Fees & Engagement
Where engagements start.
Every figure on this page is a minimum for the scope described: the floor, not a flat rate. What an engagement actually costs depends on what the work involves, and items added later are priced as they are added.
Read this first
Why minimums, and not a price list.
Two clients can bring the same form and need very different work. One arrives with reconciled books and two years of returns; the other arrives with a shoebox, a rental that was never depreciated, and a notice. Charging both the same number would mean overcharging one of them.
So the figures below are starting points. They tell you what an engagement of that type costs at minimum, so you can decide whether to book the appointment.
From there, the fee follows the work. Tax preparation is the clearest example: clients routinely add a rental, a stock sale, a K-1, a credit, or a second state after the return is underway, and each of those carries its own price. Nothing is hidden: the additions are listed below, and you are told what a new item costs when it comes up rather than discovering it on the invoice. Controversy matters and complex planning are usually hourly at a stated rate.
Filing fees, recording fees, court costs, and third-party charges such as appraisals are separate and passed through at cost.
Tax preparation
Individual returns.
The base figure covers a federal return and one state return, including the items most households actually have. Anything beyond that list is priced as an addition.
| Federal and one state return Wages, interest, dividends, unemployment, retirement and disability income, Social Security, IRA and HSA items, student loan interest, dependents and the child tax credit | From $535 | |
| Item | Examples | Each |
|---|---|---|
| Deductions | Itemized deductions, charitable donations, unreimbursed employee expenses | $50 to $85 |
| Credits | Dependent care, education, energy, adoption, other-state tax, California real estate withholding | $25 to $150 |
| Additional income | Stock sales, cryptocurrency, property sales, rentals and depreciation, foreign income and asset reporting, K-1s | Varies by item |
| Gross receipts | Notes | From |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $25,000 | One activity | $450 |
| $25,000 to $75,000 | One activity | $550 |
| $75,000 and above | One activity | $750 |
| Depreciation schedules | Depending on asset count and history | $25 to $500 |
| Single-member LLC, California Form 568 | $500 |
| Return | Notes | Range |
|---|---|---|
| Partnership, S corporation, corporation Forms 1065, 1120-S, 1120 | Scope depends on books, partners, and states | $2,000 to $10,000 |
| Trust and estate income tax | Complexity of assets and distributions | $2,000 to $10,000 |
| Gift tax returns | Valuation and allocation questions increase scope | $750 to $10,000 |
Estate planning
Plans, trusts & documents.
Package minimums are below. What each package actually contains, document by document, is on the estate planning page, along with specialty trusts and amendments.
| Plan | Best suited to | From |
|---|---|---|
| Revocable living trust package, 11 documents, outright distributions | ||
| Single | Anyone owning real property, or wanting to avoid probate and keep terms private | $2,500 |
| Married | As above, prepared for both spouses | $3,000 |
| Continuing trustsHeld in trust after death, such as until a set age, for life, or for asset protection | Shares held in trust after death, such as until a set age, for life, or for asset protectionBilled above the package minimum | Higher rate |
| Will-based package, 6 documents | ||
| Single | Modest estates without real property | $1,000 |
| Married | As above, prepared for both spouses | $1,500 |
| Item | Notes | From |
|---|---|---|
| Additional transfer deed | Per property beyond the primary residence | $595 |
| Trust amendment | Single change set to an existing trust | $415 |
| Trust restatement | Full rewrite of an existing trust | $980 |
| Special needs trust | $1,200 when added to a full trust package | $2,500 |
| Other specialty trusts | Medi-Cal planning, IDGT, charitable remainder, irrevocable life insurance, gun, pet | $500 to $2,500 |
Probate & controversy
Two things this firm does not set.
Probate compensation is statutory. California Probate Code sections 10800 and 10810 base attorney compensation and executor commissions on the gross value of the estate, beginning at 4% of the first $100,000 and decreasing to 0.5% of the next $15 million. Extraordinary services may be compensated separately by court order.
Controversy work is scoped to the posture of the matter. A single notice response is not an examination, and an examination is not a docketed Tax Court case. These engagements are scoped after review, hourly or flat depending on the facts, with the applicable rate stated up front.
Figures on this page are minimum fees for the scope described, are subject to change, and are not a quote or an offer for any particular matter. Your engagement agreement controls.
Correspondence
Know where it starts before you book.
If your matter is not on this page, an appointment is the fastest way to have it scoped and priced.
1010 Hurley Way, Suite 195 · Sacramento, California 95825
(916) 668-5525 · info@guillemaudlaw.com