Up front: The new membership community is going live. It is for accountants, enrolled agents, and lawyers who practice international tax. Please consider joining.
If you want to join and don’t want to read the manifesto, click here to join. Use the FIRSTYEAR25 coupon to get 25% off the first year’s membership cost.
What I want (and I think you want, too)
I want to do interesting work for nice people, get paid well, and not be stressed out.
My guess is that you want this, too.
There is a known path to success:
“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.”
— Zig Ziglar (and a million other people).
You and I have chosen to help people solve their tax problems—and international tax problems specifically.
I am happy to report that I do work I like, for clients I like. I get paid fairly. (This is usually true!)
I want to help you achieve that dream, too.
We are, for the most part, alone
I know you are out there, because I talk to you on the phone. We exchange emails.
We are usually isolated.
For whatever reason, sole practitioners are common amongst the international tax community. It’s just you at your desk, staring at a tax problem and a deadline, exhausted.
Some of you are in small firms. You’re the designated international tax guru–you have no one to brainstorm with.
Some of you are in giant accounting and law firms. How often have I spoken to one of you and I hear “Yeah, we have a partner in the New York office who . . . ” but do you get mentorship, brainstorming, career guidance? Unlikely. “Is this billable?” is what you likely hear, very early in the conversation.
We are all alone — to a larger or smaller degree. And we all need help.
How you can—and can’t—get good
I suppose you can achieve technical tax virtuosity by brute force. Read, read, read. Yeah, somewhat. I tried this. I needed more.
You can achieve technical tax virtuosity by trial and error at the expense of the client and occasionally your malpractice carrier. I think that’s what most practitioners do. Your progress is dictated by the clients you attract and the problems they ask you to solve. Unpredictable and ad hoc.
I do not believe you can achieve technical tax virtuosity by chasing diplomas. Yes, I did the Masters in Tax at night, like many of you. It was useful in the way that “seven countries in ten days” helps you understand Europe.
I learned how to spell DNI and UNI and CFC. But did I learn how Form 1041 and Form 5471 really work? Nope.
I know you won’t get smart with CPE. If CPE made practitioners smart, every accountant, enrolled agent, and lawyer would be f—ing brilliant at this point. You’ve listened to a few hundred hours of CPE. How much do you remember?
The path to mastery
So how do you get good? How do you become proficient, confident—achieve mastery?
- Peers first. People trudging the same road as you—international tax practitioners who have been there, done that. Some more experienced than you, some less. Learn from their experience. Gain hope that you, too, can achieve your dreams. “If that idiot can do it, I certainly can, too!” 🙂
- Useful instruction second. The right teachers, the right environment. You don’t want to listen to the preachers—great communicators who aren’t in the world, doing the work. Practitioners are great, but they rarely have top tier public speaking skills. They can’t get their point across. But talk to a practitioner one-on-one or in a small group, and . . . wow. That’s my experience. They can explain stuff that I never knew existed. Small groups are even better because you have contributions from multiple people, who (in my experience in masterminds over the years) are almost always humble and kind.
- Deliberate, focused work third. You may read a book or listen to someone tell you something, but that is not enough. You need hands-on client work on that topic to reinforce what you learned—and preferably lots of it.
And time. You will be surprised how competent you can become in a few years of focused attention.
Exceptional practitioners only
You’re reading this because I’m starting a membership group and I would like you to join.
The purpose of this group is to assemble a core group of practitioners — accountants, enrolled agents, lawyers — for whom international tax is the primary focus of their careers.
They are fascinated by the depth of their chosen profession, and want to get better. They’re not coasting.
They have decided that their lives are important to them. They know what they want, and they’re not waiting.
They are people who do. Who want to grow. Who are biased toward action.
These people are exceptional. I want to be surrounded by exceptional people. You probably want the same for yourself.
Please consider joining us.
You’re the average of the five people spend the most time with.
– Jim Rohn
What happens in the group
This is what I plan to do for the next year with this group of exceptional practitioners.
Monthly AMAs
We will have monthly “ask me anything” sessions on line. So far we have had two. Multiple people have shared interesting and useful knowledge: deep esoteric tax law and practical experience. The two we have had so far have been a lot of fun for me. One answer can prevent five hours of floundering.
Newsletter
My every-other-Friday newsletter (The Friday Edition) will continue, free for everyone.
I started a second newsletter, just for members of the group.
It, too, is an every-other Friday newsletter, just for members of the community. In it, I will be writing about the business of tax practice, as well as more in-depth technical stuff.
This is likely to be a place where, if I’m asked an interesting technical question by a member, I will give a 2,000 word answer.
So expect this to be a mix of “how can I make a lot of money as a tax pro?” and “how do I solve this brain-twisting tax problem?”
CPE/online workshops
The monthly CalCPA-sponsored free International Tax Lunch webcasts will continue for everyone, member or not. Free if you just watch, or a few dollars to CalCPA if you want CPE credit. (Last Friday of the month, noon Pacific time).
In addition, I will be doing a minimum of three in-depth workshop style programs, in greater depth. The public webcasts are, by their nature, general. The workshops will get in the weeds. The Portfolio Interest Lending Workshop I did in May, 2024 is an example.
I say “minimum of three” with no guarantee, but the plan is to build a library of recorded workshops to be sold a la carte to nonmembers—and members get them for free.
We are working on certification status for CPAs, EAs, and lawyers as soon as we can push the paperwork through the systems. What a useless boondoggle the whole CPE process is! My application to become a CPE provider is in the backlog at NASBA, moving like molasses in January.
Run your business and make money
Running a tax practice is hard. None of us have the back end of our business operating at peak: billing, collections, “What’s that client’s phone number again?”—these and a hundred other things waste our time every day.
A couple of years ago our firm started haltingly down the path to Excellence. The right software, we learned, will not save us. An outside consultant selling us a bunch of SOPs and checklists won’t make a difference.
No. It’s an inside job.
We are finally starting to make good progress.
I will be sharing what we do, as we do it, when possible. If it’s useful and feasible, I will do live workshops to show you what we are doing.
Learn from what we do. (Or don’t!)
Marketing, positioning, getting clients
You don’t learn sales and marketing in school. Most of what you are told is “Go network!” or “get on Linkedin” some similar useless platitude. I did a lot of that stuff. Didn’t work well.
To my utter surprise it turns out that I can get business—this, from a self-identified introvert.
I will share what I have learned in “how to do marketing” with you. If there is enough interest, I will spin up a workshop of a mini-mastermind that will run for a few months to get you going.
All I can tell you is my experience. Do what I do and get what I got. All I can do is hype you up until you believe in yourself.
I am working informally with two of you right now. Both of them have selected a niche in International tax, and the objective is to develop nationwide visibility. Maybe I can help more of you?
Community
The whole thing is run on software designed for community. Over time this will roll out with chat functionality, forums, and the like.
Please sign up
Here’s the sales pitch.
I want you to join me in this group. Become a member. Participate—learn from your peers, help your peers. Get good, make money, be happy.
The starting price for this membership group will be $2,400/year.
But . . .
As special thanks for participating early, I want to give you six months of membership free.
Your price is $1,800 for the first year. When you join, use the coupon code FIRSTYEAR25 to get the 25% discount.
Will you make at least twice that much money in fees in the next 12 months because you are a member? If you don’t, I will eat my (metaphorical) hat.
Limited time offer, etc.
Over time, the price will go up. This membership group will take time away from my law practice, so it needs to be self-supporting.
You are getting in at the biggest first-year discount and the lowest annual membership rate. Your membership will renew at $2,400 next year and you will be grandfathered in at that rate for as long as you are a member.
Click here to become a member.
Be sure to use the coupon code FIRSTYEAR25 which will apply an automatic 25% discount to the first year’s membership.
What happens when you click the link
Software. Sheesh. It’s a bit clunky. Let me give you a little heads-up of what happens when you click the link you will go to a checkout page.
If you already have a Circle login account
If you already have a Circle.so account for a community you belong to that uses this software, there is a little “Sign in” link. Use that link to sign into Circle, then complete the purchase.
The username/password will also apply to you if you belong to any other communities hosted on circle.so.
If you don’t already have a login account
If you don’t already have a Circle login account for some reason (or you want to create a new, clean one) enter your email address and a password to do so. Then complete the purchase.
Don’t forget the coupon code
Again, the coupon code is FIRSTYEAR25 and please enter it to reduce your first-year membership cost by 25% when you join.
Thank you
Email me if you have any questions. We can exchange emails or get on a quick call.
Thanks for the support up to now.
I hope you become a member and I hope that I see you in the next members-only Ask Me Anything Zoom session on September 17, 2024 at 8:00 a.m. Pacific / 11:00 a.m. Eastern / 5:00 p.m. Central European.
Phil