What it is. Tax preparation, tax planning, accounting, and representation before the IRS and New York State, all handled by a New York-licensed CPA rather than an unlicensed preparer.
Who it is for. Rochester businesses and owners whose taxes carry real decisions, or who are facing an IRS or New York State notice, audit, or residency question and need someone licensed to represent them.
What we do not do. Audits, reviews, and compilations. Those reports require a NYSED-registered public accounting firm, which Corviniti is not, and we say so up front rather than blurring the line.
In New York, CPA is a specific credential with legal meaning. It is a license granted to individuals by the New York State Education Department's Office of the Professions, carrying education, examination, experience, and continuing-education requirements, and unlimited rights to represent taxpayers before the IRS. When you search for a CPA in Rochester, that license, and the judgment and accountability behind it, is what you are actually buying.
Our structure, stated plainly: Corviniti is an accounting and tax company led by Ro Sokhi, a New York-licensed CPA with Big Four experience. The company is a business corporation, not a public accounting firm registered with NYSED, which means we do not perform audits, reviews, or compilations of financial statements. Everything else a small business typically wants from a CPA, tax preparation and planning, representation before the tax agencies, and accounting done to a professional standard, is exactly the work we do.
We serve Rochester and Monroe County businesses and their owners. Where a licensed CPA earns the fee over a seasonal storefront or software is below, along with a straight answer on what to do when you genuinely need an assurance report.
This page sits under Corviniti Accounting in New York City, our New York headquarters. That page covers the full New York City and New York State picture, and links to the rest of our local coverage.
Credentials
Tax credentials compared: who can do what
CPA, enrolled agent, attorney, and unlicensed preparer, and what each can actually do for you, including the boundary around audits and reviews.
Tax credentials compared. Illustrative, not legal advice.
If a notice arrives
A tax notice arrived: what happens next
An IRS or New York notice has a process. Read it, calendar it, pull the records, and respond on the record through your representative.
Handling a tax notice, step by step. Illustrative.
Sales tax audit
The New York sales tax audit, and what the state asks for
New York runs sales tax audits aggressively. What an auditor requests, and the three-way tie-out the whole audit depends on.
The New York sales tax audit tie-out. Illustrative, not tax advice.
This is for you if
You received an IRS or New York State notice or audit letter and do not want to face it alone.
Your return has outgrown a seasonal storefront: K-1s, multi-state income, or owner compensation questions.
You want the person who signs your return to be licensed and accountable for it.
You want a straight answer on whether you actually need audited or reviewed statements before paying for them.
What you get
Business and personal tax Returns prepared and signed by a licensed CPA, with the New York elections that lower them.
IRS and New York representation Notices and examinations answered by a licensed CPA with full representation rights.
Year-round planning Liability projected and decisions timed while the year is still open.
Straight answers on assurance What level your bank actually requires, and books that make any required report cheap to obtain from a registered firm.
How We Help
What you get
The work a licensed CPA does for a Rochester business, with the boundaries stated plainly.
Business and personal taxReturns prepared and signed by a licensed CPA, with the New York elections that lower them.
IRS and New York representationNotices and examinations answered by a licensed CPA with full representation rights.
Year-round planningLiability projected and decisions timed while the year is still open.
Straight answers on assuranceWhat level your bank actually requires, and books that make any required report cheap to obtain from a registered firm.
When companies bring us in
You received an IRS or New York State notice or audit letter and do not want to face it alone.
Your return has outgrown a seasonal storefront: K-1s, multi-state income, or owner compensation questions.
You want the person who signs your return to be licensed and accountable for it.
You want a straight answer on whether you actually need audited or reviewed statements before paying for them.
The Detail
The gaps, and how we close each one
Service 01
What the CPA license means, and what it does not
Anyone can call themselves an accountant, a tax professional, or a bookkeeper. In New York, what is protected is the CPA credential itself, and knowing exactly what it covers tells you when it matters.
How we handle it
A CPA is licensed and regulated by the New York State Education Department, Office of the Professions, with education, examination, experience, and continuing-education requirements behind the title. Two practical consequences: a CPA carries unlimited representation rights before the IRS, full authority to represent you in audits, collections, and appeals, including for returns they did not prepare, and a CPA is professionally accountable for the positions taken on your return. One boundary, stated plainly: audit, review, and compilation reports can only be issued through a public accounting firm registered with NYSED. Corviniti is not a registered firm, so we do not offer those reports, and a provider who is vague about this distinction is telling you something. Any New York CPA license, and any registered firm, can be checked in the NYSED Office of the Professions online verification search, and we encourage exactly that.
What you get: Licensed, accountable tax and accounting, with the boundaries stated plainly.
Service 02
IRS and New York State representation
An IRS or New York notice is not a document to handle alone. The wrong response, or a missed deadline, turns a routine inquiry into an assessment. This is exactly where representation rights matter.
How we handle it
As a licensed CPA, Ro represents Rochester businesses and owners before the IRS and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance: responding to notices, handling examinations, and dealing with the New York issues that generate the most correspondence, sales tax audits and residency questions chief among them. We read the notice, determine what is actually being asked, respond on the record, and deal with the agency directly so you are not improvising against an examiner. Rochester's own IRS Taxpayer Assistance Center at 255 East Avenue works by appointment only, so most matters resolve on paper through a representative anyway, and that is the path we run. Because we also keep the books and file the returns, the support behind any position is already organized rather than reconstructed under deadline.
What you get: A licensed CPA representing you before the IRS and New York State, on the record.
Facing a notice, an audit, or a tax decision with real money in it? Talk to a licensed CPA before you respond or commit.
Tax preparation and tax planning are stronger when the person doing them is licensed, current on the rules, and accountable for the positions taken. For Rochester owners, the business and personal returns are one connected problem.
How we handle it
We prepare and plan both sides: the business returns, the New York elections that lower them (the CT-6 S election and the PTET election), and the owners' personal returns, all from reconciled books. Planning happens across the year, so the elections and payments that only work if decided in advance actually get decided in advance. Our business tax page covers the entity returns in depth and our personal tax page the individual side; here they are handled together, by the same licensed CPA.
What you get: Business and personal returns prepared by a licensed CPA, with the New York elections.
Service 04
Where a CPA matters most for Rochester businesses
Some situations in this market specifically call for a licensed CPA rather than a seasonal storefront, because of who is on the other side of the table.
How we handle it
The clearest cases we see: New York sales tax audits, which the state runs aggressively and which turn on records and representation; residency and part-year questions for owners and professionals moving into or out of New York, one of the state's most-audited issues; medical, dental, and professional practices with partnership buy-ins and owner compensation that need defensible treatment; and manufacturers and contractors in the region's optics, machining, and building trades, whose inventory, job costing, and multi-state footprints create exactly the tax complexity that software and storefronts miss. In each, the value is a licensed professional who is accountable for the answer and can stand between you and the agency.
What you get: A licensed CPA on your side of the table for the situations where credentials count.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a CPA and a tax preparer?
A CPA holds a state license with education, examination, experience, and continuing-education requirements, is professionally accountable for the work, and has unlimited rights to represent you before the IRS. An unenrolled preparer can type a return; they cannot fully stand between you and the agency when questions come. For a simple return the difference may not matter. When there are real decisions or real notices, it does.
The IRS (or New York State) sent us a notice. Can you handle it?
Yes. As a licensed CPA, Ro represents taxpayers before both the IRS and the New York State Department of Taxation and Finance: reading the notice, responding on the record, and dealing with the examiner directly. New York sales tax audits and residency questions are the most common, and the preparation for them starts with the clean records we keep.
Do you work with contractors and the trades?
Yes, as a licensed CPA. Past the return, that means representation if New York examines your sales tax, which for the trades usually depends on capital-improvement certificates (Form ST-124) and worker classification, employee versus 1099. We plan the entity and elections during the year and deal with the agency directly if a notice comes.
Do you work with medical and dental practices?
Yes, as a licensed CPA. We plan the entity, compensation, and retirement structure that lowers the tax on a high-income practice, sign the returns, and represent the practice if the IRS or New York questions owner compensation or the filing.
Do you work with restaurants and bars?
Yes, as a licensed CPA. Restaurants draw New York sales tax examinations more than most businesses, and the exam depends on tying point of sale records to the returns and the deposits. We keep the records that answer it, represent you if the state opens one, and claim the FICA tip credit on the return.
Do you work with e-commerce and retail sellers?
Yes, as a licensed CPA. The exposure for online sellers is multistate sales tax nexus and the marketplace facilitator rules, which generate most of the notices. We plan the nexus footprint, file the returns correctly, and represent you on state notices.
Do you work with law firms and professional services?
Yes, as a licensed CPA. That covers the trust-accounting discipline bar regulators expect, the PTET planning that is often a partner group's biggest lever, and representation before the IRS or New York if a return is questioned.
Do you work with real estate investors?
Yes, as a licensed CPA. We plan depreciation, cost segregation, passive-loss and real estate professional positions, and 1031 exchanges, and we defend those positions if the IRS examines them, since the aggressive ones draw scrutiny.
Is Corviniti a CPA firm?
No. Corviniti is an accounting and tax company led by a New York-licensed CPA, not a public accounting firm registered with the New York State Education Department. Accordingly, we do not perform audits, reviews, or compilations of financial statements, the engagements a registered firm performs under professional standards (audits under the auditing standards, and reviews and compilations under the SSARS, the Statements on Standards for Accounting and Review Services). Tax preparation, planning, representation, and accounting do not require firm registration, and that is the work we do.
Sources & authorities
Primary sources for this page
The pass-through entity tax.New York's PTET: the election, the March 15 deadline, and the credit each owner claims.
New York S corporation election.Form CT-6 and its instructions: New York requires its own election, and approval before you file CT-3-S.
This page summarizes New York State tax rules for general information, and is not tax advice for your situation. Rates and thresholds change; confirm the current figures with the authority before you rely on them.
