Tax for eye care practices
A CPA for optometrists and ophthalmologists
An eye care practice is a professional service business with a retail business attached, and for ophthalmology a surgical business on top of that. Each part is taxed on its own terms.
Where this return differs
What is actually different about optometrists at tax time
Not a longer version of the same advice. These are the places this practice type reliably differs from the return next to it.
The optical dispensary is real inventory
Frames, lenses and contacts are goods held for sale, which means an inventory method, a cost of goods sold calculation, and rules about what has to be capitalized into inventory rather than deducted. A practice that expenses frames when purchased is reporting the wrong number.
Equipment elections are a choice, not a default
Edgers, OCTs, fundus cameras and lasers can be recovered several ways, and the best answer depends on the practice year rather than on the asset. The election is made on the return and is difficult to revisit later.
Surgical and ASC income are separate questions
For ophthalmology, a K-1 from an ambulatory surgery center interest is not practice income, and whether it is passive turns on your involvement. Global surgical periods that cross a year end and facility or co-management fees each have their own timing.
How it works
What working together looks like
A call first
Thirty minutes to hear what you have and whether this is a fit. If it is not, we will say so and point you somewhere useful.
A written scope and a fixed fee
You get both in writing before work starts, so the return you expected does not arrive with an hourly surprise attached.
Documents through a secure portal
Upload once, in one place, rather than emailing a K-1 with your Social Security number sitting in the attachment.
The questions, while they still matter
Anything that changes your number gets raised when it can still be acted on, not in a footnote after filing.
Then the next twelve months
Estimated payments, an entity change, a new state, a sale. Tax years are consecutive and treating them that way is most of the value.
What this firm does, and what it does not
PizzelloCPA, PLLC is a licensed CPA firm registered with the North Carolina State Board of Certified Public Accountant Examiners as firm no. 35339. It prepares returns and does tax planning. It does not perform attest services: no audit, no review, no compilation. If a lender or a landlord has asked you for an audited or reviewed financial statement, that is a different engagement at a different firm, and we will say so rather than stretch to fit it.
Books and the return are two different jobs. bookkeepz, LLC, an affiliated company, keeps monthly books for optometrists and other private practices, and its bookkeeping page for optometrists covers that side. bookkeepz is not a CPA firm and does not do tax work. Most clients who need both use both, under separate engagements.
Questions
What optometrists ask
How should optical inventory be handled on the return?
As inventory, with a method chosen deliberately and applied consistently, not as an expense at purchase. Which method suits a practice depends on how the dispensary is run, and it is one of the few choices here that is easier to set correctly than to change.I have an ownership interest in a surgery center. How is that reported?
Separately from the practice, on the K-1 the center issues, and its character depends on how involved you are in that entity rather than on your clinical role. Keeping it out of practice revenue is what makes the practice numbers usable.Should I take the full deduction on new equipment this year?
Not automatically. Accelerating a deduction into a year with low income wastes it, and the interaction with the QBI deduction can make the fastest write off the wrong one. It is a decision worth making before the return is prepared.Do you keep the books for the dispensary as well?
No. This firm prepares returns. bookkeepz, LLC, an affiliated company, does the monthly bookkeeping and inventory tracking and is not a CPA firm.Talk to a CPA who has seen this practice before
Thirty minutes, no charge. Bring last year’s return and the thing you were not sure about.