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FOR CONSULTANTS

His CPA Tax Services Missed 9 States. It Cost Him $187,000 in One Year.

He earned it in twelve states. His CPA filed in one.

Eighteen months after he signed $2.4 million in fractional executive engagements, I watched him open notices from nine different state tax agencies. The number at the bottom read $187,000. His CPA was not careless. He was a good accountant for a W-2 household, and this is what happened when that met a consultant's income.

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Real accountants Flat monthly pricing Every state filed for you

Phoenix · Updated September 24, 2026 · 6 min read

Consultant presenting at a whiteboard to a full table

One consultant. Real numbers.

$187,000

assessed by nine states in one year

“I made the money in twelve different states. My CPA filed in one. Now every engagement is logged before I get on the plane, and I finally know what I actually kept this year.”

A fractional CFO, shared with permission · Multi-state consultant, $2.4M in engagements

The Story

A $2.4 million book of engagements, one state return, nine angry states

He hired the CPA his family had used for two decades and assumed the hard part was over. The CPA filed one clean federal return and one resident state return, the same way he always had. Nobody filed the nonresident returns for the nine states where he spent on-site weeks and earned engagement fees. Eighteen months later the assessments arrived, with interest compounding since the original due dates.

The bill, as nine states added it up

Tax actually owed across nine states$94,000
Penalties and accrued interest$93,000
Nonresident returns his CPA filed1 of 10
Notices in the mailbox, 18 months later$187,000

The Problem

Every on-site week is a tax event. Most CPAs never learn that.

Spend a week embedded with a client in California and California wants a slice of that week's income, even if you live in Florida and never file there. If a consultant works entirely from a home office with no client visits, this question mostly stays dormant; the moment a single trip turns into a recurring on-site week, as his did across nine states, that state's withholding and filing threshold gets crossed whether or not a return ever follows it. Add success fees taxed on their own schedule and subcontractor costs nobody reconciles, and the system is opaque by design. Most new accountants will not fix this either, because filing the same once-a-year federal-and-resident-state return with a nicer logo is not the same job as tracking every client state.

Modern office
Four clients, nine states, fifty on-site days a year. Every one of them is a state that wants its share, whether or not anyone files.

What We Tried

A bigger firm, a bundled advisor, and his brother's spreadsheet

He tried the obvious fixes before anyone found the real problem: a bigger firm his client's CFO recommended, a wealth manager who bundled in tax prep, his older brother's spreadsheet. None of them addressed the one thing his work legally required: nonresident state returns in every state where he earned an engagement fee.

What each one actually did

Family CPAWealth-manager bundleAmadae
Files a clean federal return
Nonresident returns in every client state1 of 10
Success fees taxed under their own rules
Subcontractor and travel costs tracked in yearGuessed in April
Estimate schedule matched to the engagement calendar
Planning built for retainer income that ebbs and flows

Sound familiar? A 30-minute call tells you exactly where you stand.

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Free 30-minute review. No pitch deck.

The Discovery

Almost half the bill was the cost of not knowing

The turning point was a second opinion that looked at two years of returns and found the gap in about forty minutes. Nine states where he had worked, earned, and owed tax had zero filings on record. Not underpaid. Unfiled. The underlying tax was closer to $94,000; penalties and accrued interest made up the other $93,000, and that entire second half would have been erased by filing correctly and on time.

Same income, two ways to file

Filed once a year, nine states missed$187K
Filed on time in every state$94K

His numbers, nine nonresident states, two years

The FixAMADAE

Every engagement logged against every state, before the deadline

Amadae was built for exactly this income shape: large, fast, multi-jurisdictional, and lumpy. Every on-site week gets logged against that state's withholding and filing threshold as the year happens, and the nonresident returns get filed before they become a problem instead of after. Success fees are separated from retainer income and taxed under the correct rules. Subcontractor, travel, and software costs are categorized in real time, and books, payroll, and every return are covered by one flat monthly price.

Book Intro Call

Set up before his next engagement

  • Nine nonresident returns filed and cleared
  • Every on-site week logged against its state threshold
  • Success fees separated from retainers
  • Subcontractor and travel costs tracked live
  • Quarterly estimates matched to the engagement calendar

The Proof

Two years later: zero notices, and a real answer

The same consultant now has no outstanding state notices and a quarterly estimate schedule that matches his actual engagement calendar. For the first time he has a real answer when someone asks what he actually keeps. This July, instead of bracing for a surprise, he had already funded his retirement account for the year and knew exactly what his fall engagements would cost him at the January 15 deadline.

“I made the money in twelve different states. My CPA filed in one. Now every engagement is logged before I get on the plane, and I finally know what I actually kept this year.”

A

A fractional CFO, shared with permission

Multi-state consultant, $2.4M in engagements

Zero outstanding state notices two years later

Why NowAMADAE

The quiet weeks between engagements are the window. Renewal season closes it.

Every quarter that passes without a real system is a quarter where estimates, state exposure, and entity decisions pile up quietly, right up until renewal season starts and there is no time left to fix it. Before Q4 proposals take over your calendar, Amadae will review your current filings, your multi-state exposure, and your entity structure on a free intro call. No cost, no contract, and if you are already covered we will say so.

Check State Exposure

$93,000

of his bill was penalties and interest. The cost of not knowing, not the cost of earning.

His state notices, nine jurisdictions

One consultant. Real numbers.

$187,000

assessed by nine states in one year

$93,000

of it was penalties and interest

9

states with zero filings on record

40 min

for a second opinion to find the gap

One client, with permission. Your numbers will differ.

Accounting built for a multi-state practice

Books, payroll, and every state return from real accountants, for one flat monthly price starting at $249.

  • Every on-site week logged against its state filing threshold
  • Success fees and retainers taxed under the correct rules
  • Quarterly estimates matched to your actual engagement calendar
  • Federal, resident, and nonresident returns filed for you
Get My Review

No long-term contract. Cancel any time. The intro call is free.

Plans from

$249/mo

If you make $40K - $69K. Flat, no hourly bills.

  • Monthly profit and loss reports
  • Tax set-aside management
  • Expense categorization
  • Real-time financial dashboard
  • Business bank account connections
  • Individual tax return included*
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Flat monthly pricingReal accountantsTaxes filed for you

Straight answers

Questions creators ask us

My wealth manager already has someone for this.+

Usually that someone is a generalist bundled into a management package, filing one clean federal return and calling it done. Ask them how many nonresident state returns they filed for you last year. If the answer is one, that is the gap.

I do not want to switch mid-engagement and mess things up.+

You do not have to touch anything already filed. Specialized multi-state tracking layers on top of an existing setup, and the review starts with what is on record, not with tearing it up.

Can I deal with this after this engagement wraps instead?+

That is what most consultants say in July. The problem is that penalties and interest have been compounding since the original due dates, and the next estimated payment lands January 15. The review takes one call.

What does it cost?+

Plans start at $249 a month, flat, with books, payroll, and returns included. No hourly bills, and no surprise invoices when nine states send notices.

Sources

  1. IRS Self-Employed Individuals Tax Center · IRS
  2. IRS: Estimated Taxes · IRS
  3. IRS Schedule C (Form 1040), Profit or Loss From Business · IRS
  4. IRS: Deducting Business Expenses · IRS

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