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Tax & Financial Guidance for Families Navigating Autism

I'm not just your CPA. I'm a parent walking this road too.

My oldest child is 4.5 years old and on the autism spectrum. So when I sit down with a family managing therapy schedules, insurance appeals, and evaluation waitlists, I'm not imagining what that's like — I'm living it.

I know what it means to juggle ABA therapy invoices, speech and occupational therapy copays, and the paperwork that seems to multiply every month. I know the sticker shock of a private evaluation, and the quiet stress of wondering how it all fits into the family budget. And as a CPA, I know something many families don't: a lot of these costs have real tax and financial planning implications that most preparers never ask about.

What most families miss

Autism-related expenses touch your taxes and finances in more places than you might expect:

• Medical expense deductions. Therapies like ABA, speech, and occupational therapy, specialized evaluations, and even travel to and from treatment may qualify as deductible medical expenses. Most families never track them — and never get credit for them.
• Dependent care credits and FSAs. Care arrangements that allow you to work may qualify for the Child and Dependent Care Credit or reimbursement through a dependent care FSA — and the rules for children with disabilities differ in ways that can work in your favor.
• ABLE accounts. These tax-advantaged savings accounts let families save for disability-related expenses without jeopardizing eligibility for future benefits. Few families know they exist, let alone how to use them well.
• Long-term planning. Special needs trusts, beneficiary designations, and benefit eligibility all interact. A well-meaning gift from a grandparent, structured wrong, can create problems years down the road.
• Cash-flow planning for the therapy years. Intensive early intervention is expensive and front-loaded. Building a budget and tax strategy around those years makes an enormous difference.

How I help

When we work together, I bring both sides of my experience to the table:

• Tax preparation that asks the right questions. I know which expenses to look for because I'm tracking the same ones in my own household.
• Year-round planning, not just April. We look ahead at therapy costs, insurance changes, and savings strategies before tax season, when there's still time to act.
• A judgment-free conversation. You don't have to explain what an IEP is, why the waitlist is 14 months, or why your budget looks the way it does. I get it.

You don't have to figure this out alone

You're already managing more than most people can imagine. Your taxes and finances shouldn't be one more thing you have to research at midnight.

Schedule a consultation — let's talk about where you are, what you're spending, and where the opportunities are.