Homeowners Associations
Gary Porter CPA has more than 30 years of HOA auditing and consulting experience, serving associations since 1976. Our team of experienced professionals is ready to serve you, and we offer a range of services that is absolutely unique in the industry. And, there is only one CPA who can claim he "wrote the book" on associations. Gary Porter is the co-author of PPC's Guide to Homeowners Associations and Other Common Interest Realty Associations, and The Homeowners Association Tax Library. PPC - Practitioners Publishing Company Mr. Porter was the editor of CAI's "The Ledger Quarterly" for its entire 15-year production run. Mr. Porter has also authored more than 200 technical articles on various association matters.
Porter & Lasiewicz CPAs is an audit firm. Our practice is limited to the various forms of common interest developments. This has allowed us to become very efficient in auditing associations. We have developed standardized procedures and "workpapers." Our staff is very stable, which means you get the same auditors back year after year. You won't be stuck having to "break in" and "train" new staff members from the CPA firm every year. It is also our philosophy to have the owner of the firm review every audit. And for the larger engagements, he also participates in the audit field work. By stripping away the administrative layers in the CPA firm, we become more efficient. This means you are getting the direct benefit of very experienced auditors. The firm and its predecessor have gone through ten AICPA peer reviews, and have received unmodified reports on each review.
Audits and Reviews of Financial Statements
We offer traditional audit services, the same as many other CPA firms. Our experience with a wide variety of associations gives us the qualifications to work on virtually any type of association.
Our unique capability in today's ever-increasing electronic environment is the ability to audit through the computer. We use a computer "utility" program that allows us to access and use your computer transactions, without ever disturbing any of the underlying data. With our program, we can then manipulate the data in any manner we desire. At times, this allows us to generate information that you are unable to retrieve from your own system. This makes us more efficient in our audit procedures, as we can test vast amounts of data in a relatively brief period of time.
Our audit "workpapers" are also unique. We were one of the first firms to move to a completely electronic set of audit workpapers. Our automated audit workpaper program is built on a MS Windows platform using MS Word and MS Excel and scanned images to create all workpapers, ensuring compatibility and easy transferability of information. Again, because we perform all procedures on the computer, we have become extremely efficient.
Association Taxation
Association taxation is one of the most complex areas of tax law, but we try to make it easy for you. As part of every audit or review engagement, we provide you with a comparison of taxes under either the Form 1120 filing method, or the Form 1120-H filing method. See our list of books and articles published elsewhere on this site for further information on taxation.
The subject of association taxation is so complex and so specialized that we have established separate websites that focus specifically on these matter. See our tax sites at:
Exempt Association Taxation
Gary Porter is also one of the pioneers in seeking complete exemption from taxation for associations. Porter & Company has prepared more than 60 exemption applications under IRC Section 501(c)(4), with a 100% success rate where we have stated the association will qualify. These have even included three gated communities that many inside the IRS contend could not qualify for exemption. The cumulative tax saving to these clients alone exceeds $15,000,000.
Cooperative Association Taxation
Cooperative association taxation is a rapidly evolving area. Gary Porter followed developments of major court cases, then expanded these concepts to new areas, generating more than $1,000,000 in tax refunds for the Firm's cooperative clients.