About the firm
A neighborhood CPA firm that stayed one
Twenty-two years on Roosevelt Avenue, five people, and a deliberate decision not to become the kind of firm where you cannot get the partner on the phone.
✓ Established 2004✓ Licensed CPA firm in New York State✓ Seven languages in the office
How we got here
Started because the alternative was worse
Daniel Moreno spent eight years in the tax department of a mid-size Manhattan firm before opening this one in 2004. The work was good. What was not good was watching small clients get handed to whoever was free that week, quoted in six-minute increments, and left unable to ask a question without generating an invoice.
So the firm was built the other way round. Five people, a named accountant on every file, fixed fees, and a rule that answering for our own work is not a billable event. It has stayed that size on purpose. We turn work away in March rather than take on files we cannot review properly.
Two decades on, we file for the children of clients we started with, and for a few businesses that have changed hands twice and kept us through both.
How we work
Four commitments, and we would rather lose work than break them
A licensed CPA signs your return
Not a seasonal preparer hired in January. The person who reviews your file in April is the same person who answers the phone in September.
Fixed fees, quoted before we start
You approve a written engagement letter with the fee on it. We do not start the clock on a meter and hand you a surprise.
Seven languages across the desk
English, Spanish, Tagalog, Nepali, Bengali, Korean and Mandarin. Woodside is not a one-language neighborhood and neither are we.
You get an answer, not a ticket number
Calls are returned the same business day. During filing season we answer the phone on Saturdays too.
Where we draw the line
Things this firm will not do
Worth saying out loud, because in this profession the omissions matter as much as the service list.
We do not sell financial products
No securities licence, no insurance licence, no referral fees from anyone. When we advise on a retirement account there is nothing riding on the answer, which is exactly why the advice is worth having.
We do not promise a refund before we have seen your documents
Anyone who quotes you a refund figure over the phone is either guessing or preparing to take a position they cannot defend. Both end the same way.
We do not take aggressive positions to win a client
There is a line between planning and hoping, and the difference shows up three years later in a letter. If a deduction is not defensible we will tell you so, and we would rather you go elsewhere than sign something we would not.
We do not disappear on April 16
The seasonal storefronts close. We do not. Roughly half our work happens between May and December, which is also when the work that actually changes your tax bill gets done.
We do not offshore your file
Your documents stay in this office, handled by the people whose photographs are on this website.
The people
Five people, and you will know which one has your file
Daniel R. Moreno, CPA
Managing Partner
CPA (NY) · 22 years
Founded the practice on Roosevelt Avenue in 2004 after eight years in the tax department of a mid-size Manhattan firm. Leads the business tax and advisory side, and still personally reviews every corporate and partnership return the office files. Grew up six blocks from the office and has watched three generations of some client families come through the door.
- S corporations and partnerships
- Entity structure
- Business sales and succession
English, Spanish
Grace A. Santos, CPA
Partner — Assurance and Client Accounting
CPA (NY) · 17 years
Runs the client accounting and financial statement practice. Came from a national firm's assurance group and brought the discipline with her — the monthly close calendar every accounting client works to is hers. The person to talk to when a lender, landlord or bonding company has asked for something and nobody is sure what it means.
- Compilations and reviews
- Monthly close and reporting
- Lender and bonding requests
English, Tagalog
Aisha Rahman, CPA, MST
Senior Tax Manager
CPA (NY) · MST · 12 years
Handles the individual returns that are not simple: equity compensation, multi-state and part-year allocation, foreign income and the reporting that goes with it. Holds a Master of Science in Taxation and is the office's authority on treaty positions and on New York residency, which is more contested and more expensive than most people realise.
- Foreign income, FBAR and FATCA
- Equity compensation
- New York residency
English, Bengali, Hindi
The office
Third floor, Roosevelt Avenue
A brass banker's lamp on the partner's desk
The waiting room on the third floor
Morning light in the corner office
The conference room, where most reviews happen
The reference shelf
A desk during filing season
Coffee before the first appointment
The Roosevelt Avenue entrance
The first conversation is free
Talk to a CPA before you decide anything
Twenty minutes on the phone or across a desk on Roosevelt Avenue. Bring last year's return if you have one — most of what we need in order to quote you is already in it.