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Clarity Tax & CPAs
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Clarity Tax & CPAs handles tax preparation, bookkeeping, payroll, IRS tax relief and cross-border Canada and U.S. filings from its Laurel Street office every month of the year.
Tax and accounting services for individuals, families, small businesses and farms across Whatcom County, delivered from Laurel Street with a national bench of licensed CPAs and Enrolled Agents behind it.
Personal 1040s, small business returns on Schedule C, S-corporation and partnership filings and multi-state work. Every return is reviewed by a CPA before anyone signs it.
Tax preparation →Decades of work with dairy operators, berry farms and hay growers across Whatcom County, including depreciation and seasonality decisions.
Farm returns →Monthly bookkeeping, QuickBooks setup and cleanup of disorganized books. Lorrie and Tiffany handle the local work in-house, so your bookkeeper is your point of contact.
Business accounting →Processing, quarterly filings and compliance support for small employers across Bellingham and Whatcom County.
Payroll services →Ongoing advice through the year, sold on its own or packaged with your annual return. One-time consultation packages are also available.
Tax planning →Audits, examinations and appeals handled by Enrolled Agents who hold unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS. The Bellingham office stays your local representative.
IRS representation →Unfiled returns, tax debt, installment agreements and offers in compromise, worked through by licensed representatives rather than a call center.
Tax resolution →Tax help for Canadians living and working in the States, including TN, H-1B and L-1 visa holders, led by cross-border tax manager Kelly Sheng, CPA.
Cross-border tax →FinCEN Form 114, Form 8938, TFSA and RRSP treatment, foreign trusts and corporations, and Streamlined Filing for anyone who has fallen behind.
Foreign reporting →PCAOB-registered auditing for SEC-regulated companies, with peer-reviewed assurance work delivered remotely for other clients.
See all services →Trading, DeFi, NFTs, mining and staking, reconciled and reported on your tax return.
Crypto tax →Pick the problem that matches yours.
Personal 1040s, rentals, equity compensation, Schedule F farm returns, S-corporations, partnerships and multi-state filings. Individual returns are completed within two to three weeks of receiving all documentation.
Tax preparation →Monthly bookkeeping, payroll, QuickBooks setup and untangling records that have gotten away from you. Your bookkeeper is a person in Bellingham you can call, not a ticket queue.
Business accounting →Back taxes, audits, installment agreements and offers in compromise, handled by Enrolled Agents with unlimited rights to represent you before the IRS.
IRS tax relief →Looking for a CPA in Bellingham, WA you can sit down with? Here are the full address, hours, phone, map and route links.
Need a CPA or tax company in Bellingham that operates throughout the year? We keep the office open after April 15th for the IRS letter in July, the capital investment decision, or estimated payments that no longer match your income.
Call us or visit the office and you get an answer within the day.
Outside IRS resolution and audits, a flat fee agreed before we start, and a timeline you know up front.
We ask about your circumstances, the information you already have and what you are trying to achieve. There is no obligation.
Book a consultation →Priced on the amount of work required rather than a time-based estimate. We bill hourly only for IRS resolution and audits, where the scope depends on how the IRS responds.
Get a quote →You get a single point of contact at the Bellingham office plus a CPA who reviews your case. Individual returns are completed within two to three weeks of full documentation. Corporate and complex filings take longer and we tell you how long at the start.
Client portal →If you are searching for tax debt help in Bellingham, start with which credential you need.
If you are searching for a tax attorney in Bellingham, WA, you may not need one. An Enrolled Agent holds a federal license issued by the IRS and has unlimited rights to represent taxpayers in audits, examinations, collections and appeals. We have Enrolled Agents in house alongside licensed CPAs.
You need a tax attorney when there is a criminal exposure, when you need attorney-client privilege over what you disclose, or when the matter is heading for Tax Court litigation. In those cases we will say so and help you find one.
The Laurel Street office is your local representative throughout, backed by a nationwide network of licensed CPAs and Enrolled Agents who take on audits and the unusual cases.
Our Whatcom County clients include farmers in Lynden and the Nooksack Valley, construction businesses in Bellingham and Ferndale, downtown small businesses, and Canadians working in tech and healthcare south of the border.
Schedule F, the IRS form farmers use to report farm income and expenses, has its own reporting requirements, depreciation rules and seasonality. We have decades of experience working with dairy operators, berry farms, hay farmers and many other local agricultural businesses throughout the county and beyond.
What we provide our farming clients:
Construction accounting covers job costing, subcontractor 1099s, equipment and vehicle expenses, and multi-jurisdiction sales tax compliance. We handle each of these and review year-end deductions, such as the timing of equipment depreciation.
If your income is mainly W-2 wages, you may not need a CPA. If you have rental properties, equity compensation, or retirement and business activities to plan around, you likely do. We prepare hundreds of individual returns for Bellingham clients and tell you up front whether you need CPA-level work.
Bellingham is about 25 minutes from the Canadian border, and helping Canadians and dual residents is one of our specialties. We work through the Substantial Presence Test, FBAR and Form 8938 reporting, TFSA and RRSP reporting, and the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures for clients who have fallen behind. Our cross-border tax manager, Kelly Sheng, CPA, leads our cross-border tax services.
Families with income, accounts or property on both sides of the line often end up paying two firms, one in each country.
Clients here include Canadians working in tech and healthcare south of the line on TN, H-1B and L-1 visas, dual citizens who have never filed in the country they were born in, farm families with land on both sides, and business owners running operations in each. You become a U.S. resident for tax purposes once you meet the Substantial Presence Test, which counts your days in the U.S. over the current year and the two before it. From then on, the U.S. taxes your worldwide income, and you may also have to file information returns on foreign accounts and assets. The IRS can charge penalties for missing those returns even when you owe no tax. If you are behind and the failure was non-willful, meaning you did not deliberately avoid filing, you can catch up through the Streamlined Filing Compliance Procedures, provided the IRS has not already opened an examination of your returns.
Washington has no personal income tax. It does have a Business & Occupation tax and a capital gains tax, and employers still withhold Paid Family and Medical Leave and WA Cares premiums from your paycheck.
We prepare Washington State B&O returns for small businesses and for individuals running their own companies. Washington levies it on gross receipts, so you owe it whether or not you made a profit, and the Department of Revenue sets a different rate for each classification.
Talk to us →A state tax on certain long-term capital gains above an annual threshold. It can apply to gains on equity compensation shares and other large one-off sales. We model it with you before you sell.
Read the guide →We break down what comes out of a Washington paycheck and where each deduction goes.
Read the guide →
Call our Bellingham branch and talk to someone here. This team handles your work day to day, backed by a nationwide network of licensed CPAs and Enrolled Agents for audits and other complex situations.
Cross-border tax specialist with 20 years helping individuals, families and business owners with the U.S. and Canadian tax systems, including residency planning, dual filing, expatriation, foreign reporting and treaty-based strategies to reduce double taxation.
Seasoned bookkeeper with more than 30 years supporting small businesses with accurate records, payroll and compliance.
Focused on organized records, reconciliations and day-to-day accounting support for client businesses.
Supports small business clients with bookkeeping across construction, retail, property management and nonprofits, using QuickBooks and Xero.
Experienced in individual, entity and multi-state tax work, including complex consolidated filings.
More than 30 years helping high-net-worth individuals and families minimize taxes through personalized planning.
Service is good, answers are proper and with our goals in mind.
They keep everything organized and make bookkeeping stress free.
Quick to respond, knowledgeable, friendly and extremely helpful.
We will be utilizing them for as long as they'll have us.
Many years ago I tried TurboTax, but it was far above my head.
They have helped me even after I moved.
Through all the transitions and mergers, it was relatively seamless.
Doing our taxes for years. We are totally satisfied.
Clients range from the dairy and berry farmers of Lynden and Nooksack to the tradespeople and merchants of Ferndale and Birch Bay, to the border community of Blaine and residents of Bellingham itself. We work throughout Whatcom County, as well as in Sedro-Woolley, Burlington, Anacortes and the San Juan Islands including Friday Harbor. For a full overview, explore our Bellingham and Whatcom County CPA hub.
Call the office, open the Google profile, or send an inquiry. Tell us what you are dealing with and we will come back with a flat fee. Or stop by at 1326 E Laurel Street, Bellingham, WA 98225, Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.
Reviewed by Kelly Sheng, CPA at Clarity Tax & CPAs · WA CPA license #31048933 · Last reviewed May 2026.
