Finding my Nitch : Brian Day from Port Murray

As I continued my quest in the tax preparation business I happen to receive a referral, at this time again I did not understand the benefit of the referral business, it could be good or it could be bad, as you continue to read my blogs you will understand my point. 

This client happened to be employed by the department of corrections I started deducting his expenses related to uniforms cost, cleaning, ammo spent while traveling to the range safe or lock box union dues all of theses expenses where related to his employment, so they where legal deductions, the problem once again was as I requested this information the client was giving me estimates from his head, I stated you need to maintain your receipts for all your expenses but what I did was gave him the deductionsbased on the estimates he provided to me, after I prepared his tax return business became great I started preparing tax return for mostly corrections officers then it began to be police officers, 90 % of my client base was law enforcement. Did I find my nitch or was I in for a world of trouble. I prepared the tax return for mostly all the correction officers in the state of New Jersey as well as local police departments and the state police in new jersey. I felt like, I did it again I ask my self. Did I had something haunting which was  my mother's neighbor. 

As my business continue to grow I continue to feel like I was doing something wrong. During the year of 2000 the government allowed tax payers to electronically file their tax return at this time, I thought wow!, I should open multiple locations, I  would have taken over the state of New Jersey in this business but I had a silent partner that was un educated so I did not do this because I was talked out of this I consider myself to be packman because I was gobbling up all these local tax preparers clients they where coming to me, I felt powerful, so keep in mind dealing with law enforcement officers is not as easy as we think.

One of my clients that was  a state police officer had a brother that  was preparing the tax returns for theses state troopers before they came to me and he happened to lose all his state police clients to me, so he did what any honorable American citizen would do because, he lost his entire client base to me. He called the IRS Criminal Investigations Unit on me, during the year of 2000 and what do you think happened?.

They approached him and he stated that I placed all these items on his tax returns, that's not all he said he then took the referral business to another level he started giving the government all the people that also work with him at the state police that had their taxes prepared by my firm so they went from one referral to another just think the referral  business is good right, funny right! you got to laugh at this stuff. They approached me I beat the charge because most of them did have receipts my enemies in the tax business where not happy because my company got even larger after this happened.

I will write my book soon  it will be a great seller .

My Next blog is a good one your gonna love it 

About Brian Day, Port Murray

My Name is Brian Day i have been in the tax preparation field for over 27 years and this is my story.

When I first became interested in this field it was because I loved numbers. 

The government allowed taxpayers to use a schedule (G) this form was used and was call income averaging. We would look at  tax payers last three years of tax returns, the only condition the government had at this time was and increase of $3,000.00 per year, using this form was great because in most cases it would eliminate their entire tax liability, because the taxpayer received a large refund. 

My company took off during these years the government did not request social security numbers so tax payers would deduct their cats, dogs, birds whatever they had, I looked as if I was very good in the tax preparation business not realizing what I was getting into or what I should expect. 

The tax preparation business is a very strange business because you can take your W-2 forms to many different accountants or tax-preparers  and everyone will come up with a different figure, funny right! because it should not be the number should always be the same no matter who you went to unless you provided a different set of numbers. 

The real reason is perhaps not the accountants perhaps tax payers are looking for the best refund they can get even if they have to cheat.

I will never forget a story that it went like this in 1988 I prepared my first tax return this client was my mothers next door neighbor, I was traveling to my clients homes to handle their business, I would only list the items that was provided to me by the clients on their tax returns, if you did not have a receipt, I would not give you the deduction after three or four years had gone by I notice that, my mothers next door neighbor had not called me anymore during this time, I was wondering what people thought of me, I wanted to be the best at what I was doing because, I felt. I was the best or was.

One day when I visited my mother, I ran into the neighbor, I stopped him and asked. !Hey!, what happened?  why did you stop bringing your tax return to me?. He stated to me that I was to straight or by the book, and I said what I was to straight?. After this day I began to look at what I was doing and began to prepare tax returns the way the tax payer wanted, not looking at taxpayer as being cheaters until I experienced the audit process.

I can recall a client that I believed to be a honest church going woman, she was about 62 years of age, she stated to me that she paid 20% of her income to her church, so whenever I prepared her tax return, I would give her this deduction after about 7 years of preparing her tax return. The government audited her tax return, she contacted me and I requested the proof of the 20% that was taken on her tax return, keep in mind that her income was over $150,000 so the 20% was about $30,000 as a tax deduction. Instead of providing me this information, she was ignoring me for a while, this went on for about 30 days or so. I insisted that she tell me the truth, did you have the proof or not. She stated. No. I was devastated because now, I was looking bad in front of  the government it appeared that someone cheated and it looked as if it was me. This was the first time I thought about my mothers next door neighbor again . 

To be continued on next blog 

Its Called a Dirty little secret: Brian Day, Port Murray

Amerigas is the name of the company i purchased a home in port Murray new jersey after i closed on this home i was informed by this company that they owned the tank in the ground at my home and i needed to purchase propane from them and only them at the time i did not think anything about this but shortly after they informed me that the cost of propane was over 4 dollars per gallon my tank in the ground was a 1,000 .00 gallon tank so this was a separate mortgage payment i called the company and complained only to here from the employees in the Chester new jersey store that they can charge me anything they wanted to the industry was not regulated by the F.C.C i attempted to file a complaint against them only to here the same from the government i was devastated not realizing what i had gotten myself into with this company they can do what ever they wanted  once they determined that i had attempted to file this complaint they began to appease me by informing me that i should come into the store during the summer months to obtain an agreement with them to lock the rate in i did just that .  within a year or two this problem of remembering to make the agreement during the summer months became and issues as well i can recall several times during the winter months no one even showed up to place propane into my tank i called and called without any success in my mind i would think wow what if i my tank was empty i would not be able to heat my home or cook during the winter . so i tried to call other companies to deliver propane only to be told that i need to prove that i owned this tank in the ground at my home i said wow i own my home but can not purchase propane from anyone other that this company not good . i always feared the worse and it happened during the winter months of 2019 i returned home after being away for a short period of time only to find out that my tank had been locked by amerigas i called over to the Chester office was informed that i owed them $12,000.00 dollars i stated what are you talking about . 

it was winter cold very cold but they did not care management stated over and over again they can do whatever they wanted to do this industry is not regulated i stated wow i was going to see if i could do something about this problem i tried to call other companies once again no one would touch this tank because it was locked i was cold outside i had minor children living in my home i made them aware of this but they did not care . they stated over and over i owed the $12,000.00 dollars i stated where did you send your bill no response .

finally i called another company to remove their tank only to be told that this is amerigas practice to fill up the tank at their customers home and lock it preventing them from being able to use the propane in the tank as well as preventing them from digging up the tank for removal purposes . so i did what i had to do i purchased  my own tank placed it in the ground next to their tank and unplugged their tank from my home . i call this a dirty little secret because they know very well that no home owner would ever purchase a home allowing someone else to have control over their services . i called the corporate offices in P.A ONLY to be placed back in touch with the Chester office .

if you or someone else is having this problem with this company read my dirty little secret message and email me i will advise you what to do .

thanks