Tax Counsel for Gurnee, Waukegan and North Chicago

Gurnee has become one of Lake County’s busiest commercial centers, with growing neighborhoods and a strong base of owner-run businesses. Waukegan, the county seat, is reinvesting in its lakefront and downtown while its industrial and trade businesses carry on. North Chicago is home to major healthcare headquarters whose leaders live throughout the area.

William D. Briggs has prepared returns and advised Lake County and North Shore taxpayers for four decades.

Business Returns and Financial Statements

Much of our work here is with business owners: contractors, manufacturers, distributors, service firms and owners of commercial property. We prepare business returns and the financial statements that banks, bonding companies and partners rely on.

We work from your bookkeeper’s records and deliver straightforward statements or full compilations, depending on what your lender requires. When a bank asks for numbers it can trust, those statements carry real weight.

Personal Returns for Owners and Their Families

A business owner’s personal return is rarely simple. Income flows through from the company, property is held in separate entities and family members may be on the payroll.

Bill Briggs prepares each return himself, from your original documents, checking every figure against its source. When tax software lags behind current law, he knows where to look and what to correct.

Executives and Equity Compensation

For leaders at the area’s large employers, stock awards, options and deferred compensation each follow their own rules. We make sure they are reported correctly, including the cost basis adjustments that brokerage statements often miss.

Planning the Next Chapter

Many owners who built their companies over decades are now weighing a sale, a partner buyout or a handoff to the next generation. Each choice carries a different tax outcome, and the earlier the planning begins, the more options remain.

How We Work

Meetings are held by phone, Zoom or Teams, as you prefer, and all are by appointment only. Documents are exchanged by secure arrangement, protecting the privacy of every client.

You will work directly with Bill Briggs.

We invest in the work, not the trimmings. Our clients see it in the results.