kool-aid for tax and accounting firms.
by frank stitely
the relentless cpa
a group has been abusing my facebook timeline with ads touting a system promising to transform our clients into $10,000 annual billing clients.
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i did a little sleuthing – for free of course. if i were billing someone for this, i would call it forensics.
i checked a few of their members’ websites. the first one offered corporate and personal tax preparation, tax planning, bookkeeping and payroll for a monthly fee of $150. i didn’t need my staff to do the math for me on this one. twelve times $150 is just a bit less than $10,000 per year. strike one.
the owner of the second site bragged that he answered all telephone calls personally. he didn’t have an assistant screening his calls. what we have here is a newbie who can’t afford to hire someone. i can’t blame him too much for trying to spin this into a positive. strike two.
the members of this organization tout a book with tax-saving secrets only rich people know. you know what these secrets are – amazing suggestions like keep a mileage log and write a book to generate passive income. the book is “secrets to a tax-free life.” the title tells you everything you need to know.
the owners of each website that i visited are listed as co-authors of the book. you can find it on amazon, if you don’t have a life worth living. they don’t mention the other co-authors on their sites, but amazon lists them all.
are you interested in knowing how many members the group has? here’s a quote from the website: “there are less than 500 specialists in 48 states trained by american institute of certified tax coaches. this elite network of tax professionals includes cpas, eas, attorneys and financial service providers.”
is it closer to 500 or closer to zero? is this how cpas answer questions? this is like writing an audit opinion that says maybe a set of financial statements is presented fairly, but maybe it’s not.
the group was organized as a nonprofit by a woman who ran a practice for seven years before taking her vast store of knowledge public. the only thing the organization does is sell seminars. i would love to get a look at that 1023 or 1024 form. smells like a for-profit business to me, or at least an attempt at one. strike three. back to the minor leagues with them.
did this last section make me look like a facebook troll? guilty as charged. my wife and kids rate me as a world-class troll. a man needs a hobby. i only troll bad people. that’s what i keep telling my therapist. i swim in denial.
the certified tax coach thing didn’t work out for us.
today, i read a promoted facebook post from the certified tax coach people. they told a cpa that he could charge $10,000 per client per year because of the amazing tax savings he would produce. then an actual client got on the thread. he wrote that he could find a dozen cpas who would do the same thing for much less. he wrote that his cpa already worked very hard to find tax savings, and if his cpa tried to bill $10,000 per year, he would boot his butt out the door.
of course, the troll in me surfaced and i wrote, “funny what having an actual client on the thread does to bring a little reality to this post.” i’m certain they deleted my post as they have others critical of their fantasyland.
8 responses to “beware the leeches and consultants”
marty mccutchen
mr. stitley,
you should probably spend a little more “forensic” time researching what aictc offers and teaches because you are way off base. i cancelled my membership serveral years ago because what they offered did not fit my business model, but that doesn’t mean they are selling snake oil. one could easily write a column about some guy trying to sell a practice management excel spreadsheet for $189 and say it’s snake oil, but that wouldn’t be fair either.
larry weinstein
wow!! i find your post to go out of your way to be libelous!!
and while we are talking…really…$175 for a book?? are you serious??
talk about the pot calling the kettle black!!
m. hill
fyi- he was being sarcastic. he said it’s quite a bit less than $10,000. meaning $150/mo [$1800/yr] was vastly underpriced for bookkeeping.
robert boutin
sorry but you need to work on your quick math. $150 x 12 is $1800, nowhere near the $10,000 you calculated.
susan ashe
right? i had to look at that twice to make sure i was seeing what i was seeing. smh
m. hill
fyi- he was being sarcastic. he said it’s quite a bit less than $10,000. meaning $150/mo [$1800/yr] was vastly underpriced for bookkeeping.
tom sawyer
frank,
i disagree with your assessment of the aictc. while their advertising might be a bit of the not your average result variety, those results are certainly possible.
my firm has been in existence for 40 years this year. i’m the second generation family owner. we provide the same services most small firms do (tax, accounting, etc.) i’ve been a ctc since 2010 and find the training and community to bring me great value.
so like most training or books, you aren’t going to find tons of stuff you didn’t already know. the mindset is far more important. while many clients believe their cpa is providing proactive tax planning, the reality is that it’s not true. i see it every day when a prospect comes into my office with a 1040 and a schedule c making $200k. here is where the mindset part comes in. do i tell the prospect/client that they needs to be an s corp and thereby give away years of my knowledge to quickly diagnose a tax savings or do i suggest they needs to do a tax plan? in a tax plan, i’m going to review far more than the 1040, but look into other areas where tax savings could be found. i’m going to see if they could hire their kids, hire their spouse, hire their parents. i’m going to review the best option for their retirement plan. i’m going to look at what reasonable compensation from a new s corp might look like. do they have real estate and need to do a cost segmentation? so many other things are available if we as the expert stop and ask. these things could save thousand or tens of thousands of dollars in tax.
so, back to the mindset. do i just give that away or charge for an hourly consultation, or do i propose it as a tax plan where i quantify the savings and get paid a premium value based fee? many practitioners would give it away, do it hourly or worse yet they would be too busy with the mountain of 1040s which are focused on the prior year to get to the planning for the future. that is the mindset i have found with my ctc membership.
so the aictc, has evolved over the years. the basic ctc member has taken the training and paid to do so. their are two higher levels that one can attain when they have prepared and provided a larger number of tax plans. i hold the highest level and have been serving on the advisory board that reviews applications to be approved for higher levels for the past couple of years. that board reviews the numbers of plans, the strategies used and the tax savings provided. only then do we approve a ctc to move up.
there are always going to be newbies and any group who are less qualified and still learning. perhaps they are willing to do bookkeeping for $150 a month, but most are not. i can show a prospect a track record of tax savings. i can give them names of people who paid me thousands for real strategies that saved them thousands. would these clients liked to have gotten the savings for free? sure. i’m more focused on working with clients who realize my value and are happy to pay me based on that vs an hourly fee or giving away my years of knowledge.
these are my opinions and experiences with this organization. while i’m part of the advisory board, that position is unpaid and i do it to help maintain the integrity and quality of the membership and the organization. i pay monthly to belong just like everyone else.
tom sawyer, cpa
sawyer & latimer, pa
ft. lauderdale, florida
susan ashe
i don’t do payroll. clients are given the names of 3rd party places then i enter the transactions in the books. there’s simply too many deadlines involved and liability for me to make it worth my time
i do flat rates for clients for full charge accounting starting at 250 a month for 1 bank account and 1 credit card. the rate goes up for every account added on, if they add payroll reporting that’s added, paypal or square reports? added. clerical related work – extra
once i get the 3 months average of any new client the flat rate is determined and a new engagement letter is signed. if someone adds payroll and balks at the slight increase i send them the detail of the engagement letter that states clearly what that rate was based on,