EY Tax Desk

What EY Tax Desk can do for you

The EY Tax Desk of Ernst & Young LLP provides thorough, easy-to-understand responses to financial advisors on tax and retirement plan questions. As a service of Ernst & Young LLP’s Employee Financial Services practice, the Tax Desk offers your financial advisors the ability to provide rapid responses to their clients’ tax questions, helping to set your firm apart from your competition and reducing the time and costs of research.

The Tax Desk reduces the need for advisors to refer clients to other tax professionals and increases an advisor’s credibility when speaking with a client’s other financial representatives.

Our Tax Desk can be a difference-making benefit for your financial advisors. Our Tax Desk professionals answer complicated questions every day, and they have access to the most up-to-date tax resources available. When appropriate, they will provide your financial advisors with supporting documentation from recognized sources such as IRS publications, sections of the Internal Revenue Code and tax publications.

How we can help

The EY Tax Desk can help your financial advisors in three distinct areas:

• A competitive edge
  By providing your advisors with high-quality service in a timely manner, we strive to help enhance your standing in the financial services industry and support your ability to meet your business goals.

• Reduced liability
  Financial advisors receive tax questions from their clients every day and attempt to answer them quickly in an effort to appear responsive.  But without the proper support, advisors do their own research or tap into various internal networks.  This approach leads to inconsistencies and a higher risk of incorrect information.
  
  We have provided Tax Desk services for more than 20 years, handling more than 300,000 calls. Our focus has been on being a trusted provider of unbiased tax education and guidance. Our experience and knowledge are transferred to your advisor teams to help strengthen your competitive advantage.

• A convenient and time-saving resource
  For institutions that do not have tax desk support, there is often pressure on other internal groups to answer tax questions.  With the assistance of the Tax Desk, your advisors will be better positioned to respond more quickly and authoritatively to client questions. And access to our Tax Desk professionals is easy: the phone lines are open Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m.– 6:00 p.m. ET.

What we do

While providing responses to our financial advisor clients, the firm’s Tax Desk professionals field questions on tax topics such as retirement plans (Individual Retirement Account (IRA) contributions, conversions, rollovers, minimum distribution and employer plans), transactions (cost basis, step-up, capital gains and losses and wash sales), deductions (interest expense, charitable contributions and tax credits) and provisions of new tax legislation (TCJA, SECURE, and CARES Acts).

The following are examples of questions we can answer:

• How were the distribution requirements for an inherited IRA impacted by the SECURE Act?
• What is the deadline for contributing to a SEP IRA?
• What are the Roth IRA conversion rules for non-deductible IRAs?
• How is an asset’s cost basis adjusted at death?
• If I hold a master limited partnership inside of an IRA, is it taxable?
• What is the difference between original cost and adjusted cost for bonds?
• How are gold exchange-traded funds taxed?
• How is a child’s investment income taxed under the “kiddie tax” rules?
• How do long-term capital gains affect a client’s alternative minimum tax liability?
• How is a client’s social security benefit taxed?

Our service standards

Our Tax Desk maintains the following basic service standards:

• Average speed of answer. An impressive 80% of our calls result in a conversation with a Tax Desk professional within 30 seconds of the call initiation.
• Abandoned call rate. Our standard is less than 3%.
• Callback time. Our standard callback is within one business day. All phone lines maintained by the Ernst & Young LLP Tax Desk accept messages seven days a week.
• Documentation. All phone calls are recorded and documented in detail in our contact management system in order to deliver a consistent and high level of service.
• Reports. Detailed reports are provided that summarize the topics discussed.

Our qualifications

Our average Tax Desk professional has more than seven years of industry experience and must have or be working toward at least one formal, recognized credential (e.g., CFP, CPA, PFS, JD, MBA).

Our stringent training requirements:

•  We require each Tax Desk professional to complete at least 40 hours of formal continuing education programs each year. Most of our Tax Desk professionals significantly exceed this requirement.
• Training is primarily conducted in our own classrooms, led by in-house and outside professionals, with some outside classes and online courses.
• Our Tax Desk professionals must also successfully complete an intensive phone counseling training program, as well as ongoing training in client service skills.