Doing taxes can be a tedious task for most people, but one Tri-City tax accountant loves the work.
Bruce Jorgensen, managing partner of ILUVTAX.COM, launched his firm 10 years ago. The name speaks for itself: he has a passion for taxes.
What’s less obvious from the business name is that Jorgensen also loves helping people, and taxes are his way of doing that.
“It all boils down to people. It’s not number crunching,” he said, explaining that people use the numbers to determine whether they’re successful.
Career path
Jorgensen had an affinity for numbers growing up, but he didn’t always think he’d be an accountant. He initially studied communications with the goal of becoming a film producer.
When he struggled to find employment, he ended up working for a restaurant. “Only thing I liked about it was I got to balance the cash drawer at the end of the day,” he said.
He began working at his brother’s accounting firm – three of his four brothers have CPA certificates.
When Jorgensen became interested in taxes, his brother recommended he take a job at H&R Block, where he could get training. Jorgensen later went back to school for a degree in accounting and his CPA certificate.
He spent time working for a firm in San Francisco and even started his own business before realizing he was working too many hours and transitioned to work at the Hanford site while he raised his family.
Jorgensen stayed there for 30 years and during his last job, he spent time working with the Internal Revenue Service.
“I realized, you know, it’s pretty straightforward to work with IRS,” he said, “you just have to know the rules.” And Jorgensen’s a self-described rule-keeper.
So, he went back into accounting at a tax firm for a couple of years before launching his own, ILUVTAX.COM, in 2014.
Jorgensen and his daughter came up with the name together. She asked him: “Why do you do what you do?”
“Well, I like to help people,” he answered. “I’ve always liked tax work and I’m good with numbers.” This business combined all of those loves.
Helping people through taxes
Jorgensen’s practice breaks down into two parts: half is income tax, both for individuals and businesses, and the other half is accounting work. The accounting work is split between financial reporting and payroll.
During tax season, which runs from the end of January through Oct. 15, “70-80% of my time is spent on doing tax work, 20% on accounting work,” Jorgensen said.
Most of the taxes he works with are income taxes for businesses and individuals, but he also handles estate and trust taxes and helps employers with profit sharing plans or 401(k) plans.
On the payroll side, Jorgensen helps small businesses with reporting and compliance.
Although he doesn’t have a storefront, Jorgensen often meets with clients at their business or in virtual meetings. He currently has two staff members who help with tax preparation, allowing him to spend more time “doing the interaction with (clients), collecting the information and giving them the results,” Jorgensen said. That’s the part he loves.
“We try to provide services that help people pursue their own passion, because very few people like to do what we like to do,” he said.
By helping small businesses with their taxes, Jorgensen enables them to focus on the reason they started their business.
He also helps businesses with tax planning, or understanding the tax consequences of certain business decisions.
“Depending on what you want to do, the implications on your tax return may help you decide,” he said.
But he clarified that “you don’t make money using tax work. You just minimize the amount of taxes you’re paying.”
Tax accountants can help small businesses so they don’t have to worry that they’ve misrepresented their tax returns – so that they can sleep at night and enjoy their business, Jorgensen said. His practice’s goals are to be timely, right and reasonable.
“I want to help people. I get a kick out of, a joy, being able to provide them good advice that they can rely upon,” Jorgensen said.
Tax advice
One piece of advice Jorgensen has where taxes are concerned is to keep good records, and for longer than you may think.
That’s because once a tax return is filed, the IRS has three years to challenge anything on it, he said. It might be difficult to remember what information you wrote and why.
Small businesses have a seven-year holding period because of payroll returns, which are separate from income tax, he said. In Jorgensen’s experience, the rules regulating payroll tax are much stricter than income tax, meaning tax issues are easier to deal with if they’re income related.
“It’s kind of one of those things that people don’t really think about too much, and most people don’t have payroll, right? They’re not small business owners,” Jorgensen said. “But for the small business community, it’s a big deal.”
For both individuals and businesses, Jorgensen has a seemingly obvious piece of advice: “If you get a letter from the IRS, don’t put it in a corner and hide from it,” he said. “That’s the most common mistake people do.”
“It’s a lot easier to deal with the IRS if you respond,” Jorgensen said. It’s also helpful to get the letter reviewed by someone who can put it into context.
That’s one situation where a tax accountant can be helpful. Jorgensen has seen the rise of software that enables individuals to do their taxes on their own. But without context, there’s nothing preventing people from misunderstanding or putting wrong answers to questions the software asks, he said.
Tax law changes frequently, which is a challenge for accountants to keep up with, but Jorgensen said that an election year won’t have immediate impacts on tax laws because they must be passed by Congress. “Legislation that’s talked about in campaigns is rarely a reality until two or three years later,” he said.
Communication
Accounting is still frequently perceived as a boring career path, which is an image Jorgensen has pushed back on in his practice.
“I decided purposely to try to break that mold a little bit, because I like to think of myself as a shirt-sleeve accountant. When I was in business for myself, I used to wear a three-piece suit all the time … and now I realize, to communicate and share things with people, you got to try to figure out how to reach their level,” he said.
While accountants and CPAs have the knowledge to help people in taxes and other areas, they aren’t necessarily trained to communicate their knowledge well. That’s where Jorgensen’s original degree comes in handy.
“I see myself as kind of an interpreter,” he said.
ILUVTAX.COM: iluvtax.com, 509-531-1800, bruce@iluvtax.com.