A number of people emailed me this week asking me to connect them to Jeff (my tax strategist) so this email is gonna give you a little info about him.
I’ll start with how I wound-up working with Jeff.
Before Jeff, I went through about 5 different CPA’s since 2011.
Seriously…
Everytime I hired a new CPA, I quickly realized that I was the one bringing them ideas…
Not the other way around.
Which infuriated me.
I was looking for someone who would actually help me plan out a tax strategy.
Not just add up my income and expenses and tell me what I owe at the end of the year.
I didn’t realize that 95% of CPA’s simply aren’t capable of doing this.
Why?
Because most CPA’s are order takers.
You hand them all your info for the year, and they send you a folder saying “here pay this”.
There’s no strategy involved.
No suggestions about better ways to setup your company to lower your tax burden.
None of that.
I went through a bunch of CPA’s like this.
But back in 2015-2016 I finally landed with a good tax strategist (not Jeff).
This was a guy that was recommended to me by my friend Jon Correll.
And I worked with those guys until earlier this year.
But then earlier this year, I got connected to Jeff through Dan Roitman.
If you don’t know Dan, he’s a boss. And the former CEO of Pimselur, which was a $100+ million dollar company.
Dan said Jeff might be worth talking to.
Come to find out that Jeff also lives in Austin so I hit him up and we met at his office.
Once we met, I quickly realized that Jeff was doing taxes for many of the big shots in our industry.
He’s the guy Garrett Gunderson refers all of his clients to.
And he even does Garrett’s personal taxes.
So that showed me right away that I was in good hands.
And after getting to know Jeff for a bit, he showed me a few big opportunities in my tax strategy that my old tax guys were missing.
Which was surprising to me, because the guys I was using were damn good.
That made me realize that not only does Jeff know the tax code inside and out…
But he also takes it a step further.
He’s regularly in touch with tax specialists from every sector. And he brings them in for a second opinions on your tax planning.
So he’s in touch with e-commerce specialists…
And supplement specialists…
And manufacturing specialists…
That showed me a different level of detail that Jeff was able to bring that I wasn’t getting before.
Also…
When he laid out his tax planning strategy it just made a lot of sense.
It’s what I like to call “big boy accounting”.
Cause he really mimics what big companies do when it comes to their taxes.
And then he applies them to your business.
Which is smart.
Because big companies treat tax planning very seriously.
They have entire floors of their office dedicated to this stuff.
And they also usually bring in one of the “big 4” accounting firms to help as well.
This is much different than how entrepreneurs look at taxes.
Most entrepreneurs treat their tax planning as an after thought.
We treat it the same way a small business would.
Like a local donut shop.
The donut shop probably just adds up their expenses and their income and their accountant tells them what to pay.
Well that’s probably ok for a donut shop because I’m guessing their taxes are pretty simple.
But that’s not ok if you’re running a $10, $20 or $100 million dollar online business.
Cause your taxes are wayyy more complicated.
And there’s a LOT of ways you can drastically reduce your tax bill.
And that’s what Jeff specializes in.
Not only that…
But I learned pretty quickly that Jeff really understands the businesses in our market.
So he understands information product businesses, supplements, physical products, e-comm etc…
Which is rare.
Cause they all have different nuances where you can save a significant amount on taxes.
So to me, signing on with Jeff was a no-brainer.
He just “gets” what we do.
And I can’t recommend the guy enough.
He’s already helped me a bunch.
And if you can get him to work with you, it’s well worth it.
Which is actually the toughest part…
Jeff has a pretty high standard for who he will work with.
Basically the requirements are…
– you’re making at least $600k a year (you personally, not your business)
– you have at least $600k in liquid money
– you understand that he’s not cheap to work with. Most clients spend between $25k and $50k a year to work with him. Which is a lot. But it’s also like free money. Cause you basically give him $1 and he gives you back $5. That’s how good he is.
Anyways…
A few people asked me about working with Jeff, so hopefully this gives you a better idea of who he is and what he does.
The guy is brilliant.
He’s located in Austin where I live.
But he works with clients all over the country, so doesn’t matter where your location is.
So if you want an intro just let me know.
Hopefully the email series I did this week on taxes was eye-opening to you.
I know it was for me when I first learned about it.
So I hope it was for you as well.
Back to regularly scheduled emails tomorrow…
Also…
If you want an introduction to Jeff (and you meet the requirements I listed above), just reply to this email and I’ll connect you with him via email.
Take care,
– Justin
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