Why we ask all this before we start — and why it’s in writing.
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This is the part most firms do badly, so let me explain why we do it at all.
Genesis is the intake. It’s where we find out who you are, what years we’re dealing with, and what’s actually in front of you — before anybody starts work.
Here’s why it matters more than it sounds. The single most expensive thing in this business is starting a return with the wrong picture. A missing document, a year nobody mentioned, a spouse’s situation that changes the whole filing status. Find that in March and it costs a week. Find it now and it costs a form field.
So we ask up front, and we ask in writing. Writing, because a phone call gives you my memory of what you said, and a form gives you what you actually said. When there’s money and a signature at the end of this, the difference matters.
It’s not long, and nothing in it is a trick. Every question is there because leaving it out has cost somebody time before.
Fill in what you know. Leave what you don’t. We’ll take it from there.