Making Equity Compensation Less Taxing.
McCarthy Tax Preparation is the CPA firm built for tech professionals: we plan your RSUs, ISOs, and NQSOs before they cost you — projections before you vest, exercise, or sell, a number you know in the fall, and returns prepared by the team that planned them. 700+ clients in 40+ states, and your first consultation is free.
Book My Free Consultation Call (513) 239-7446
30 minutes with a CPA who speaks equity comp — not a salesperson.
We’ll review your situation, tell you plainly whether we can lower your bill, and send a written proposal. No fee. No obligation.
FALL PROJECTION Your number — known in October, not April.
Tech professionals and families who plan their equity comp with this firm.
A 100% virtual practice — multi-state equity income is routine here.
Prepared across 25 tax seasons — John has served tax clients since 2001.
The credentials behind the promise
Your RSUs vest on your employer’s calendar. Your exercise window closes on your employer’s calendar. And the tax bill arrives on the IRS’s calendar — all three indifferent to whether anyone planned for them. Every vest, exercise, and sale is a tax decision with a deadline. Un-modeled decisions are where the money leaks.
Free 30 minutes. Bring one vest statement — we’ll show you what it actually costs.
The gray line is how most tech professionals meet their tax bill: a year of guesses, then a spike. The gold line is what a fall projection does — from October on, April holds no surprises.
Your broker’s 1099-B reports your RSU basis wrong — routinely, structurally. File it as-is and you pay tax twice on the same shares. It’s the most expensive quiet error in equity comp, and it hides in a form that looks official.
Exercise ISOs to capture the upside and the Alternative Minimum Tax can ambush you the following April — a five-figure bill on shares you haven’t sold, sometimes on shares that have since fallen. Nobody modeled it. That’s the whole problem.
Under-withheld RSUs, a bonus year, a cross-state move — the ingredients differ, the ending is the same: a balance due you never saw coming, plus penalties for the estimates nobody told you to pay.
Your words — we just publish the articles. Interview-style software asks questions you can’t answer about instruments it doesn’t understand. Equity comp isn’t a data-entry problem; it’s a planning problem.
Tax planning has a calendar, and it does not negotiate. Post-departure exercise windows are measured in weeks. Year-end moves — exercises, conversions, withholding fixes — die on December 31. Estimates have quarterly due dates whether you knew about them or not.
The expensive option is the un-modeled one. Every month without a projection is a month of vesting events making decisions for you.
You’re not supposed to understand it — equity comp is a specialty, with its own basis rules, AMT traps, and wash-sale tripwires that even smart people, and plenty of generalist CPAs, get wrong in good faith.
A CPA is not a CPA — the difference between a filer and a planner is the difference between learning your number in April and knowing it in October.
And it doesn’t have to be homework: you bring the comp package; the modeling, projecting, and preparing happen on our side of the portal.
John McCarthy has spent the years since 2001 on one problem: how equity compensation is taxed, and how tech professionals keep more of it. The firm he built does that one thing for 700+ clients — with a named plan, published prices, and a fall projection that ends April surprises.
| DIY software | Generalist CPA | McCarthy Tax Preparation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who plans your equity comp | Nobody — the software asks questions, you guess at the answers | Your CPA files what already happened last year | A CPA team that models your RSUs, ISOs & NQSOs before they happen |
| The RSU double-tax trap | The 1099-B misreports your basis — and you pay tax twice on the same shares | Caught only if your CPA happens to know to look | Basis correction is the first thing we check — it’s the mistake we wrote the book on |
| When you learn your number | April — when it’s too late to change it | April — at the signing appointment | October, in your fall projection — while there is still time to act |
| What it costs | "Free" — until an un-modeled AMT bill costs you five figures | A fee you see only when the return is finished | A published range up front, then your exact price in a written proposal before you commit |
| Who answers you | A help forum and a chatbot | Whoever is free in the middle of tax season | A named team — secure portal, message support, and a fall planning call every year |
| Depth in your exact problem | Forms, not strategy | One specialty among hundreds of client types | Equity comp is the entire practice — 68 in-depth guides published on it |
Anyone who quotes you a savings number before reading your returns is guessing with your money. We’d rather show you the model.
You don’t need to know which service you need — that’s our job. Start from the problem you recognize; every path ends in the same place: a plan, a projection, and a prepared return.
The 1099-B your broker issues almost always reports the wrong basis on vested RSUs. File it as-is and you pay tax twice on the same shares — the $10,000 mistake we wrote the guide on, and the first thing we check on every return.
Qualifying vs. disqualifying dispositions change your tax bill by real money. We time and report ESPP sales so your purchase discount works for you — not against you.
Exercise too many ISOs in one year and the Alternative Minimum Tax ambushes you the next April. We strategize the exercise and the sale together, specifically to keep AMT from eating the upside.
Not a guess — a model. We run your cases side by side: exercise and hold, exercise and sell, spread across tax years. How many options, and when, becomes arithmetic instead of anxiety.
NQSO exercises and sales are sized and timed to manage your tax bracket — planning around your vest schedule, not the calendar’s accidents.
HSAs, 401(k)s, and Mega Backdoor Roth opportunities, reviewed as part of the plan. The levers your compensation package already gives you — actually pulled, every year.
A detailed projection of your IRS and state liability before the year closes: estimates set, withholding corrected, and no five-figure surprise waiting in April. Eliminating the surprise is the entire service.
A big vest or exercise mid-year changes your tax year the day it happens. We project it when it happens — not nine months later, when nothing can be changed.
Exercise windows expire — often within weeks of your last day. Layoff and job-change equity decisions are the highest-stakes tax moments in a tech career, and the free intro call is built for exactly this moment.
Moved mid-year? RSUs sourced to a state you no longer live in? With clients in 40+ states, multi-state equity income is our home turf — not an edge case your CPA researches on your dime.
E-file of federal and state returns by the same team that planned them — plus sole proprietorships, trusts, and estates, and year-round support when a question pops up in July instead of April.
Tax Notice & Correspondence Support is built into the package, and every package includes up to six hours of audit assistance. An IRS envelope stops being your problem the day you upload it to the portal.
Foreign compliance and expatriate returns are a quiet specialty of this bench — including an ex-IRS Revenue Agent and a licensed tax attorney among the wider team. U.S. taxes follow you abroad; so do we.
Financial advisor? Our Advisor Facing Tax program plans and prepares for your clients — stock-option analysis, scenario modeling, shared portal access — and is listed in the Kitces Advisor Services Map. See the advisor program →
Book My Free Consultation Not sure which box your situation fits? That’s what the free consultation is for.
Every CPA website promises “planning.” This is what planning actually looks like as a process — six steps, two of them free before you commit, each one stating what you do (very little) and what we do (the rest).
Free · 30 minutes
You do: Bring your comp package and your questions.
We do: Listen, assess your equity situation, and tell you plainly whether — and where — we can improve your position.
Free · before you commit
You do: Upload your last two years of returns to the secure portal.
We do: Review them line by line, hunting missed RSU basis adjustments and amended-return opportunities.
1 hour
You do: Show up to one video call.
We do: Map your vest schedule, exercise windows, and goals into a planning calendar for the year.
1 hour
You do: Review the plan with us and ask anything.
We do: Present your Tax Strategy — the moves, the timing, and your projected number, in plain English.
Handled for you
You do: E-sign, and upload documents as they arrive.
We do: Run your fall projection, set your estimates, and prepare and e-file your federal and state returns.
Year-round
You do: Message us whenever something changes — a vest, a move, a new job.
We do: Message support, notice & correspondence help, and a fall planning call every year. April stops being a surprise.
A complimentary tax extension is included if the calendar ever needs one — and tax notice & correspondence support rides along from day one.
A fall projection puts a real number on your year while there is still time to change it. April becomes a signature, not a shock.
Every ISO exercise and RSU sale is decided against a projection — how many, when, and what it costs — before you click anything.
The 1099-B basis trap is the most expensive quiet mistake in equity compensation. Catching it is where this firm starts — on your very first return review.
Secure portal, message support included, and our published goal: a response within 24–48 business hours. No phone tree. No seasonal disappearing act.
No borrowed ratings, no invented savings figures. What this firm can prove, it proves with scale, credentials, transparency, and a library of work you can read before you ever book a call.
700+
Clients served
40+
States, fully virtual
2001
John serving clients since
140+
Combined years on the core team*
68
In-depth equity-comp guides published
$3,200–$3,800
Tax Strategy Packages typically range from $3,200 to $8,700; many clients pay between $3,200 and $3,800. Almost no firm in this niche will print that. We print it because a price you can see is a firm you can check — and your exact figure still arrives in a written proposal before you commit.
AICPA and Ohio Society of CPAs memberships; founder is a past member of the XY Planning Network (fee-only advisors for Gen X/Y). Listed in the Kitces Advisor Services Map as an outsourced tax provider financial advisors trust with their own clients.
John is the first expert quoted in FAANGFire’s analysis of RSU wash sales — the newsletter FAANG employees read about their own comp. Hear him teach the approach on the Work Your Wealth podcast (Ep. 45), or watch the firm’s YouTube explainers walk through RSU double taxation step by step.
68 long-form guides on the exact problems on this page — RSU double taxation, ISO AMT, wash sales on vests, layoff equity, ESPP dispositions, mega backdoor Roth. Read three and you’ll know more about your comp package than most CPAs ever learn.
*Combined-experience figure is summed from the firm’s published team bios and is shown for the firm’s review and correction.
Your next vest is a tax decision. Book the free consultation and make it with a model — not a guess, and not in April.
Book My Free Consultation
John McCarthy, CPA earned his BS in Accounting from Purdue University in 1998 and has helped individuals, families, and small businesses with income tax and planning since 2001. He left a salaried corporate tax career to build this firm full-time — a practice designed from day one to be virtual, family-compatible, and narrow on purpose: “Our mission is to help technology employees with proactive tax planning for their equity compensation.”
That last part is the difference. John is a member of the AICPA and the Ohio Society of CPAs and a past member of the XY Planning Network, the fee-only advisor community for Gen X and Gen Y clients. His writing and explainers on RSU taxation, ISO strategy, and wash sales are read — and quoted — where tech employees actually talk about money.
And he is not a solo act pretending otherwise. Behind the founder is a twelve-person bench across U.S. time zones — CPAs and Enrolled Agents including a Master of Science in Taxation, an ex-IRS Revenue Agent, and, among the wider team, a licensed tax attorney (JD). Founder-led, team-deep: you get both.
Mary Antony, CPA
COO · Senior Tax Manager
In public accounting since 2010.
Matthew Falank, EA
Tax Manager
Started his career at the IRS as a Revenue Agent.
Paula Zoromski, CPA
Staff Accountant
Master of Science in Taxation, DePaul — 25+ years.
Amelia Ungureanu, EA
Senior Staff Accountant
Master’s in Accounting; NAEA member.
Sara Willey, EA
Staff Accountant
In public accounting since 2017.
Amber Tischhauser, EA
Tax Manager
Eight years in public accounting.
Brandi Hundley
Firm Administrator · IT
20+ years of administrative experience.
Plus Andrea Lindberg, CPA (Firm Administrator, HR), Jeff Minner, CPA and Jessica Seri, CPA (Tax Managers), and Tami Seib, EA (Staff Accountant) — 12 named professionals in all, working remotely across U.S. time zones.
Book My Free Consultation Call (513) 239-7446
Free 30-minute consultation for new clients. No fee. No obligation. Your written proposal follows the call — priced to your exact situation.
Free 30-minute consultation. A CPA who speaks equity comp reviews your situation, and your price arrives in a written proposal. No fee. No obligation.
Book My Free ConsultationThirty minutes with a CPA who speaks equity comp — not a salesperson. Bring your comp package and your questions: we review your situation, tell you plainly whether and where we can improve your position, and explain exactly what working with us would look like. Afterwards you receive a tailored written proposal, priced to your exact situation. Keep the advice either way — no fee, no obligation, no pressure.
We publish our pricing, which almost no firm in this niche will do: Tax Strategy Packages typically range from $3,200 to $8,700, and many clients pay between $3,200 and $3,800. Your exact price comes in a written proposal after your free consultation — quoted before you commit to anything, never discovered on an invoice. After year one, most clients move to a lower-cost tax maintenance package.
It is the firm’s complete, named process: a complimentary introductory call, a secure client portal, a review of your prior two years of returns hunting for amended-return opportunities, a one-hour Strategy Kickoff, a one-hour Strategy Presentation of your plan, a complimentary tax extension if needed, full return preparation, a tax projection with estimated payments, message support, and tax notice & correspondence support. Planning, projection, and preparation in one package — not three separate engagements.
Almost certainly. The firm serves 700+ clients across more than 40 states, and the practice is 100% virtual — secure TaxDome portal, email, and video calls, with a team spread across U.S. time zones. Multi-state equity income (mid-year moves, RSUs sourced to a prior work state) is routine here, not an edge case.
Because equity comp fails quietly inside a generalist return. The 1099-B your broker issues almost always misreports your RSU basis — file it as-is and you pay tax twice on the same shares. ISO exercises trigger AMT that nobody modeled. Vesting events trigger wash sales. These are not generalist mistakes; they are specialty details. The free two-year return review exists precisely to answer this question with your own returns as the evidence.
Almost nothing — that is the point. Book the free call and bring your comp package. From there it is portal uploads as documents arrive, e-signatures, and one fall planning call a year. The modeling, projecting, corresponding, and preparing happen on our side. Clients describe the workload as "an upload and a signature," and that is by design.
Yes — and we go one better. New clients get a complimentary review of their prior two years of returns, specifically looking for amended-return opportunities: missed RSU basis adjustments, mishandled ISO/AMT positions, ESPP dispositions reported the expensive way. If an amendment puts money back in your pocket, you will see the numbers before you’ve paid us anything beyond the free consultation.
Upload it to the portal and it becomes our problem, not yours. Tax Notice & Correspondence Support is built into the Tax Strategy Package, and every client package includes up to six hours of audit assistance. Notices are a process with deadlines and templates — handled by people who answer them for a living, they stop being scary very quickly.
700+ clients. 40+ states. A specialist team that models your equity comp before it costs you — and publishes its prices while it’s at it. The first step is a free 30-minute consultation, and it comes with a review of your last two returns.
Packages typically $3,200–$8,700 · most clients $3,200–$3,800 · your exact price, in writing, after the free call
Pick a time below — that’s the firm’s live scheduler. Here’s what happens on the call: a CPA reviews your equity comp with you, tells you plainly whether we can improve your position, and outlines your options. A written proposal follows. No fee, no obligation, and anything you send by email gets our published response goal: within 24–48 business hours.
Prefer to talk first? Call (513) 239-7446 or email [email protected].
Loveland, Ohio · serving clients nationwide.
