Legal
Service Terms
1. Definitions
Lobo, we and us mean Lobo Tax & Advisory LLC (formerly Fiscal Forte LLC). Engagement means the services in your engagement letter and its Schedule A. Schedule A is the service-specific scope, fee, payment schedule and work-performed measure attached to your letter. Scope assumptions are the facts listed in Schedule A on which the fee is based. Scope Review is our limited check that your documents match those assumptions; it does not include preparing filings or giving advice. Work Start is when we first begin substantive work, such as preparing your return, analysis, books or filings, after Scope Review and after any amount due is paid. Work Start is an internal scheduling record: we do not send a notice when it happens, and no refund right depends on it. Change order is a written amendment, signed by you, that adds items to an engagement and states their fees. Client portal is our secure online portal.
2. Documents, delivery and order of precedence
Your engagement letter, its Schedule A and these Service Terms form one agreement. We provide these Service Terms, our Privacy Notice and our notice “Your Tax Return Information” with your engagement letter, before you sign, and keep a copy of what you signed, with the Service Terms version it names, in your client file. If the documents conflict, a signed change order controls for the items it covers, then Schedule A, then the engagement letter, then these Service Terms. The version of these Service Terms that applies to an engagement is the one named in its signed letter; a later version applies only if you agree to it in writing.
3. Scope Review and change orders
After you sign, pay any amount due and provide the requested information, we complete Scope Review and confirm your scope in writing. We aim to do so within 3 business days of receiving complete information; this is a target, not a deadline. If we find items outside the scope assumptions, we send a change order that lists each item, its fee, our reason, and its category: required for accuracy — it must be part of the work we are doing for you; a separate filing obligation — a filing the law requires of you that we can prepare, or that you can have prepared elsewhere; or optional — not needed for accuracy or by law. We explain our classification on request.
If you decline an item required for accuracy, we cannot complete the engagement and it ends under section 9, with section 5 governing any refund. If you decline a separate filing obligation, we complete the rest of the engagement, and you confirm that we have told you of the obligation and its possible consequences and that you will meet it yourself or through another preparer. Declining an optional item has no effect on the engagement. We never perform or charge for added work unless you sign the change order. While a decision is pending, affected work pauses; if we have not heard from you within 30 days we will contact you, and nothing is closed automatically. The same process applies if new information after Work Start adds items.
4. Fees, payment and credits
Fees, payment schedules and any credits are stated in Schedule A. Agreed fees may differ from published starting prices because they reflect the scope agreed with you. Payments are made through the client portal using a payment method offered there at the time; we do not promise that any particular payment method will be available. Government fees, publication costs, registered-agent fees, software subscriptions and other third-party charges are separate unless Schedule A says otherwise. Tax Strategy Session credit: if you sign an engagement for a qualifying one-time planning or setup service — Tax Projection & Estimated Tax Plan, Reasonable Compensation Analysis, S-Corp Election Analysis, S-Corp Strategy Package, S-Corp Setup or LLC + S-Corp Setup — within 60 days after your session is held, the session fee is credited toward it. It does not apply to tax returns or monthly services and has no cash value. S-Corp Strategy Package credit: $400, applied only toward S-Corp Setup for an existing entity (not LLC + S-Corp Setup), if that letter is signed within 60 days after we deliver the Package report. Credits do not combine — only the single largest applies — and a credit never exceeds the fee it is applied to.
5. Cancellation and refunds
One-time services. (a) Your fee is earned in the steps listed in Schedule A, each tied to something we send you or a session that is held. Until the first step, you may cancel for a full refund of the professional fees you paid. (b) If the engagement ends after that, we keep only the part of the fee earned under Schedule A, refund the rest, and send you the calculation in writing. (c) If we end the engagement other than for a reason in section 9, or cannot complete it for reasons within our control, we refund the fees for all services not completed. Recurring services: see section 6.
All services. Government fees and third-party charges already paid on your behalf are not refundable by us. We correct errors in our own work at no added professional fee; this does not cover changes caused by incomplete, inaccurate or late information, later changes in your circumstances, or changes in the law. Disagreeing with the outcome of accurate work, including tax due, is not by itself grounds for a refund. We initiate refunds within 10 business days, to the original payment method where possible, without deducting payment-processing fees; your bank or card issuer sets when the money arrives. No refund depends on an internal event such as Work Start; on request, we tell you whether and when Work Start occurred.
6. Recurring services
Monthly services continue month to month until cancelled; there is no minimum term. Your first monthly payment is due when you sign, and you authorize automatic payment at the same time. Later months are charged automatically in advance on the same date each month as your signing date. Work for each month begins after that month’s payment is received. Our billing system schedules automatic payments in a long fixed series; if your service continues past the end of a series, we tell you and ask you to confirm before a new series begins.
You may cancel at any time by portal message or email, with no call required; we stop future charges and confirm in writing. Cancellation takes effect at the end of the paid month. Partial months are not refunded, except that in your first month you receive a full refund if you cancel before we send your first deliverable (named in your letter), and we refund any paid month we end or cannot provide. If we have not received your onboarding information 45 days after you sign, we may close the engagement and refund your first payment in full.
We never change your level, scope or monthly fee automatically. We describe any proposed change in writing at least 5 business days and no more than 30 days before it would take effect, and it applies only if you agree in writing. After you enroll we send a written acknowledgment of these terms and how to cancel, and once a year a reminder. If a payment fails, we tell you; after 7 days unpaid, work pauses; after 21 days we send a final written notice; after 30 days the engagement ends. Paying the past-due month restores service with no fee. We charge no late, reinstatement or cancellation fees.
7. Your information, deadlines and extensions
You are responsible for the accuracy and completeness of the information you provide, and for decisions you make. We rely on it in good faith, but we ask questions when information appears incomplete, inconsistent or incorrect. Elections, filings and registrations have deadlines; we will tell you of deadlines we identify, but we can meet them only if we receive what we need in time. Stated delivery times are good-faith targets that start when we have complete information. Government processing times and acceptance decisions are outside our control. If we learn of an error or omission in a return or filing — including one prepared by someone else — we will tell you and explain its consequences; correcting it is a separate engagement; we do not audit or review prior years unless engaged to. We will tell you of any penalty we believe is reasonably likely to apply to a position, and how disclosure could avoid it.
Extensions. Where a return engagement includes an extension, we file it only with your written authorization: your approval by portal reply or e-signature, or a standing authorization you checked in Schedule A. If your information is not complete 30 days before a filing deadline, we send you a reminder and our recommendation, and a final reminder about 5 business days before the deadline. If you do not authorize an extension, we do not file one, and filing on time remains your responsibility. Any signer of a joint engagement may authorize it. Paying by direct debit with an extension needs any separate authorization the IRS or state requires. An extension extends the time to file, not the time to pay. Filing an extension is not Work Start and does not affect your refund rights.
8. Confidentiality, security and tax return information
We keep your information confidential and protect it with administrative, technical and physical safeguards, including multi-factor authentication for the client portal. Please send documents and personal identifiers only through the portal.
What federal law requires. Internal Revenue Code section 7216 and its regulations limit how a tax return preparer uses and discloses tax return information. A use or disclosure the regulations do not specifically permit needs your prior signed consent on a form that meets federal requirements. That includes any disclosure to a tax return preparer or service provider located outside the United States; even with consent, your Social Security number may then be shared only where the regulations allow. Security safeguards do not replace a consent the law requires.
What the regulations permit without consent. Among others: using your information to provide the services you engaged us for; filing with and responding to tax agencies; disclosing it to another preparer or service provider located in the United States that supports our tax work without making substantive tax determinations; giving our payment processor what it needs to process your payment; keeping copies of your returns and records; and disclosures required by law or court order. Using one taxpayer’s information to prepare a related taxpayer’s return is addressed below.
Related returns. The regulations let us use information from one taxpayer’s return to prepare the return of a related taxpayer — for example, spouses, or an S corporation and its shareholder — only if the first taxpayer’s interests are not adverse to the second’s and the first taxpayer has not told us not to. You may prohibit this use at any time by telling us. If interests may conflict, we will discuss separate engagements.
Lobo’s stricter policies (voluntary). We do not sell your information. We do not use your tax return information to offer you other services unless you raise the subject with us first or sign a consent for it. We do not enter client information into general-purpose AI tools. Signing an engagement letter is never a section 7216 consent, consent is never a condition of our services, and you may decline or revoke any consent.
9. Ending the engagement
You may end the engagement at any time by notice through the client portal or by email. We may end or decline it by written notice only if: you decline an item required for accuracy; your situation includes matters outside the services we offer; we do not receive information we need; you ask us to take a position we believe lacks a reasonable basis; fees are not paid when due; a conflict of interest arises; or continuing would be inconsistent with our professional obligations. When an engagement ends, we tell you in writing of any filing obligation or deadline we know of that you will need to address, and section 5 or 6 governs refunds.
10. Records and retention
We return your records promptly on request, whether or not any fee is outstanding. We keep copies of returns we prepare, e-file authorizations, due-diligence records, our work papers and your signed engagement documents for at least three years, as federal rules require, and longer where our written record-retention schedule says so; we then dispose of them securely.
11. Electronic records and signatures
You agree that we may provide engagement letters, notices, change orders, invoices, completed returns and other records electronically, and that electronic signatures have the same effect as handwritten ones. This consent covers all records for your engagements with us until you withdraw it. Documents containing personal or tax information are delivered only through the client portal; notices and reminders may be sent by email. To access records you need an internet connection, a current web browser, an email account and software that opens PDF files; by signing in the portal you confirm you can open and save records in this form. You may ask for a paper copy of any record at no charge, update your email address, or withdraw this consent at any time by portal message, email or letter. Withdrawal does not affect records already delivered or signed; afterwards we deliver records on paper at no charge, which may take longer. If our access requirements change in a way that could stop you opening or keeping records, we will tell you, and you may withdraw without charge.
12. Nature of our services
Sebastian Orlando is an Enrolled Agent admitted to practice before the IRS, not a CPA or attorney; Lobo does not provide legal, investment or attest services. Where Lobo files a state entity-formation form, it does so as an administrative filing service using your written choices. Our work reflects the law at the time it is performed; we do not update completed work for later changes in the law unless you engage us to. No particular outcome is guaranteed, and our fees never depend on the outcome of any IRS or state review.
13. Liability
A limit on our liability applies only if your engagement letter states one. Where it does, to the extent the law allows, our total liability for any claim arising from that engagement is limited to the fees you paid for it. That limit does not apply to losses caused by our gross negligence, willful misconduct or fraud, or to any right that cannot be limited by law. We are not responsible for penalties or interest that result from information you gave us that was incomplete, inaccurate or late, or from decisions you made against our written advice.
14. Governing law and general
These terms and your engagement are governed by the laws of the State of New York, without regard to its conflict-of-law rules. If any provision is unenforceable, the rest remains in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver. Changes to an engagement must be agreed in writing, including by electronic signature in the client portal.
15. More than one client
When more than one client signs an engagement letter — for example, spouses filing jointly, or a business and its owner — we act for each of you. That is not in itself a conflict of interest. We use and share each client’s information only as the engagement requires, and do not share one client’s separate matters with another without that client’s permission. Under the related-taxpayer rule in the section 7216 regulations we may use one related taxpayer’s return information for the other’s return unless your interests are adverse or one of you tells us not to. If a conflict of interest arises, we will tell you and continue only if we reasonably believe we can serve each of you competently and each affected client gives informed consent confirmed in writing, which we keep for at least 36 months after the engagement ends; otherwise we will end the work for one or all of you.
Contact
Questions about these terms can be sent to services@lobotax.com.