{"id":56678,"date":"2019-01-18t13:00:18","date_gmt":"2019-01-18t18:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/48e130086c.nxcli.net\/?p=56678"},"modified":"2019-02-17t14:44:09","modified_gmt":"2019-02-17t19:44:09","slug":"beware-the-leeches-and-consultants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.g005e.com\/2019\/01\/18\/beware-the-leeches-and-consultants\/","title":{"rendered":"beware the leeches and consultants"},"content":{"rendered":"
kool-aid for tax and accounting firms.<\/strong><\/p>\n by frank stitely<\/em> a group has been abusing my facebook timeline with ads touting a system promising to transform our clients into $10,000 annual billing clients.<\/p>\n more stitely:\u00a0<\/strong>2 lessons clients taught me<\/a> | cpas can\u2019t help you<\/a> | the cure for commoditization<\/a> | four amusing millennial myths<\/a><\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n exclusively for pro members.\u00a0log in here<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a02022世界杯足球排名 today<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n i did a little sleuthing \u2013 for free of course. if i were billing someone for this, i would call it forensics.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n i checked a few of their members\u2019 websites. the first one offered corporate and personal tax preparation, tax planning, bookkeeping and payroll for a monthly fee of $150. i didn\u2019t 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.<\/p>\n the owner of the second site bragged that he answered all telephone calls personally. he didn\u2019t have an assistant screening his calls. what we have here is a newbie who can\u2019t afford to hire someone. i can\u2019t blame him too much for trying to spin this into a positive. strike two.<\/p>\n the members of this organization tout a book with tax-saving secrets only rich people know. you know what these secrets are \u2013 amazing suggestions like keep a mileage log and write a book to generate passive income. the book is \u201csecrets to a tax-free life.\u201d the title tells you everything you need to know.<\/p>\n 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\u2019t have a life worth living. they don\u2019t mention the other co-authors on their sites, but amazon lists them all.<\/p>\n are you interested in knowing how many members the group has?\u00a0here\u2019s a quote from the website:\u00a0\u201cthere 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.\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u2019s not.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n 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\u2019s what i keep telling my therapist. i swim in denial.<\/p>\n the certified tax coach thing didn\u2019t work out for us.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n of course, the troll in me surfaced and i wrote, \u201cfunny what having an actual client on the thread does to bring a little reality to this post.\u201d i\u2019m certain they deleted my post as they have others critical of their fantasyland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nthe relentless cpa<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n