About Fairhaven Ledger Co.
Fairhaven prepares individual and family returns from a storefront at 1031 Brookline Blvd, Suite 2, Pittsburgh, PA 15226. Federal, Pennsylvania and local, in one sit-down and one price.
Since 2014
Claire Dunmore spent eight seasons at a national chain watching people leave with a federal return and a PA-40, then come back in May with a letter about the local one. Most of them had no idea Pittsburgh had its own earned income tax, let alone who collected it.
She opened Fairhaven on Brookline Boulevard to do all three at once and say the price out loud before starting. Elliot Varga joined to take the self-employed returns, and Hannah Mehta to take the retirees and the back years. The founding story and dates are illustrative for this concept site.
Start with family returns, self-employed returns or the price list.
The preparers
Founder and Senior Preparer
Claire has prepared returns for twenty filing seasons, the last twelve from the office on Brookline Boulevard. She started Fairhaven so that a family could hand over the federal, the PA-40 and the local return in one sit-down and get one price. She still reads every notice that comes through the door.
Leads family returns and notice help. Writes the Tax Forgiveness guide.
Senior Preparer
Elliot works with freelancers, gig workers and anyone with a 1099 and a shoebox of receipts. He sets up the quarterly estimates, federal, state and local, so April is not a surprise, and he knows the local earned income tax rules better than anyone in the building.
Leads self-employed and side-income returns and local returns. Writes the earned income tax guide.
Tax Preparer
Hannah joined in 2019 and looks after retirees and anyone catching up on back years. She files the PA rent and property tax rebate with the return, and she is patient with a box of unopened envelopes.
Leads retiree returns and amended and prior-year returns.
How a return moves
The same five steps for a first return or a fifth back year.
Thirty minutes, at the office on Brookline Boulevard or by video. Bring last year's return and we tell you your price in writing before you leave.
You get a short list built from last year's return, not a generic one: the W-2s, the 1099s, the daycare receipts, the form from Jordan Tax Service.
Your preparer does the federal, the PA-40 and the local return together, so the income, the credits and the withholding line up across all of them.
Before anything is filed you sit with your preparer and go through what changed from last year and why. Nothing is signed until it makes sense to you.
We e-file what can be e-filed, send you a full copy, and keep ours. If a letter arrives later, you bring it to the person who did the return.
What we will not do
We are tax preparers, not CPAs or attorneys.
Next step
Book a 30-minute sit-down online or call. A preparer looks at last year's return with you, tells you what to gather and gives you the price before any work starts.