Your tax return is a record of decisions you already made.
By the time most people sit down with a preparer, the year is over and the outcome is locked. We work the other way around, with you during the year, while the decisions are still in front of you.
Two Ways to Work With Us
The Foundation Advisory Membership is a year-round relationship for people whose tax situation involves real decisions. Annual Tax Preparation is your return, prepared and reviewed properly, once a year. Most people start with a conversation and we tell them honestly which one fits.
Tax preparation is the deliverable. The advisory relationship is the point.
Foundation Tax Advisors is a Tempe, Arizona practice led by Stephen Hazel, an Enrolled Agent and CFP® professional. We work with retirees and pre-retirees, widows and widowers, small business owners, trustees and beneficiaries, and households moving through transition.
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About
Stephen Hazel is the founder of Foundation Tax Advisors, a Tempe-based practice serving retirees, widows, and business owners navigating transition. As an Enrolled Agent, he is federally licensed to represent taxpayers before the IRS in all fifty states.
Stephen spent nearly two decades in banking and financial services, much of it in senior executive roles, before building a practice focused on the work he found most valuable: helping people understand what their tax return actually says about the year ahead, not just the year behind.
He holds a BA in Asian Languages from Arizona State University and an MBA from Grand Canyon University, and serves as adjunct faculty at Rio Salado College. His credentials include the CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™, Certified Financial Transitionist® (CeFT®), and Registered Life Planner® (RLP®) designations.
Separately, Stephen provides investment management and financial planning through Magnificent Life Financial Planning, offered via Farther Finance Advisors, LLC, an SEC-registered investment adviser. Tax services from Foundation Tax Advisors are billed separately and are not conditioned on any wealth management relationship.
Stephen lives in Tempe, Arizona.
Stephen Hazel, EA
How the Year Actually Runs
January to April
Documents come in through the secure portal. Your return is prepared, reviewed, and delivered with a written summary of what drove the result, not just a number.
June and November
A mid-year projection in June shows where the year is tracking. The November strategy session is the meeting that matters: conversions, harvesting, timing, and contributions, all before December 31.
Who This Is For
“Retirees and pre-retirees, managing withdrawals, Roth conversions, Social Security timing, and Medicare surcharges.”
Withdrawals, Roth, IRMAA
“Widows and widowers, navigating the year of transition and the shift to single-filer brackets.”
Year of transition
“Small business owners, running an S-corporation or partnership who need the return and the strategy to line up.”
S-corp & partnership
“Trustees, beneficiaries, and households in transition: a sale, an inheritance, a move between states, a change in filing status.”
Fiduciary filings & change
Twenty-five memberships. Let’s find out if one of them is yours.
Schedule a no-cost introductory call. We’ll talk through your situation, tell you which service fits, quote it plainly, and be straightforward if we’re not the right fit.
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A Tempe, Arizona practice led by Stephen Hazel, an Enrolled Agent and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional, serving clients nationwide.
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