Closing the doors does not close the books
Catch-up bookkeeping after a business has closed is still a rebuild from the bank and card statements for the years that were never finished. A licensed CPA reviews the file before you see it. Your preparer still files whatever returns are left. We do not prepare those returns, and we do not contact the IRS.
Start at catch-up bookkeeping with a tax deadline. The diagnostic is $499. It credits toward the rebuild you approve in writing. There is no public per-year rate. What catch-up costs explains why.
What still exists after the business does not
The bank usually still has the statements, typically about seven years. The card company usually still has the card statements. Payroll reports, merchant deposits, and loan payoffs are often still available from the provider even if the shop is dark. Those documents are the file. A memory of how the last year felt is not.
IRS guidance on keeping records is what your preparer is likely to point at when they ask for support. If a statement cannot be produced, that month is a gap report item. We do not estimate it so a final return looks smooth.
What to tell the preparer
Tell them the business has stopped operating, which years were never closed, and which accounts still exist or were closed. Send the statements, not a reconstructed story. What a preparer needs from behind books is the handoff: books that tie, gaps named, filing left with them.
If the closed business sits inside an estate, say that at the start. The entity activity and the estate accounting are related, and the estate path is fiduciary accounting. Do not assume a business cleanup and an estate accounting are the same engagement.
What we will not promise
We will not tell you the final return is simple because the business is closed. We will not invent a last year of activity from a verbal history. We will quote the rebuild from the records that exist, after the diagnostic.
Get a fixed quote and say the business has already stopped.