The full picture.
A CPA firm providing tax compliance, accounting, and advisory services for businesses, individuals, and families. We bring your business and personal financial matters into focus, with careful analysis and practical guidance throughout the year.
Who we serve
Business owners, private clients, real estate investors, professional practices, and multi-entity families navigating growth, complexity, succession, and significant financial decisions. Choose the path that best matches your situation.
Entity, compensation, succession, and the years before a buyer is at the table.
Tax-deferred exchanges under Section 1031, Delaware statutory trusts (DSTs), cost segregation, and keeping property separate from the operating company.
Controlled foreign corporations (CFCs), FIRPTA withholding on U.S. real estate sales, treaty elections, and a US-side partner while principals are abroad.
Practice operations, compensation, multi-location groups, and succession when it is time.
Services
Tax compliance and thoughtful advice for your business and personal financial life.
O’Brien & Panchuk is a certified public accounting firm providing tax preparation, accounting, and advisory services to businesses, individuals, and families. We take the time to understand your circumstances, ask the right questions, and consider how decisions in one part of your financial life may affect another.
That perspective guides both the work you need today and the planning that can help you prepare for tomorrow. Whether you need ongoing tax support or advice involving several businesses, real estate holdings, and family interests, we bring the details together and explain your options clearly.
Tax, accounting, and ongoing advice
Tax compliance and advisory
We prepare and file federal and state tax returns, review the information behind them, and help you plan for estimated payments and upcoming obligations. As part of that work, we consider how changes in income, investments, ownership, or family circumstances may affect your taxes. We explain the choices available and help you address planning opportunities before important deadlines or decisions pass. The goal is accurate reporting supported by careful analysis and practical advice throughout the year.
Individual and family tax services
Your personal tax return may bring together income from employment, a business, rental properties, investments, retirement accounts, and trusts. We help you understand how those pieces fit together and what changes may mean for your tax obligations. Our work includes return preparation, estimated tax planning, and guidance on the tax effects of decisions such as selling an asset, making a significant gift, or preparing for retirement. When appropriate, we coordinate with your financial advisor and attorney to support your broader plans.
Business tax, accounting, and advisory
Reliable financial information helps you understand how your business is performing and make informed decisions about what comes next. We provide business tax preparation, accounting support, and advice on ownership structure, how owners are paid, cash flow, and growth. For clients with several companies or properties, we consider how the businesses and their owners affect one another. Depending on your needs, we can work with your existing accounting staff or provide additional support to keep the records and tax reporting coordinated.
Tax representation and resolution
A tax notice or unresolved filing issue deserves a clear explanation and a considered response. We help individuals and businesses address audits, outstanding returns, tax balances, penalties, and other matters involving the Internal Revenue Service and state tax agencies. We review the facts, explain the available options, and represent you in communications with the agency. Throughout the process, we help you understand what is being requested, which deadlines matter, and what steps may be needed to resolve the issue.
Additional experience for important decisions
As your circumstances evolve, your questions may extend beyond annual tax and accounting needs. Our experience in the following areas allows us to provide continuity as you acquire property, expand internationally, transfer ownership, or plan for your family’s future.
Real estate tax and accounting
Owning real estate brings ongoing accounting and tax responsibilities, along with important decisions about purchases, improvements, financing, and sales. We help rental property owners, investors, and developers address those needs while considering how the properties fit with their businesses and personal finances. When appropriate, we evaluate options such as tax-deferred property exchanges and the timing of depreciation deductions. We explain the potential benefits, costs, and future tax consequences so you can assess a strategy in the context of your plans.
International and cross-border tax
Living, working, investing, or owning a business in more than one country can make tax reporting difficult to coordinate. We help clients understand their U.S. filing responsibilities, including reporting for foreign income, accounts, businesses, trusts, and certain gifts or inheritances. Our work also includes U.S. tax matters for nonresident individuals and foreign owners of U.S. property. Where needed, we coordinate with advisors in the other country and evaluate available relief from double taxation as part of the overall plan.
Business ownership transitions and valuation
Selling a business, bringing in a new owner, or transferring it to the next generation involves financial and personal decisions that benefit from early attention. We help you understand the value of the business, compare the tax effects of different arrangements, and consider what a transition would mean for your income and long-term plans. Our work can include business valuation, financial preparation, and coordination with your attorney and other transaction advisors. Planning can begin well before you have a buyer or a firm departure date.
Estate, trust, and gift tax planning
Decisions about gifts, trusts, and inheritances can affect your taxes, your access to income, and the people who will eventually receive your assets. We help families consider those consequences and prepare the related tax returns. Working with your estate-planning attorney and other advisors, we assess how business interests, real estate, retirement accounts, and other assets fit into your plans. We also help trustees and beneficiaries understand their tax reporting responsibilities as assets and income pass between generations.
We work with clients across a range of industries, including construction, real estate, medical and other professional practices, agriculture, and service businesses. We take the time to understand how your business operates so that our accounting support and tax advice reflect the decisions you face.
Let’s talk about what you need.
You may be looking for a CPA to handle your ongoing tax and accounting needs, or you may have a decision ahead that calls for closer attention. An introductory conversation gives us an opportunity to learn about your circumstances, answer questions about our services, and determine how we can help. From there, we explain the appropriate next steps and the scope of the proposed work.
Start a conversationThe Framework
The OP Total Net Worth Framework. Assess, Model, Structure, Execute, File, Optimize. The tax return is one output of a year-round relationship.
Structural inventory of entities, assets, jurisdictions, stakeholders, and capital events.
→ A complete picture of where you standModel how the current structure performs as the business grows, ownership changes, assets move, or a significant liquidity event approaches.
→ Find the cracks before the event exposes themEntity restructuring, timing elections, qualified small business stock (QSBS) under Section 1202, installment sales, tax-deferred exchanges under Section 1031, and trusts.
→ The structural moves that produce the resultsQuarterly roadmap meetings. Elections, structure changes, compliance alignment on a timeline.
→ Ongoing guidance as your business evolvesWe file returns after the strategy is built and stress-tested.
→ Returns are an output of strategyPre-LOI support. Post-sale capital redeployment. 1031s, DSTs, §453 installment sales, opportunity zones.
→ We stay on the file through close and afterWhere could planning make a difference?
Three questions. We flag areas worth a conversation.
For informational purposes only. Results are not tax advice and use of this tool does not establish a CPA-client relationship.
What did you pay in federal + state tax last year?
1 / 3Where does most of your tax exposure live?
2 / 3How is your business structured?
3 / 3Starting points based on what you told us.
What this is
A short list of planning areas that often apply to the profile you described. Real work is specific to your entities, basis, states, holding periods, and documents.
Track Record
Flagship engagements. Individual results vary. See all results for the fuller set.
Three years before the sale, we restructured entities, timed elections, and positioned the owner's real estate portfolio alongside the business exit. When the $30M offer came, every dollar moved through a structure that was already in place.
General contractor, Riverside County. $30M exit, planned three years ahead. Case result. Outcomes vary.
The founder's C-corp stock qualified under §1202, but their previous CPA had never flagged it. One conversation identified a Section 1202 benefit on a $12.5M exit that had not been flagged before.
Founder, Irvine. $12.5M exit. QSBS benefit identified. Case result. Outcomes vary.
A large IRS penalty notice. We built a reasonable cause argument grounded in the client's specific circumstances and represented them through the full process, and the penalty was removed.
Executive, California. IRS penalty removed. Case result. Outcomes vary.
Trust strategy plus Roth conversion timing, modeled to reduce projected estate taxes. The business stays in the family.
Family office, Palm Desert. Projected estate tax reduction on modeled facts. Case result. Outcomes vary.
FIRPTA withholding reduced through a treaty election and a timely Form 8288-B filing.
Canadian seller. FIRPTA withholding reduced. Case result. Outcomes vary.
A commercial property owner ready to step away from active management. We structured a tax-deferred exchange under Section 1031 into DST holdings with counsel, deferring the gain on a $5.6M sale while keeping monthly cash flow. We do not place DST securities.
Property owner, Southern California. $5.6M sale into a DST. Gain deferred. Case result. Outcomes vary.
The Firm
Decades of senior-level experience across tax, business advisory, valuation, and real estate.
Entity structuring, business valuations, and exit strategy. Before O'Brien & Panchuk, Tom spent years at Oracle Consulting. If you're selling, restructuring, or trying to figure out what your business is actually worth, Tom maps the path.
Cross-border perspective across 18+ countries. Treaty elections, FBAR, foreign trusts, dual-status returns. Creator of the Total Net Worth Framework.
Founding Partner of Folkers and Associates CPAs, now part of O'Brien & Panchuk. Decades advising real estate owners in Orange County across tax-deferred exchanges under Section 1031, DSTs, and cost segregation, with continuity from Folkers.
“Your referrals are the lifeblood of our business. We always have time for you, your friends, and your family. Please don't keep us a secret.”
Tom, Max and TimWhere we serve
Two markets. One firm. Palm Desert and Irvine, with clients worldwide.
Palm Desert Office
44751 Village Court, Suite 300 · CA 92260
Private clients, business owners, and families with complex real estate, estate, cross-border, and tax matters, including succession and exit planning when the time is right.
Irvine Office
18818 Teller Ave, Suite 275 · CA 92612
Irvine continues the Folkers practice with the broader O'Brien & Panchuk platform behind it. Private clients, operating businesses, professional practices, multi-entity groups, and real-estate owners seeking integrated tax, accounting, advisory, succession, and transaction support.
From the firm
Written for the owners and families we serve. Each piece should help you see the problem, then start an Assessment if the work fits.
After OBBBA, qualifying stock issued after July 2025 can reach a $15M federal exclusion. The Assessment checks whether the stock actually qualifies under Section 1202.
Read article →How the IRS decides penalty relief, and how to document a request.
Read article →Withholding is 15% of the amount realized, not the gain. The work starts before escrow closes.
Read article →Explore tax-deferred real-estate strategies following a significant transaction.
Read article →The Engagement
Our engagements bring together tax compliance, accounting, and advisory services based on your needs. We begin by understanding your circumstances and the decisions ahead, then agree on the scope, responsibilities, and fees. For clients who benefit from ongoing support, that relationship includes regular planning and coordination throughout the year.
Our advisory relationships focus on opportunities across entity structure, tax elections, accounting, transactions, and long-term planning where proactive involvement can materially improve outcomes.
Year-round access to the professional team. Advisory and compliance on an agreed scope, with a predictable monthly engagement fee. The Assessment is how we determine whether that relationship is the right fit.
We take on a limited number of new advisory relationships, the ones where the model creates meaningful value. Multi-entity owners, real estate investors, professional practices, and families who want a year-round partner.
An introductory conversation
We start with a 15 minute call, or a 30 minute meeting in person or by video, to determine fit and whether we can help. If your needs require a more in-depth scope assessment, where we must review prior returns or additional documents, an assessment fee of $450 applies. The fee is fully credited toward your first engagement if you become a client. Those diagnostic assessments typically result in a formal written proposal covering advisory and compliance services.
Ready to Begin
Start with an Assessment, or call an office. Concierge is extra coverage, not a substitute.
Selected client work
Founder, Irvine. $12.5M exit. Qualified small business stock (QSBS) benefit identified under Section 1202.
Case result. Outcomes vary.
Founder, service industry. $30M sale. Employee stock ownership plan (ESOP) plus installment sale under Section 453.
Case result. Outcomes vary.
Executive, California. IRS penalty removed.
Case result. Outcomes vary.
Property owner, Southern California. $5.6M sale into a DST. Gain deferred.
Case result. Outcomes vary.
Mission-critical operator, Southern California. Walked away from a low LOI after three years of prep. ESOP succession underway.
Case result. Outcomes vary.