue and assets under a threshold of $2 million dollars annually and if we do take an account with higher revenue than this, then it become the assumption of your risk;
   3. You agree and accept that we DO NOT offer: Personal consulting, financial planning, debt relief, small business loan origination, or ANY other service that is not specifically for small business accounting, bookkeeping,  IRS Representation, retirement tax planning, and/or tax preparation;
   4. You agree and accept that EC3 Small Business Solutions is a virtual accounting, bookkeeping, and/or tax preparation service.  You acknowledge  that while we do offer paid consultations /appointments, we are primarily a virtual company which may require more proofs for us to retain to prepare your return;
   5. We reserve the right to reject and/or terminate for cause for any reason if we feel that there is or are issue(s) which include but are not limited to any of the following: a) legal compliance b) identity c)  transparency d)  abuse  e) chronic unanswered correspondence  f)  chronic bank disconnects g) chronic late payments on our invoices h) chronic dithering/dilly-dallying/hesitancy, and/or i) chronic foot-dragging/bread-crumbing.  We expressly reserve the right to file suit for breach of contract to recuperate costs if those costs are attributed to your conduct when doing business with our firm.  
   6. You agree and accept that no communication is construed as ANY sort of advice unless it is specifically paid for as a line item on an invoice you tender payment in US dollars ($) for, and is for your business, and/or your individual return, and is on your own behalf.  You further agree to perform on your expected part in our business relationship including the actions of a third party representing you;
   7. The tax return process you agree to:
      1. • a.   We establish communication and go over your company, your tax situation, and come up with an action plan to ensure you have all of your possible expenses recorded;
         • b.  Once we determine that all of your expenses have been recorded, we then go over your expenses;
         • c.  You agree and accept that all expenses for your tax return are your expenses exclusively and belong solely to you and that any and all of your expenses and credits listed on your tax return are exclusively approved by you as valid expenses that you have provided;
         • d.  You agree and accept that all new tax clients must have a copy of the tax return for the last year they filed a tax return – WE CANNOT MAKE EXCEPTIONS;
         • e.  You agree and accept that we establish the documents needed to prepare your return based on your unique tax situation(s);
         • f.  You agree and accept that once we commence a tax return for our agreed to price and have exchanged tax documents, discussions, input sessions, etc., we have earned our right to bill you for our time, even if you do not complete the tax return process;  
         • g.  You agree and accept that you voluntarily waive any right to complain about a refund once you tender payment in U.S. Dollars, for your return AND we furnish you with your first copy for review, do not file copy, or final;     
         • h. You agree and accept that tax returns prepared with our firm are finalized in three (3) stages:
         • 1. (1)  You will receive a Do Not File copy of your return to review for accuracy of your information and expenses.  Your Do Not File copy of your return is NOT your final return, and cannot be used to substantiate anything other than making sure your information is correct;
           2. (2)  Once you review your items and your tax preparer is ready, then we will finalize all sensitive information over the telephone.  Information to electronically file your tax return such as your Driver’s license, date of birth, etc. is input before we send your return for electronic signature;
           3. (3)  All parties required to sign tax returns must have a unique email address to sign his/her name.  Your e-signature copy of the return is sent to you for electronic signature and must be completed within two (2) days;
   8. You agree and accept that completed tax returns which are not filed within three (3) days after finalization are subject to an administrative fee due to extra time incurred;
   9. Your agreement and acceptance of your tax preparer’s role for your tax return:
      • a)  Inspect and evaluate your tax documents for accuracy
      • b)  Discuss your tax documents, profit and loss, balance sheet, and any other documents related to the preparation of your return
      • c)  Input your return 
      • d)  Make sure your assets and depreciation are properly booked from prior years as well as your current year
      • e)  Provide you guidance on items you may have missed such as telephone expenses, or obvious items unique to your field of business
      • f)  Discuss in detail your tax return with you
      • g)  Properly resolve any issues with your actual return such as an IRS rejection of an electronic file;
   10. You agree and accept that the electronically filed copy of your return through the IRS e-file system is a courtesy and is not charged for, and that if a return is not able to be accepted electronically, then a paper return will be what is due and that additional charges apply to cover our paper costs;
   11. You agree and accept that we do not and will not  offer ANY service that helps you cheat on your taxes;  (Please DO NOT contact us if you intend to or have ever made a practice of defrauding tax preparers in an effort to reduce your tax liability);
   12. You agree and accept that we do not represent you for any matter in connection with your return including the whereabouts of your tax refund or an audit and that these items are separate services we offer;
   13. You agree and accept that ANY AND ALL correspondence you receive (eg. DOL Notices, State notices, Federal/IRS Notices, etc.) (hereinafter “correspondence”) from either the state, the IRS, the federal government, or local government, that is directly connected to any service EC3 of Florida, Inc. or its affiliates past or present has ever provided to you AND you tendered payment on an  invoice that we sent you for said service — the correspondence must be presented to EC3 of Florida, Inc. immediately upon your receipt.   If you do not provide the aforementioned correspondence immediately, then you agree and accept that EC3 of Florida, Inc. has no liability for and has no duty to cure the subject matter of the correspondence.  Further, you expressly agree through this provision in this, our Terms and Conditions part (13.)  that you waive any claims against EC3 of Florida, Inc. if you do not drop what you are doing and immediately forward us the aforementioned correspondence.  We will not make any exceptions because of any client’s or any former client’s failure to follow this provision;
   14. You agree and accept that EC3 of Florida, Inc., cannot be held liable for anything unfavorable to your unique tax situation as there is no predicted amount due or owed for any tax return.  You further agree that when hiring EC3 of Florida, Inc., that your tax liability “is what it is” and make a covenant not to harass or abuse your tax preparer if your tax amount due is what it is;
   15. You agree to and accept that we can and may from time to time amend, change, or remove any part or parts of any single line item from our Terms and Conditions to remain competitive in the marketplace, and that we may expressly amend prior terms and conditions to provide clarifying terms to clearly outline the spirit of what we do and do not do.  By agreeing to this, you further agree that we are expressly authorized to improve these terms and conditions by making changes from time to time which become retroactive to all transactions past, present, and future;

1. 1. All Terms and Conditions from subsection (A), TERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR TAX RETURNS (1. – 15.), are hereby incorporated and fully set-forth herein this subsection (B);
   2. You agree and accept that if you are a bookkeeping client,  a tax consulting client, controller services client, payroll services client, or any client engaging with any agent of our company, then this is your NOTICE THAT YOU MUST KEEP ANY AND ALL receipts for any item taken as an expense.   You agree and accept that EC3, of Florida, Inc. requires copies of all asset purchases’ receipts OR large ticket item receipts; however, we retain the right to request any item that supports your financial claims for expenses.
   3. PAYROLL – you agree and accept that any payroll service we offer is for processing your payroll as a third party for your payroll service provider.   Any and all mistakes made by your third party payroll provider do not have any bearing on our performance.  Any and all discrepancies that your third party payroll provider may have with your data and/or information cannot be construed against us and that it is your exclusive duty to resolve all technical issues.  For example:  A mismatched identification number for specific state or federal agency.  You further agree that if we ever have to resolve an issue after our relationship has ended, then that cost is $115 per hour with a one hour minimum due;
   4. You agree and accept that you must keep mileage logs if taking mileage; travel logs if you are taking travel (conditions exist for travel), and hours logs if you are claiming “active” real estate on your returns.
   5. As long as any of our EC3 enterprises, past or present, or any of our officers, agents, employees, or affiliates is/are  listed as your accountant or administrator of record, you agree and accept that we retain the right to bill you for our connected account to yours.   This includes former clients who continue using QuickBooks with our firm listed as your accountant. 
   6. You agree and accept that we have the right to bill you for any time we spend working with your account and for any reason that stems from an issue with your account;
   7. You agree and accept that monthly invoices are due upon receipt.  Any payment after 7 days is delinquent and subject to administrative charges;
   8. You agree and accept that we charge a recording fee per transaction and on your invoice it is clearly indicated as “Transactions” and we also charge additional amounts for adding payees for debits and transfers;
   9. You understand, agree, and accept that our transactions are calculated by the number of rows on your Excel (M1cr0s0ft) transaction report which include extra rows for the report’s headers and footers.  These additional rows (typically 11) offset our administrative costs for servicing your account.
   10. You understand, agree, and accept that our firm’s hourly rate for 2023 – 2024 is $115 per hour for any non-standard monthly bookkeeping item such as but not limited to:  Making general journal entries, correspondence to government agencies, legal research of tax and IRS laws and/or regulations, booking and settling accounts receivables, etc. ;
   11. You agree and accept EC3 of Florida Inc’s years’ of experience and agree to abide by the guidance and direction of any of our employees or affiliates with regard to your account to keep your account status current;
   12. You agree that we do not offer any bookkeeping service that creates a lesser tax liability for you unlawfully (See the FBI’s Financial Crimes Report to the Public 2010-2011). 
   13. You agree and accept that we use the reasonable, ordinary, and in the course of business standards for your bookkeeping needs and do not entertain “dumping ground” bookkeeping contracts or any contract that attempts to use our service to perpetuate any line item in the FBI’s most recent Financial Crimes Report. 
   14.  You agree and accept that if we discover that we’ve been misled on what specific purchases are for, and we determine a wholesale scheme, then we without question will cease further activity on your account, and thus margin call any amount due to our firm.   In laments terms, please be candid about all expenses when doing business with EC3 of Florida, Inc., please make full disclosure of every intended reason for each expense we record on your profit and loss statement and/or balance sheets for time periods we service your business. 
   15. You agree to and accept that we can and may from time to time amend, change, or remove any part or parts of any single line item from our Terms and Conditions to remain competitive in the marketplace, and that we may expressly amend prior terms and conditions to provide clarifying terms to clearly outline the spirit of what we do and do not do.  By agreeing to this, you further agree that we are expressly authorized to improve these terms and conditions by making changes from time to time which become retroactive to all transactions past, present, and future.

          By employing EC3 of Florida, Inc. or engaging in any of our services with any of our divisions, you agree to and are legally bound to the jurisdiction of Pinellas County, State of Florida, United States of America.