Category: Get More Tax Clients

Let’s review some data that you’ve likely heard from me before.

Ready? Set? Let’s go!

Less than 10% of CPAs in tax practice offer any sort of representation services (per AICPA).

Less than 2% of EAs in private practice do anything that even requires their EA license (per NAEA).

The vast majority of lawyers that call themselves “tax attorneys” engage primarily in trust and estate tax work, not IRS Collections representation.

Lastly, there are approximately 400,000 unenrolled preparers (meaning, tax return preparers that are not an EA, CPA, or attorney), that legally can’t sign a Form 2848 to represent a client in front of Collections or Appeals, even if they’re an AFSP participant or a state-registered return preparer.

Add all those folks up, and you have approximately 670,000 tax professionals across the United States that either refuse to engage in taxpayer representation, or are simply unable to do so because they don’t hold the proper license.

But guess what?

All 670,000 of these tax professionals have tax resolution clients.

These are the tax professionals that prepare the majority of the tax returns for the nation’s 13 million tax debtors.

These are the tax professionals that see the payroll or bookkeeping problem long before anybody else does.

These are the tax professionals that know who the future tax debtors are before even the IRS does!

Are you picking up what I’m laying down?

These 670,000 other tax professionals — your colleagues — are coming face to face with tax problem resolution clients all the time. They are at the front line of the tax debt problem, and the vast majority of them don’t know how to help these clients.

That’s where you come in.

Since you hold the proper license, you can sign a 2848. Since you’re here, and have learned how to do tax resolution work, you can provide this valuable service to the clients of other tax professionals.

Let’s do some more math. If you look at IRS Collections data in the annual data book, you’ll see that roughly 1 in 14 American tax returns has a debt and enters IRS Collections. Assuming that 1 in 14 average carries across all tax prep clientele (it doesn’t, but it’s the best proxy I have), and if we assume that an average seasonal preparation firm does 300 returns a year, that means the average tax preparer sees 20 or so tax debtors per year.

Let’s say … Continue reading

This is the inevitable question.

On every webinar, every Tax Resolution Fast Start Boot Camp, every open Q&A call, and via numerous emails, this is the #1 most frequently asked question in the tax resolution universe.

As such, I figure it’s about high time that I write out a formal response that I can refer folks to in the future.

So if you sent me an email or otherwise posed this question, and I sent you here, welcome, and know that you are not alone. 🙂

First, I’ll give you the short answer: People find the money to pay for what’s important to them.

Here in the United States, the wealthiest nation in human history, there is no shortage of money. Money is literally everywhere. Compared to most other countries, and most other times in history, money is also relatively easy to get.

“Pfttt!” I hear some readers saying. But statistically speaking, it’s true. Here in America, even our lowest income earners make more money in a year than billions of people around the world make in 5 or 10 years.

But money here doesn’t just come from earned income. We also have one of the greatest credit facilities in the world (be that for good or bad). Many people (not everybody, but most), can tap into credit almost at will, and many people do exactly that in order to obtain the money to pay for what matters most to them.

Starting to make sense?

What you’ll find when you start doing tax resolution work is a very simple truth: People had the money to pay their taxes, they simply chose to do something else with the money instead. This is where tax debts come from in the first place.

Many times, people are using their tax money to support a lifestyle that is more grandiose than they should be. This applies equally across the socioeconomic spectrum, by the way. People making $25,000 per year can wind up with a tax debt just as easily as people making $250,000 per year.

So, the money is flowing through them, they’re just not doing with it what they’re supposed to be doing with it (in the eyes of the IRS, that is).

By the way, if you don’t believe me in regards to this matter, I’d encourage you to take the Trailer Park Challenge. This challenge doesn’t involve a bucket of ice water or … Continue reading