The difference between the typical CPA and a Proactive CPA

A Conversation from the Dental Realist Podcast!

Thanks for being with us. So. Well, we’re probably just going to dive into some questions, but I think one thing the three of us had been wondering is how did you go from a career in law enforcement to a career in working with taxes and accounting and things like that?

Before it went into law enforcement. And I was an economics major, then I went and I followed in my dad’s footsteps and I joined the Police Department.  At the time the NYPD had a 20 year retirement, so at some point we have to kind of think about, OK, what am I going to do next? And I thought I wanted to go into financial services, but I figured, you know, there’s a million cops, they go into financial services, I need to do something to differentiate myself. And I said, well, I’ll become a CPA first. And when I got my CPA and I really liked this tax stuff and here I am today,

Yeah. I can’t pick a better person to be involved in tax planning than a law enforcement officer. I would want someone just like that doing my tax planning. So anyway Marcus, do you have a question cooking for Craig?

Sometimes we feel like we’re kind of unique as small business owners. Is there really a difference in, in CPA’s? I’ve heard some CPA’s market themselves as catering to healthcare, catering, catering to the dentist. Does a dentist need a different kind of CPA than the general business owner?

I honestly don’t believe they need a different type of CPA than a regular business owner. We’re all running a business, each somewhat different, but a business.  I think any CPA that is good and deals with business owners should be able to deal with any nuances in the dental healthcare field.

What are some flags that might indicate that a business owner might need to replace their current CPA? What kind of things would you see and kind of want to look out for?

We do a lot of tax planning at our firm. So when I have somebody that’s kind of unsure of what they want to do, because it’s hard to break off relationships. I’ll ask them, when was the last time your CPA came to you with an idea that’s going to save you taxes? At that point they kind of get the glazed over look and say never.

So explain to me, Craig, if you would, the difference between a Certified Tax Coach vs just your run of the mill CPA or accountant.

I’m a CPA so I’m a Certified Public Accountant and then I went on to become what’s called a Certified Tax Coach. We typically are proactive where most accountants, CPA’s, they put the right numbers in the right boxes. They are very  compliance oriented, but they’re not looking forward to see what can you do a little bit differently to take advantage of what the tax code says you can do. So that’s really the difference between the accountant/CPA and somebody who’s also a Certified Tax Coach. Someone that is being proactive.

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Listen to the full conversation on the Dental Realist Podcast Here.