East Hampton
Bookkeeping and accounting in East Hampton, NY
Rental property books here need to be kept per property, not in one bucket.
What you get
- Accounts reconciled every month
- Statements you can make decisions from
- Payroll and sales tax filed on time
- QuickBooks set up to fit the business
The MyCleverCPA team
- 25+ years in regulated finance, compliance and audit
- Tax work led by a CPA. Jillian Sinel holds the CPA and the CAA
- Hamptons Office at 30 Lincoln St, Sag Harbor, NY 11963
In East Hampton
Bookkeeping and accounting for East Hampton
Cleaning, management fees, repairs against improvements and occupancy filings all have to be attributable to a specific house before a return can be prepared from them.
Owners with more than one property almost always start with a single account and a single file, and almost always need them split before the first sale.
Scope
What is included in bookkeeping and accounting
The same work wherever you are. Scoped to what you actually need.
Monthly close
- Bank and credit card reconciliations
- Accruals and adjusting entries
- A close calendar you can rely on
Reporting
- Profit and loss, balance sheet and cash flow
- Management reports for owners and lenders
- Budget against actual, and the variance explained
Payroll and sales tax
- Payroll processing and payroll accounting
- Federal, New York State and local payroll filings
- Sales tax registration and returns
Cleanup and systems
- QuickBooks setup, cleanup and conversion
- A chart of accounts rebuilt to fit what you do
- Inventory and job costing where they apply
What this covers
- Bookkeeping and general ledger maintenance
- Financial statements and management reports
- Account reconciliation and adjusting entries
- Payroll processing and payroll accounting
- Payroll tax compliance
- Sales tax compliance
- QuickBooks setup, cleanup and conversion
- Financial and accounting analysis
- Budgeting, forecasting and cash flow analysis
- Cost, profitability and performance analysis
- Internal accounting support and advisory
- Inventory control
Local tax
Village or town changes the answer
In the Town of East Hampton, rentals shorter than two weeks are permitted up to twice in any six months, and a rental registry number is required and must appear in the advertisement. Penalties for failing to register run from $3,000 to $15,000, and advertising without the number from $150 to $1,500.
In the Village of East Hampton the rules are tighter. Rentals under two weeks are not permitted at all, there is a maximum of two short term rentals per calendar year, and the registry covers lettings under 120 days with notarised affidavits. The town law does not apply inside the incorporated villages of East Hampton and Sag Harbor, so a village property follows village rules alone.
Enforcement is tightening. The town identified 1,874 listings with roughly half unregistered and moved in late 2025 toward rental tracking software, with officials discussing higher fees and a possible local tax. If you let your house, this is the year to be registered.
On the transfer tax, the 2.5% Peconic rate applies with a $400,000 allowance on improved residential property, but only where consideration is $2,000,000 or less. With a median home value just under $1.2 million, a large share of actual sales here exceed that cap and get no allowance at all. Budgeting on the allowance is how buyers arrive at closing short.
Beyond that: Schedule E, the section 280A fourteen day rule, mixed personal and rental use allocation, passive activity limits, and basis tracking through renovations. Many owners are domiciled in New York City or out of state, which makes nonresident returns on IT-203, domicile analysis and the 183 day statutory residency test the highest value work on this page. Zone 2 for MCTMT at 0.34%.
How it works
How bookkeeping and accounting runs
Four stages. Most of the value sits in the first two, before anything is filed.
Look at what exists
The current file, the bank feeds and the last month anyone actually reconciled.
Clean up the history
Past months reconciled and categorized before anything new gets built on top of them.
Close every month
A fixed schedule, with statements that arrive without being chased.
Review the numbers with you
Reports walked through, so they answer the question you actually have.
Questions
Frequently asked questions
Am I in the village or the town?
It depends on the address, and it changes your rental rules completely. The village prohibits lettings under two weeks and caps you at two short term rentals a year. The town allows under two weeks twice in six months with a registry number. Establish which you are in before you advertise anything.
Is the first $400,000 of my purchase exempt from the transfer tax?
Only if the consideration is $2,000,000 or less. Above that there is no allowance and the full 2.5% applies from the first dollar. Given what property sells for here, a great many sales fall above the cap, and this is the most common error in East End summaries.
I rent the house out for two weeks a year. Do I report the income?
If you rent for 14 days or fewer in the year and use the property as a residence, the rental income can be excluded entirely, though you then deduct no rental expenses. Go to 15 days and the whole picture changes. It is one of the few genuinely bright lines in the code and it is worth planning around deliberately.
I live in Manhattan and have a house here. Where am I taxed?
It turns on domicile and on day counts, and New York audits residency actively. If you are claiming a change of domicile, the documentation needs to be built as you go rather than assembled afterwards.
Our books are a mess. Is that a problem?
It is the normal starting position. Cleanup is a defined piece of work with an end, and we would rather do it properly once than build a year of planning on top of numbers nobody trusts.
Do you work in QuickBooks?
Yes, including setup, cleanup and conversions from other systems. If you are already on something else that works, we are not going to move you for the sake of it.
Can you run our payroll?
Yes, along with the payroll tax compliance that goes with it. Payroll is also where worker classification gets decided, and getting that wrong is expensive in New York.
How often will I see numbers?
Monthly, as a rule, with the reporting shaped around what you actually decide from. A statement nobody reads is a cost, not a service.
Also in East Hampton
Our other services here
Tax preparation and planning
Most East Hampton returns we prepare involve a second home, rental income, or both.
Tax preparation and planning in East HamptonTrust and estate tax
With owner occupancy at 77.8% and a median value above $1.1 million, most East Hampton estates are property estates.
Trust and estate tax in East HamptonNonprofit accounting
East End nonprofits frequently raise most of their money from events.
Nonprofit accounting in East HamptonIRS representation
Second home owners here draw residency examinations.
IRS representation in East HamptonTalk to us about bookkeeping and accounting in East Hampton
Book a time online, or call the Hamptons office directly.
Nearest office
Hamptons Office
30 Lincoln St, Sag Harbor, NY 11963
Phone
Office hours
Sunday to Friday, 11am to 8pm Eastern.
Closed Saturday.