Accounting & Tax Services in Westport, CT
Bookkeeping, payroll, tax and advisory work for Westport businesses and the people who run them, from an accounting office in Trumbull. Westport is southwest of us, and both towns are in Fairfield County.
- Trumbull, CT
- Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm
- Books, payroll and tax under one roof
- Secure client portal
Who handles business tax filing for small businesses in Westport, CT?
Total BizSolutions LLC, an accounting firm in Trumbull, Connecticut, prepares and files business and personal tax returns for Westport consultants, single-member LLCs and small firms, and sets their quarterly estimates. Where the same firm also keeps the books and runs payroll, the returns are prepared from records it already knows. Westport and Trumbull are both in Fairfield County. The firm serves small businesses in Connecticut and throughout the United States. Monthly work is priced starting at $500/month. The owner, Dave Salerno, has more than 30 years of experience. Call (267) 710-6742, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm.
- Business and personal returns are prepared together, from the same books, so they agree with each other.
- Tax planning runs through the year, so the estimates can be revisited while there is still time to change them.
- Monthly bookkeeping and payroll start at $500/month, and for a one-off tax return you ask for a quote.
- Documents and paperwork move through a secure client portal.
- Tax preparation and planning
- What monthly work costs with us
- How to choose a small business accountant in Fairfield County
- One firm for bookkeeping and taxes
Page reviewed October 20, 2026.
An accounting firm for Westport
Westport sits in the Western Connecticut Planning Region, on the Saugatuck River where it meets the Sound, a run southwest from Trumbull. Main Street and the Saugatuck side carry the retail and restaurant trade, Compo and the shoreline set the character of the town, and the rail line at Saugatuck has long shaped who lives and works here.
The accounting profile is distinctive. Westport holds an unusually high concentration of consultants, independent professionals, creatives and single-member LLCs, many of them people who left a large firm in the city and now bill under their own name. Their income is often high, frequently uneven, and almost always reported across both a business and a personal return that have to agree with each other.
That is planning work more than processing work, and it goes better when it starts in the summer.
Who keeps the books for Westport consultants and small firms?
Total BizSolutions offers monthly bookkeeping to Westport consultants, single-member LLCs and small firms, with monthly work starting at $500/month. An independent professional usually has a simple business and a complicated year: few transactions, large ones, arriving unevenly. The job is to record each of those transactions with enough context to stand up on its own twelve months later.
More on BookkeepingWho sets up QuickBooks for a Westport professional?
Total BizSolutions offers QuickBooks Online setup and monthly reconciliation to Westport businesses. Plenty of small businesses run a QuickBooks file that only gets opened in March. We set it up so the bank feed does most of the work, reconcile it monthly whether or not anything interesting happened, and keep the file current so the figures are there when you need them.
More on QuickBooksWho runs payroll for a small Westport business?
Total BizSolutions offers payroll to small Westport employers, including the 1099s at year end. A payroll of an owner and one or two staff is small, but it still has to be run on time. Because the same firm keeps the books, the payroll records and the accounts are reconciled together.
More on PayrollWho does business tax filing in Westport, CT?
Total BizSolutions offers business tax preparation and filing to Westport consultants, single-member LLCs and small firms, together with the owner's personal return. Both returns are prepared from the same books, so they agree with each other. The work also covers quarterly estimates set against an uneven income year, and the planning conversation held while there is still time to act on it. An accurate return filed in April is a record of decisions that were already made.
More on Tax Preparation and FilingWhat should a Westport business owner do with an IRS or Connecticut tax notice?
Read it, keep it, and if it asks for a response, act by the due date printed on it. Total BizSolutions reads the letter with you, explains in plain words what it is asking for, and helps you prepare the reply to the IRS or the Connecticut Department of Revenue Services. Where the letter concerns estimated tax, we also reset the estimates against your current figures.
More on Tax Resolution and IRS HelpCan a Westport consultant get CFO-level advice without hiring a CFO?
Yes. Total BizSolutions provides outsourced CFO services for small businesses, built on the monthly books it already keeps. Independent professionals face decisions that look personal and behave like business decisions: taking on a first employee, buying rather than leasing, or putting the practice into a different entity. We model each one against your actual figures and give you a straight view of what it does to cash and to the return.
More on CFO and AdvisoryWho can set up an LLC for a Westport consultant going independent?
Total BizSolutions sets up new LLCs and corporations, handles the annual business filings that follow, and sets up the books from the start. Say you are going independent with a client list already behind you. We get the entity formed and registered, the employer numbers issued where they are needed, and the books opened on a structure that will still make sense when the second and third client arrive.
More on New Business FormationWhich business tax return does a Westport LLC or S corporation file?
It depends on how the business is classified for federal tax, not on its name. By IRS default, a single-member LLC owned by one person is a disregarded entity: its activity generally goes on the owner's own Form 1040, on Schedule C, E or F, and there is no separate business income tax return. An LLC with two or more members is classified as a partnership unless it elects otherwise, and files a partnership return on Form 1065. An LLC can file Form 8832 to be treated as a corporation. A corporation that meets the IRS eligibility rules can elect S corporation status on Form 2553, signed by all its shareholders; an S corporation files Form 1120-S and passes its income through to the shareholders' personal returns.
So for a consultant billing through a single-member LLC, the business result and the personal return are one job. Which classification suits your figures is a question for a conversation with whoever prepares your returns, not a rule of thumb.
The state has its own filing too. A business registered in Connecticut may also have an annual report to file with the state. The state sends a reminder about a month before it is due, by email if it has an address on file and otherwise by postcard, and the due date can be looked up by logging into a CT.gov account and finding the business on the business filing page.
Do Westport business owners have to pay estimated tax?
Often, yes. The IRS says individuals, including sole proprietors, partners and S corporation shareholders, generally have to make estimated tax payments if they expect to owe $1,000 or more when the return is filed, and corporations generally have to if they expect to owe $500 or more. The year is divided into four payment periods, each with its own due date, and a payment that falls short can bring a penalty even if a refund is due when the return is filed.
A consultant's year rarely arrives in equal quarters. One large engagement can move a whole tax year, and the quarterly estimates set the previous January were built on a picture that no longer holds. Revisiting them partway through the year leaves time to change the payments still to come. For income received unevenly, the IRS also says you may be able to avoid or lower the penalty by annualizing your income and making unequal payments, which is a calculation to make with whoever prepares your return. Tax planning through the year is part of our work for that reason.
Is Total BizSolutions a good fit for your Westport business?
Best for
- Consultants and single-member LLCs who want the business return, the personal return and the estimates handled in one place
- Anyone whose income is uneven and who wants the estimates reviewed during the year, not at filing
- Owners on an S corporation who need the payroll and the return to agree
- Clients happy to send statements and paperwork through a secure client portal
A different kind of firm fits better if
- You need an audit, review or compilation of your financial statements. Connecticut generally requires a public accounting firm permit for that work, so hire a firm that holds one and check it on the state's eLicense lookup.
- You need full representation before the IRS in an audit, a collection case or an appeal. The IRS gives unlimited representation rights to enrolled agents, CPAs and attorneys, so bring in someone who holds one of those.
- Your current preparer files on time, explains the return and answers the phone. A setup that works is worth keeping.
Total BizSolutions keeps books, runs payroll and prepares returns.
What should a Westport business have ready for its tax return?
Whoever prepares the return, these five things make it quicker and more accurate.
- Books reconciled through December. Every bank and card account matched to its statements, so the return starts from figures that hold.
- Last year's returns. The business return and the personal return, which show how the business is classified and what carries forward.
- A list of estimated payments. The date and amount of each federal and Connecticut payment made for the year.
- Forms you received. Every 1099 and Schedule K-1 sent to you or the business.
- Any letters from the IRS or the state. Every notice still open, with its due date, so nothing runs out while the return is prepared.
Sources (fetched October 20, 2026)
- IRS: Limited liability company (LLC)
- IRS: Single member limited liability companies
- CT Business Services: Annual report due date
- IRS: S corporations
- IRS: Estimated taxes
- Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection: Certified Public Accountancy Firm Permits
- IRS: Understanding your IRS notice or letter
- IRS: Understanding tax return preparer credentials and qualifications
- Connecticut eLicense: License Lookup
Serving Westport
You run your business. We will handle the rest.
- Books reconciled every month, with reports you can read
- Business and personal returns prepared together, and help answering IRS letters
- Payroll processed and filed on schedule
- Documents and paperwork for Westport businesses move through a secure client portal
Westport accounting questions
Can one firm do both the business and personal return for a Westport LLC owner?
Yes. Total BizSolutions, at 77 Canoe Brook Rd in Trumbull, prepares both from the same books, along with the quarterly estimates.
How much does business tax preparation cost in Westport?
A tax return on its own is one-off work, so ask for a quote. Monthly bookkeeping and payroll are a separate engagement, priced starting at $500/month.
I bill through a single-member LLC. What do I actually need?
Usually bookkeeping kept current, an estimate schedule that reflects the real year, and a return that agrees with it. Whether the entity should be taxed differently is a separate question, and it depends on your figures rather than on a rule of thumb.
Can you handle a year where most of the income arrived in one quarter?
Yes, and that is the year worth planning. The sooner the estimates are revised, the more can be done about the outcome. Left until filing, the arithmetic is already fixed.
Do you work with clients who are not in Connecticut?
Yes. The office is in Trumbull and the work runs through a secure portal, so plenty of it is done for clients well outside the state.
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