If you’re looking for a tax professional to help you with your taxes this season around Atlanta, consider the Georgia Association of Enrolled Agents. You can find them online here.
Here are four of my favorite enrolled agents, if you need help.
Bill Nemeth
Bill Nemeth is the immediate past president of the Georgia Association of Enrolled Agents (GAEA) and a founding member of the GAEA Education Foundation. He is currently the GAEA Membership Chair as well as the Education Chair. He is active at the National Level as well (Affiliate Council Member of NAEA).
He holds a bachelor’s degree (Kettering Institute) and master’s degree (MIT) in Mechanical Engineering and an MBA in Marketing (Wayne State University).
Bill and his wife Merry Brodie, Enrolled Agent, recently sold their franchise tax business which prepares up to 12,000 returns per year. With his strong focus on education, he creates and presents tax seminars at local Enrolled Agent chapter meetings. He promotes Enrolled Agents through frequent appearances on a major Atlanta radio talk show and tax seminars to numerous CDC Campuses throughout the Atlanta area. He has been interviewed by WSB TV for several stories on the fiscal cliff and tax identity theft. Bloomberg has cited some of his tax articles. He worked with Prometric as an SME (Tax Subject Matter Expert) on the development of the IRS Preparer Gateway test, the RTRP (Registered Tax Return Preparer) exam.
Bill and Merry are founding partners in Tax Audit Guardian, a new Atlanta business venture specializing in assisting troubled tax clients in representation, audit and tax court matters.
Merry Brodie
Since 1990, Merry Brodie has served the tax and accounting needs of small businesses as owner and principal of Brodie Accounting Services. For more than 20 years, Merry served as CEO and President of Tax Doctor, Inc., which owned multiple Jackson Hewitt Tax Service franchises. At its peak, Merry managed 24 offices and a staff of 160. In 2012, Merry and her husband successfully sold the franchises and became partners in Tax Audit Guardian, a group of professionals who assist troubled taxpayers.
As an Enrolled Agent, Merry is licensed by the IRS to represent clients in all 50 states. She holds an accounting degree from Georgia State University and is a regular guest on Sunday mornings on the Ilyce Glink radio program broadcast on WSB-750 AM, answering tax questions from callers.
She is a member of the Gwinnett Chamber of Commerce, past officer and director of the Atlanta Track Club, Georgia Association of Enrolled Agents and the National Advisory Council of Jackson Hewitt Tax Service.
Merry lives in Atlanta with her husband. She has three children and five grandchildren.
Chet Burgess
Chet Burgess is currently an Enrolled Agent at Brookwood Tax Service, LLC. Brookwood Tax Service, LLC provides tax preparation and tax planning services for individuals, couples and families as well as professionals and small businesses. Their services also include representation before the IRS for audits and appeals or back-tax issues involving collections.
Chet was the past president of the Georgia Association of Enrolled Agents for nine years and he was also an executive producer for CNN.
Eva Rosenberg
The last thing in the world I ever expected to be doing was taxes. After my first tax class ever, in college, I just shook my head. You’d have to be out of your mind to get into this field. It’s like quicksand. The information changes rapidly, sometimes 10 or 12 times a year. Every time you think you know something, it’s changed.
Clearly, you’re dealing with a crazy person here. The original Tax Nerd! Are you a Tax Nerd, too?
About 30 tax seasons ago, I started working for a CPA firm in beautiful, seaside Newport Beach—and got hooked on taxes.
Since those fateful days, I’ve written books and articles. I’ve taught taxpayers and tax professionals at UCLA, USC, on radio and TV. I’ve lectured, nagged, nudged, browbeaten, and comforted thousands, perhaps millions, of clients, readers, and friends about U.S. tax laws, loopholes, tricks, and caveats. I’ve even surprised tax professionals who have dozens of years of tax experience.
I have been both a headache and a blessing to IRS staff and their public relations team—bringing up questions and issues that most journalists never ask, and identifying and solving problems before they become major issues.
As an Enrolled Agent, I am “enrolled to practice before the Internal Revenue Service.” EAs are the best-kept secret in the tax industry. Hardly anyone knows we exist—and I am out to change that!
EAs are the only tax professionals whose authority comes directly from the U.S. Treasury Department. We help taxpayers with audits, collections problems, and whatever problems and frustrations the IRS dreams up. Unlike CPAs, who are licensed by state agencies, EAs are recognized everywhere in the country. Want to know more?
After thousands of hours of research, reading, writing, studying, and teaching taxes, today I am known worldwide as the Internet’s TaxMama®. As a Dow Jones columnist, I am on MarketWatch.com’s terrific TaxWatch team. McGraw-Hill asked me to write Small Business Taxes Made Easy. Watch for a new and improved version of the book in 2010. You can also hear my voice on radio stations around the country.
TaxMama® produces a daily TaxQuips podcast and a weekly tax roundup in Ask TaxMama every Friday, and Team TaxMama answers your tax questions in the TaxQuips forum. You’re welcome to join us, for free, at TaxMama.com. And tune in to the new Ask TaxMama radio show on Womens Radio at WomensRadio.com this summer.
In my spare time, I teach tax professionals how to pass the three frightfully difficult IRS examinations to become Enrolled Agents at IRSExams.com. And, now I’ll blog here each week as well.
Why do I devote all my waking hours to taxes and educating taxpayers like you? Because it’s fun! Taxes are like a puzzle. I love finding ways around the system to cut taxes. If there is a legal loophole, I want you to know about it. If you’re in trouble, I want you to get legitimate help. And I want you to have fun!
How much does an Enrolled Agent cost?