February 27, 2025 • 22 mins
Marshawna Martin is a Tax strategist who helps business owners save on taxes and create strategies for growth. She describes her journey, the importance of mentorship, and gives tips for this current tax season. Please enjoy our candid conversation while gaining entrepreneurship and tax knowledge.
Instagram: @mtmmoneymattera
Facebook: MTM Money Matters
Instagram: @mtmmoneymattera
Facebook: MTM Money Matters
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of the Veryly Black Podcast. It
is your host and producer, Danny D and we are
wrapping up Black History Month. But it's never too late
because you know, we represent three sixty five and today
I have a very special guest with me. She is
a financial consultant, Marshana Martin and the owner of MTM
Money Matters is a tax preparation service. Thank you so
much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, Danny D, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It's my pleasure. I mean, this is the perfect time.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
First of all, it's Black History Month, talk about it, okay. Second,
it is tax season.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Is it? Yes? It is?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
So I know you are super busy right now.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I've been seeing a lot of people talking about their
taxes on social media more. But we're gonna get into,
you know, how we can help out people with that.
But I want to know about you and your business.
So I just want you to tell me what made
you get into doing taxes.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I'm gonna tell you, Drew Danny, I feel like I
was pushed really into doing tax of soul. I I'm
an undergraduate degree from Illinois State University.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I got my bachelor's degree in finance.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
And honestly, the reason that I kind of went into
finance is because my grandmother used to work at the
Federal Reserve Bank and she used to take me to
work with her from bring your daughter to workday and
I just thought that was like the coolest thing ever.
And she was a financial analyst with them. However, like
by the time you graduate from college, you are grown
quote unquote, you are an adult. And it was like
(01:25):
in college I made a lot of financial mistakes because
like unfortunately, like soon turn eighteen, you're getting offers in
the mail for credit cards, you can sign on this
dot in line for a student loan, you can do
all of these very adult things that put you on
financially binding situations.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
And you are kind of unaware.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
So I found myself trying to dig myself out of
that mess. And the process of me like digging myself
out of that mess, I realized, like, hmm, I done
went to school for business. I went to school for finance,
and like, I still wasn't taught what I was supposed
to do, and I think I had went. I was
working at Walmart while I was in college. I was
(02:06):
working full time I was working hard. And during this
time at Walmart, they used to allow uh Jackson Hewitt
to set up like a little booth in Walmart and
you could like literally go over there and like get
your tax done, like either while you were shopping or
like in my case, like while I'm on lunch or
(02:27):
something like that. And like I went over there, Like
I said, I was a student, so twenty twenty one,
like really not making a crazy amount of money, and like.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Respectfully, I'm like when a person was doing my.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Tax, and I'm like, this can't be rocket science, like
you you know, you're set up in the middle of
a Walmart, and like.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I got my degree of finance, so like I feel
like I could probably like figure.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Out how to do this, and like I I kind
of just jumped into finance under though under I feel
like my reasoning wasn't necessarily the best.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It wasn't necessarily because it was the thing I loved.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Like I felt like, you know, this is a me
paying homage to my grandma and she's one of my
favorite people in the world. But I necessarily feel like
this is my thing. And like as I I'm just
the kind of person like when I'm learning things, Like
I get so excited about the things that I'm learning
that like I just want to tell people.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I just want to tell.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Everybody, And like, yeah, I had come that next year,
I'm like, I'm not going to them. I'm gonna do
my own taxes and like I did. And I'm like, hmm,
that wasn't all that hard. And I'm like, but let
me see something, like and I realized, like taxes, the
tax industry is an industry that they never going nowhere.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
People gotta do.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
People have to do their taxes, whether they know how
to do it themselves or they pay somebody to do it.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Like the tax industry not going nowhere.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Why not see like how I could, you know, get
into this industry. So I had came home from college
and they'll tell you this part about college, but like
as soon as you get that degree, you don't necessarily
just get that big girl or big boy job right
out of college. Now, I just graduated with this four
(04:08):
year degree from the State Farm College of Business Finance
degree and I gotta go work and be a teller
at US Bank. And it's like, yeah, I don't really
like that, Like that don't really seem right. So like,
let me figure out something else that I can do.
And I went and I took a class with one
Jackson hewittt what's the liberty liberty liberty tax, liberty tax,
(04:32):
liberty tax?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Over there?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Oh, I think they still over there on like eighty
something in cottage growth, like a fifth in cottage growth.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And they they had the TAXT class. The test class
was it was.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Only a few weeks long, and like it was just
such an interesting mix of people that were in the class.
I'm like, oh yeah, like I could do this. I'm young,
I'm turned like I.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Can do this.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
And like, once you get done with the class, they say, okay, well, yeah,
if you want to work for us, we'll pay you
twelve dollars an hour. We'll pay you twelve dollars an hour,
and then at the end of the tax season you
get a percentage a percentage of pretty much the refunds
that you've gotten your clients. And I'm like, yeah, nah,
(05:17):
that's not that. That can't be how things are getting
done around here. So that's how I kind of got
into the tax industry. Fast forward, I did end up
getting my big girl job and they randomly laid off
our entire department, and I was one of those people
that was affected by that layover, I mean by that layoff.
(05:38):
And thankfully for me, I had learned this new skill
that I had it in my back pocket. And I
had also during this time, I had got licensed as
a financial advisor too. So all these things that I
was kind of dabbling around with when I was in college,
learning for myself, learning how to fix my own credit,
learning how to you know, create a budget for myself,
learning like how to do my own tax isn't like
(06:00):
I'm kind of talking to people about it, Okay, Like I
go get you know, my license in these things, so
I have my life while financial advisor licenses and then
have all regular how to do texts. I'm like, I
don't even like how it feels for somebody to be
able to take my money out of my pocket or
tell me that actually, don't even come to work tomorrow
because we ain't got no work for you to do it.
And I'm like, from that moment for it, it was like, no,
(06:21):
I'm not giving nobody else the opportunity to be able
to do that to me.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And I started my own company from there. Well look
at you.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I love that story like that gives a lot of
people hope, you know, who do want to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
So I'm glad that you shared that with us. And
now of your businesses money matters.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Okay, because it does, Yes, it do. My girl knows
all about the finances. And of course you're doing amazing.
I'm so proud of you. But also, you know, we
got to keep it real. There are some struggles when
it comes to having your own business. Everybody cannot do it,
but if you want to do it, you gotta know
that there's some challenges. So what face or what challenges
may you have faced? And and you know, how did
(07:01):
you overcome them?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
So my biggest one that I feel like it's very important.
I feel like my tax journey started out kind of
rough because I was I have bad mentorship. I was coming,
like I said, I was coming from corporate. And you know,
like when you're in corporate, and like you in that
(07:24):
corporate structure, you have a boss, you got somebody to
train you, You got all those things when you are a boss, when.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
You you you you are all those things.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
So you ain't got nobody to teach you what to
do and all those things. So like I wanted mentorship.
I wanted somebody that could kind of show me to
rope somebody that had been doing it, because like the
tax code is a.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Million pages long.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
There's no way that you can ever know everything that's
in the tax code. And like outside of knowing the
tax code, like they don't got nothing to do with
you knowing how to actually run a business.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So I was working with this lady.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Who pretty much had approached me, and she saw, like
I don't want to to my own horm but like
she saw my life like she saw she saw like
how passionate I.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Was about what it was that I was doing.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
She could tell like I knew my stuff, and like
she had approached me, and she's like, look, no, I
have my own company. I'm gonna open up a second office.
I would love for you to come work with me.
I'll show you whatever it is you don't know, and
then I want you to run my second office and
blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
However, before it was empty of money matters.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I have branded myself as the money coach because like
I was coaching people on all things money. I was
licensing life assurance, I'm licensing investments. I can talk to
you about credit, I can talk to your girl, I
can talk to you about taxis. So like that's where
my name for my business came, money Matters, because hey,
we can talk about any kind of money matters. So
when she came to me, I was the money coach.
She's like, yeah, but I'm saying that to say the like,
(08:56):
I was already my own entity. I was already doing
my own things. So she presented it in a way
with like, look, I'm going to I'm gonna expand on
what you're already doing or give you the platform where
you can take what you're doing even further type thing.
Long story short, without getting into all the details, that
wasn't the kind of time that she was. She only
(09:18):
wanted me to grow to the extent that I did
not grow past her. And it was like she was
trying to keep me in a box. I was working
with her under her for I think two years, maybe
like three years. She never opened that second office. She
never taught me anything outside of what I had learned
at Liberty Text and like she would literally have me
(09:40):
sitting in her office with her from nine o'clock in
the morning to eleven.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Pm at night.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
She got a lobby full of clients, and she literally
just got me sitting in there.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Essentially just keeping these clients company.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Never okay, well damn, I got ten clients company in today.
You work on these two simple ones, and you know,
I get these other adian or get the process started
for me so that ain't neither one of us got
to sit in here all day. Because respectully, I don't
gotta be sitting here with you all day just due
to who I am as a person. And I'm under
the impression that this is my mentor I'm loyal you,
I'm sticking it out with you. I'm in the trenches
(10:14):
with you, but like you really play on me. And
it got to the point that like I'm just a
I'm just kind of a nerd in a way to
like I just like to learn things, like I had
started learning things on like my own and like I
would come with all these new ideas like ooh, look
I want to do because again I'm still my own
entity and my goal is always to go do my
own thing. Okay, look I wanna do this. I want
to write an e book about this. I want to
(10:36):
introduce credit repair. I think we should do credit repair.
I think we should do Oh yeah, you're right, we
should do that, and then she'll take it and label
it as her own and then want me to do
the work, or even worse, she started like taking the
ideas that I'm presenting to her and have me go
solicitit clients, because again not to my own hord.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
People like me. People, Yeah, people are attracted to me
and people trust me.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
So like I've already kind of had like my own
people that was coming with me, and she would have
me going to present these things to my market, to
my people, take the money, and then don't do it,
but then have them under the impression that it's something
that I'm doing because this is the idea that I presented.
Oh yeah, tell them that you can do this now,
or tell them that we're offering this now, but not
showing me what to do. You just take the deposit,
(11:19):
and then when these people are coming looking for the
you know, the products, you ain't got nothing, and you
got so much sass, but not no answers as to
what these people money at or why they don't have
what it is that they paid for. So she did
something and it was just like you know, what miss lady,
I'm up out of him. It was the middle of
the taxis and it don't even matter because again, like
(11:40):
just because who I am as a person like I had,
it has started getting real rocky with us. But we
were already in the process of a tax season, so
I want my clients to know where I am, and
because I've already committed to completing his tax season with you,
like I'm going to do that, but like, please understand,
this is gonna be the last one. We don't even
make it to the end of that taxon. I ended
up having to leave in the middle of the tax
(12:02):
season and took the tax prepairers that I had trained
there with me, and I went and I started my
really gotting my own things started.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
She helped you, yes, she did, so with that, how
has that changed your perspective or how has that made
you mentor others? Like what do you want to do
for your community and the people who are coming up?
Speaker 4 (12:23):
My whole thing when it comes to people that I
work with, I feel like my focus is always education.
I always want people to leave me feeling more confident,
feeling more knowledgeable, and feel like they know more than
they did when they originally came to me. So like,
even when like those preparers that I had trained decided
(12:44):
that they wanted to not work with her because she
was doing a lot of shady stuff, and again, off
my name, a lot of those people had came to
work with her because oh yeah, it's gassing her up.
Because this is what I'm this is where I'm at.
So when I made the decision to go my own way,
they came with me. And my whole thing always was, look,
I appreciate y'all for wanting to come with me, and
(13:04):
I want y'all to understand it, Like, my goal is
never to keep y'all under my thumb. If y'all you know,
if y'all want to learn something that y'all don't, let
me know, I will teach it to you. If you
want to go start your own office from here, no
hard feelings, let me know how I can help you,
and I will give you whatever information you need. Go
get your e fend. This is how you sign up
to get your software. This is the kind of class
(13:26):
you should take. You should go get this kind of
certification so you can be more of a of an
asset to your clients. However, I can help you. Let me,
you know, let me.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Cause you were once in their shoes, how I.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Was once in their shoes.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
And like again, like I said, if the tax code
is so large, you kind of do yourself a disservice
if you only know one person, or only me one thing,
or only know how to deal with one kind of clients.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So I didn't want that for people.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
And then like even like as I'm dealing with my clients,
a lot of my clients, a lot of my clients
have grown with me. But like a lot of my
clients when I first was dealing with them, they start
up businesses. So like just teaching them little things like okay, no,
you need to set this aside for your attack, because
you need to have a business bank account, you need
to get an LC, you need to have some record
(14:11):
keeping in place, and like just seeing how they've grown
to where they are now, Like that's that's my thing.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I'm always very education forward.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
So if you want and if you choose to keep
keep keep me you know, on your journey. Love that,
but like I want to be able to equip you
to fly on your own. If that's what you need
to do.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
That's what it's all about. Okay, so this is brilliantly black. Girlfriend,
What is being brilliantly black mean to you?
Speaker 4 (14:39):
I feel like, honestly speaking as black people, that's just
brilliant in itself. Like everything brilliant comes from black people.
In my opinion, I feel like just the blessing to
be black is wonderful in itself, and I feel like
(14:59):
that speaks volume in all of the other accolades, or
all the other talents, or all of the other skills
that we have on top of that just enhance that brilliance.
Us being smart, us being beautiful, us being stylish, us being.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Sisterly or brotherly or loving all.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
I feel like all of those things just kind of
add on to the brilliance that already is in us
just from being black people.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I love that. Look at you, my girl.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Okay, Sit, here's fits a day during this Black History
buff So let's get into it. Because it is tax season.
Of course, when it's the last day everyone can file
their tax.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
So it depends.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
So if you are a business owner like somebody that
has an S corp, a C corp. Or if you
have a partnership of March fifteenth is the day that
your tax return needs to be done. If you need
an extension, you can get an extension to September the
fifteenth if you are an individual or you are a
soul PROP or a single member LLC that does not
follow into one of those other categories that I just named,
(15:56):
and your tax return is due on April the fifteenth,
and you can get an extension to foul until October fifteenth.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Okay, Now, I've been seeing a lot of people on
social media saying, now I filed the first day that
I was supposed to, why haven't I received my return?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Gotcha?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
So nine times out of ten, it's a nine times
out of ten. The reason for that is likely the
Path Act. So if you are a person who claims
children on your tax return, there's something in place that's
called the Path Act. And pretty much what the Path
Act does, it is trying to reduce people fraudulently claiming
children that they're not supposed to be claiming, and fraudulently
(16:32):
claim and refunds that they are not supposed to claim.
So they kind of have a waiting period and they
don't they don't process returns with those kind of things
on there until February to fifteenth. So even if you
fouled January twenty first or January twenty nine, I think
that was the first day that I already started accepting
tax returns. If you have dependence on that, they're not
(16:53):
processing you until February fifteenth, which was just on Saturday,
and then yesterday was President's Day exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
You gotta account for the week. Presidents say all of that.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
So yeah, it's a great chance that a lot of
people may start seeing refunds on Wednesday. Okay, okay, So
Wednesday is like Wednesdays and Fridays are like the drop
days for.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
A di ors.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
That's when they usually drop their refunds.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Okay, Well, I hope that helps somebody out there. So
social media is going crazy right now. They're like, this
is later than other years and all of that. Marshanna,
you've been dropping some facts on social media. I saw
you saying that the way that we do taxes now
versus the two.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Thousands is dead. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
So there are a lot of people who are upset
that they are getting smaller refunds, and of course, you know,
people usually be mad at the first point of contact.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And all I did was prepare you taxes. I didn't.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
I wasn't there when you was paying taxes or not
paying taxes. I wasn't there when you was felling out
the Wfore I'm just here now to prepare the taxes.
The reason that people are seeing well, the reason that
people are seeing small and refunds, and the reason that
I said that things are different than they were in
the two thousands, because I'm pretty sure you remember with
way back when when people oh, yeah, I got four kids,
so I'm gonna get eight thousand back, and I'm gonna
(18:06):
get bla bla blah blah blahlah TV hello.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And it's not like that anymore.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
So in twenty and twenty, the Trump administration introduced the
new W four. It was part of the tax cutting
jobs at and back in the day when we used
to fill out our W four, we used to just
put like one, two, three four to claim like personal exemptions. However,
we don't have personal exemptions anymore. In addition to some
(18:34):
other things that Trump has needed to change the tax code,
but the main thing is now, since we don't have
the personal exemptions W four's and the taxes that are
taking out of your check are based on the amount
of money that you actually make, Whereas at first it
wasn't like that you're getting taxed on every dollar, so
it was easy to overpay your taxes and then turn
around and put your kids on there and now you're
(18:55):
getting Now you're getting fat check.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
But it's not like that anymore.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
So they introducing the twenty twenty and if y'all remember
back in twenty twenty, times was hard and they were
trying to get more money flowing into the economy to
stop us from going into a depression. So in an
effort to do that, they introduce these new W fours
with the intention of putting more money on people's paychecks
to keep money flowing in the economy so that people
(19:19):
would not have to wait until tax time to see
these larger refunds. So now when you're feeling out the
W four, it's already accounting for the fact that you're
gonna claim your three kids, it's already accounting for the
fact that you're filing with your husband. It's already accounting
for all of these different things. So their goal is
they don't want to have to give you anything, so
because they've given it to.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
You already, on your check.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
So yeah, I feel like it's kind of starting to
settle to kind of sinking in for people. Yeah, and
they are also too, like when it comes to like
people who are married and they're filing with their spouse
and things like that, Like a lot of times people
are not accounting for their spouse's income when are put
in their w you know, when they.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Feeling out those they before.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
So they may say, y'all, marry foul and jointly, but
you're not including your spouse's income. And they're also utilizing
you already said you marry foul and join these. So
now we need to know what your spouse is income
in so we can know how much taxes we need
to take out of each other check. So the less
information you provide them with on the W four, the
more of a chance that you have of them not
(20:23):
taking out the right amount of tacking them, putting yourself
in a position to possibly Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And for me, that's what I do not want. I'm
fine with just breaking even.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Own them and we good. There we go.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I love it. Listen, you have the best advice I've
been seeing it.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Like I said on social media, you've been giving a
lot of people advice, they've been asking for it, and
where can they find you if they want to, you know,
have my girl mar shaying to do their taxes or
just want information? Where can they find you website?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
You can find me on my website www dot mtmmoneymatters
dot com. You can find me on Instagram at MTM
Money Matters. You can find me on Facebook at MTM
Money Matters MTM like Marshawna t martin MTM Money Matters.
That's every every platform. Laying on Twitter as MTM Money Matters.
(21:20):
If you want to fam me on Twitter, I ain't
gonna tear you had a family.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
If they'll find you, they will find you well.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Of course we're gonna have you posted on our website. Marshana.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
This has been just so insightful and great. I appreciate
you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
I really hope that the information not provided today can
help somebody feel out a W four right. Yeah, pick
a tax repairer that fits your needs, actually know what
they need to know about your specific tax situation. And
more important than anything, if you are a new business
owner or are you somebody that's just starting out.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Your mentor matters, Your mentor matters. Okay, that's that's what
we're gonna take from this today. That's what we go
in with, Marshauna. Thank you again.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Thank you so much, Danny. It has been a pleasure girl.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Oh
Welcome to another episode of the Veryly Black Podcast. It
is your host and producer, Danny D and we are
wrapping up Black History Month. But it's never too late
because you know, we represent three sixty five and today
I have a very special guest with me. She is
a financial consultant, Marshana Martin and the owner of MTM
Money Matters is a tax preparation service. Thank you so
much for joining me.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
Hey, Danny D, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
It's my pleasure. I mean, this is the perfect time.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
First of all, it's Black History Month, talk about it, okay. Second,
it is tax season.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Is it? Yes? It is?
Speaker 3 (00:33):
So I know you are super busy right now.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
Yes, ma'am.
Speaker 1 (00:37):
I've been seeing a lot of people talking about their
taxes on social media more. But we're gonna get into,
you know, how we can help out people with that.
But I want to know about you and your business.
So I just want you to tell me what made
you get into doing taxes.
Speaker 4 (00:49):
I'm gonna tell you, Drew Danny, I feel like I
was pushed really into doing tax of soul. I I'm
an undergraduate degree from Illinois State University.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
I got my bachelor's degree in finance.
Speaker 4 (01:01):
And honestly, the reason that I kind of went into
finance is because my grandmother used to work at the
Federal Reserve Bank and she used to take me to
work with her from bring your daughter to workday and
I just thought that was like the coolest thing ever.
And she was a financial analyst with them. However, like
by the time you graduate from college, you are grown
quote unquote, you are an adult. And it was like
(01:25):
in college I made a lot of financial mistakes because
like unfortunately, like soon turn eighteen, you're getting offers in
the mail for credit cards, you can sign on this
dot in line for a student loan, you can do
all of these very adult things that put you on
financially binding situations.
Speaker 2 (01:42):
And you are kind of unaware.
Speaker 4 (01:44):
So I found myself trying to dig myself out of
that mess. And the process of me like digging myself
out of that mess, I realized, like, hmm, I done
went to school for business. I went to school for finance,
and like, I still wasn't taught what I was supposed
to do, and I think I had went. I was
working at Walmart while I was in college. I was
(02:06):
working full time I was working hard. And during this
time at Walmart, they used to allow uh Jackson Hewitt
to set up like a little booth in Walmart and
you could like literally go over there and like get
your tax done, like either while you were shopping or
like in my case, like while I'm on lunch or
(02:27):
something like that. And like I went over there, Like
I said, I was a student, so twenty twenty one,
like really not making a crazy amount of money, and like.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
Respectfully, I'm like when a person was doing my.
Speaker 4 (02:39):
Tax, and I'm like, this can't be rocket science, like
you you know, you're set up in the middle of
a Walmart, and like.
Speaker 2 (02:47):
I got my degree of finance, so like I feel
like I could probably like figure.
Speaker 4 (02:52):
Out how to do this, and like I I kind
of just jumped into finance under though under I feel
like my reasoning wasn't necessarily the best.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
It wasn't necessarily because it was the thing I loved.
Speaker 4 (03:03):
Like I felt like, you know, this is a me
paying homage to my grandma and she's one of my
favorite people in the world. But I necessarily feel like
this is my thing. And like as I I'm just
the kind of person like when I'm learning things, Like
I get so excited about the things that I'm learning
that like I just want to tell people.
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I just want to tell.
Speaker 4 (03:20):
Everybody, And like, yeah, I had come that next year,
I'm like, I'm not going to them. I'm gonna do
my own taxes and like I did. And I'm like, hmm,
that wasn't all that hard. And I'm like, but let
me see something, like and I realized, like taxes, the
tax industry is an industry that they never going nowhere.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
People gotta do.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
People have to do their taxes, whether they know how
to do it themselves or they pay somebody to do it.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
Like the tax industry not going nowhere.
Speaker 4 (03:47):
Why not see like how I could, you know, get
into this industry. So I had came home from college
and they'll tell you this part about college, but like
as soon as you get that degree, you don't necessarily
just get that big girl or big boy job right
out of college. Now, I just graduated with this four
(04:08):
year degree from the State Farm College of Business Finance
degree and I gotta go work and be a teller
at US Bank. And it's like, yeah, I don't really
like that, Like that don't really seem right. So like,
let me figure out something else that I can do.
And I went and I took a class with one
Jackson hewittt what's the liberty liberty liberty tax, liberty tax,
(04:32):
liberty tax?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Over there?
Speaker 4 (04:33):
Oh, I think they still over there on like eighty
something in cottage growth, like a fifth in cottage growth.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
And they they had the TAXT class. The test class
was it was.
Speaker 4 (04:43):
Only a few weeks long, and like it was just
such an interesting mix of people that were in the class.
I'm like, oh yeah, like I could do this. I'm young,
I'm turned like I.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Can do this.
Speaker 4 (04:54):
And like, once you get done with the class, they say, okay, well, yeah,
if you want to work for us, we'll pay you
twelve dollars an hour. We'll pay you twelve dollars an hour,
and then at the end of the tax season you
get a percentage a percentage of pretty much the refunds
that you've gotten your clients. And I'm like, yeah, nah,
(05:17):
that's not that. That can't be how things are getting
done around here. So that's how I kind of got
into the tax industry. Fast forward, I did end up
getting my big girl job and they randomly laid off
our entire department, and I was one of those people
that was affected by that layover, I mean by that layoff.
(05:38):
And thankfully for me, I had learned this new skill
that I had it in my back pocket. And I
had also during this time, I had got licensed as
a financial advisor too. So all these things that I
was kind of dabbling around with when I was in college,
learning for myself, learning how to fix my own credit,
learning how to you know, create a budget for myself,
learning like how to do my own tax isn't like
(06:00):
I'm kind of talking to people about it, Okay, Like I
go get you know, my license in these things, so
I have my life while financial advisor licenses and then
have all regular how to do texts. I'm like, I
don't even like how it feels for somebody to be
able to take my money out of my pocket or
tell me that actually, don't even come to work tomorrow
because we ain't got no work for you to do it.
And I'm like, from that moment for it, it was like, no,
(06:21):
I'm not giving nobody else the opportunity to be able
to do that to me.
Speaker 2 (06:25):
And I started my own company from there. Well look
at you.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
I love that story like that gives a lot of
people hope, you know, who do want to be an entrepreneur.
Speaker 3 (06:35):
So I'm glad that you shared that with us. And
now of your businesses money matters.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Okay, because it does, Yes, it do. My girl knows
all about the finances. And of course you're doing amazing.
I'm so proud of you. But also, you know, we
got to keep it real. There are some struggles when
it comes to having your own business. Everybody cannot do it,
but if you want to do it, you gotta know
that there's some challenges. So what face or what challenges
may you have faced? And and you know, how did
(07:01):
you overcome them?
Speaker 2 (07:02):
Okay?
Speaker 4 (07:03):
So my biggest one that I feel like it's very important.
I feel like my tax journey started out kind of
rough because I was I have bad mentorship. I was coming,
like I said, I was coming from corporate. And you know,
like when you're in corporate, and like you in that
(07:24):
corporate structure, you have a boss, you got somebody to
train you, You got all those things when you are a boss, when.
Speaker 2 (07:30):
You you you you are all those things.
Speaker 4 (07:33):
So you ain't got nobody to teach you what to
do and all those things. So like I wanted mentorship.
I wanted somebody that could kind of show me to
rope somebody that had been doing it, because like the
tax code is a.
Speaker 2 (07:46):
Million pages long.
Speaker 4 (07:47):
There's no way that you can ever know everything that's
in the tax code. And like outside of knowing the
tax code, like they don't got nothing to do with
you knowing how to actually run a business.
Speaker 2 (07:59):
So I was working with this lady.
Speaker 4 (08:04):
Who pretty much had approached me, and she saw, like
I don't want to to my own horm but like
she saw my life like she saw she saw like
how passionate I.
Speaker 2 (08:15):
Was about what it was that I was doing.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
She could tell like I knew my stuff, and like
she had approached me, and she's like, look, no, I
have my own company. I'm gonna open up a second office.
I would love for you to come work with me.
I'll show you whatever it is you don't know, and
then I want you to run my second office and
blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
However, before it was empty of money matters.
Speaker 4 (08:34):
I have branded myself as the money coach because like
I was coaching people on all things money. I was
licensing life assurance, I'm licensing investments. I can talk to
you about credit, I can talk to your girl, I
can talk to you about taxis. So like that's where
my name for my business came, money Matters, because hey,
we can talk about any kind of money matters. So
when she came to me, I was the money coach.
She's like, yeah, but I'm saying that to say the like,
(08:56):
I was already my own entity. I was already doing
my own things. So she presented it in a way
with like, look, I'm going to I'm gonna expand on
what you're already doing or give you the platform where
you can take what you're doing even further type thing.
Long story short, without getting into all the details, that
wasn't the kind of time that she was. She only
(09:18):
wanted me to grow to the extent that I did
not grow past her. And it was like she was
trying to keep me in a box. I was working
with her under her for I think two years, maybe
like three years. She never opened that second office. She
never taught me anything outside of what I had learned
at Liberty Text and like she would literally have me
(09:40):
sitting in her office with her from nine o'clock in
the morning to eleven.
Speaker 2 (09:44):
Pm at night.
Speaker 4 (09:46):
She got a lobby full of clients, and she literally
just got me sitting in there.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Essentially just keeping these clients company.
Speaker 4 (09:53):
Never okay, well damn, I got ten clients company in today.
You work on these two simple ones, and you know,
I get these other adian or get the process started
for me so that ain't neither one of us got
to sit in here all day. Because respectully, I don't
gotta be sitting here with you all day just due
to who I am as a person. And I'm under
the impression that this is my mentor I'm loyal you,
I'm sticking it out with you. I'm in the trenches
(10:14):
with you, but like you really play on me. And
it got to the point that like I'm just a
I'm just kind of a nerd in a way to
like I just like to learn things, like I had
started learning things on like my own and like I
would come with all these new ideas like ooh, look
I want to do because again I'm still my own
entity and my goal is always to go do my
own thing. Okay, look I wanna do this. I want
to write an e book about this. I want to
(10:36):
introduce credit repair. I think we should do credit repair.
I think we should do Oh yeah, you're right, we
should do that, and then she'll take it and label
it as her own and then want me to do
the work, or even worse, she started like taking the
ideas that I'm presenting to her and have me go
solicitit clients, because again not to my own hord.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
People like me. People, Yeah, people are attracted to me
and people trust me.
Speaker 4 (10:58):
So like I've already kind of had like my own
people that was coming with me, and she would have
me going to present these things to my market, to
my people, take the money, and then don't do it,
but then have them under the impression that it's something
that I'm doing because this is the idea that I presented.
Oh yeah, tell them that you can do this now,
or tell them that we're offering this now, but not
showing me what to do. You just take the deposit,
(11:19):
and then when these people are coming looking for the
you know, the products, you ain't got nothing, and you
got so much sass, but not no answers as to
what these people money at or why they don't have
what it is that they paid for. So she did
something and it was just like you know, what miss lady,
I'm up out of him. It was the middle of
the taxis and it don't even matter because again, like
(11:40):
just because who I am as a person like I had,
it has started getting real rocky with us. But we
were already in the process of a tax season, so
I want my clients to know where I am, and
because I've already committed to completing his tax season with you,
like I'm going to do that, but like, please understand,
this is gonna be the last one. We don't even
make it to the end of that taxon. I ended
up having to leave in the middle of the tax
(12:02):
season and took the tax prepairers that I had trained
there with me, and I went and I started my
really gotting my own things started.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
She helped you, yes, she did, so with that, how
has that changed your perspective or how has that made
you mentor others? Like what do you want to do
for your community and the people who are coming up?
Speaker 4 (12:23):
My whole thing when it comes to people that I
work with, I feel like my focus is always education.
I always want people to leave me feeling more confident,
feeling more knowledgeable, and feel like they know more than
they did when they originally came to me. So like,
even when like those preparers that I had trained decided
(12:44):
that they wanted to not work with her because she
was doing a lot of shady stuff, and again, off
my name, a lot of those people had came to
work with her because oh yeah, it's gassing her up.
Because this is what I'm this is where I'm at.
So when I made the decision to go my own way,
they came with me. And my whole thing always was, look,
I appreciate y'all for wanting to come with me, and
(13:04):
I want y'all to understand it, Like, my goal is
never to keep y'all under my thumb. If y'all you know,
if y'all want to learn something that y'all don't, let
me know, I will teach it to you. If you
want to go start your own office from here, no
hard feelings, let me know how I can help you,
and I will give you whatever information you need. Go
get your e fend. This is how you sign up
to get your software. This is the kind of class
(13:26):
you should take. You should go get this kind of
certification so you can be more of a of an
asset to your clients. However, I can help you. Let me,
you know, let me.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Cause you were once in their shoes, how I.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Was once in their shoes.
Speaker 4 (13:38):
And like again, like I said, if the tax code
is so large, you kind of do yourself a disservice
if you only know one person, or only me one thing,
or only know how to deal with one kind of clients.
Speaker 2 (13:50):
So I didn't want that for people.
Speaker 4 (13:51):
And then like even like as I'm dealing with my clients,
a lot of my clients, a lot of my clients
have grown with me. But like a lot of my
clients when I first was dealing with them, they start
up businesses. So like just teaching them little things like okay, no,
you need to set this aside for your attack, because
you need to have a business bank account, you need
to get an LC, you need to have some record
(14:11):
keeping in place, and like just seeing how they've grown
to where they are now, Like that's that's my thing.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I'm always very education forward.
Speaker 4 (14:19):
So if you want and if you choose to keep
keep keep me you know, on your journey. Love that,
but like I want to be able to equip you
to fly on your own. If that's what you need
to do.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
That's what it's all about. Okay, so this is brilliantly black. Girlfriend,
What is being brilliantly black mean to you?
Speaker 4 (14:39):
I feel like, honestly speaking as black people, that's just
brilliant in itself. Like everything brilliant comes from black people.
In my opinion, I feel like just the blessing to
be black is wonderful in itself, and I feel like
(14:59):
that speaks volume in all of the other accolades, or
all the other talents, or all of the other skills
that we have on top of that just enhance that brilliance.
Us being smart, us being beautiful, us being stylish, us being.
Speaker 2 (15:12):
Sisterly or brotherly or loving all.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
I feel like all of those things just kind of
add on to the brilliance that already is in us
just from being black people.
Speaker 2 (15:22):
I love that. Look at you, my girl.
Speaker 1 (15:25):
Okay, Sit, here's fits a day during this Black History
buff So let's get into it. Because it is tax season.
Of course, when it's the last day everyone can file
their tax.
Speaker 2 (15:35):
So it depends.
Speaker 4 (15:36):
So if you are a business owner like somebody that
has an S corp, a C corp. Or if you
have a partnership of March fifteenth is the day that
your tax return needs to be done. If you need
an extension, you can get an extension to September the
fifteenth if you are an individual or you are a
soul PROP or a single member LLC that does not
follow into one of those other categories that I just named,
(15:56):
and your tax return is due on April the fifteenth,
and you can get an extension to foul until October fifteenth.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Okay, Now, I've been seeing a lot of people on
social media saying, now I filed the first day that
I was supposed to, why haven't I received my return?
Speaker 2 (16:11):
Gotcha?
Speaker 4 (16:12):
So nine times out of ten, it's a nine times
out of ten. The reason for that is likely the
Path Act. So if you are a person who claims
children on your tax return, there's something in place that's
called the Path Act. And pretty much what the Path
Act does, it is trying to reduce people fraudulently claiming
children that they're not supposed to be claiming, and fraudulently
(16:32):
claim and refunds that they are not supposed to claim.
So they kind of have a waiting period and they
don't they don't process returns with those kind of things
on there until February to fifteenth. So even if you
fouled January twenty first or January twenty nine, I think
that was the first day that I already started accepting
tax returns. If you have dependence on that, they're not
(16:53):
processing you until February fifteenth, which was just on Saturday,
and then yesterday was President's Day exactly.
Speaker 3 (16:59):
You gotta account for the week. Presidents say all of that.
Speaker 4 (17:02):
So yeah, it's a great chance that a lot of
people may start seeing refunds on Wednesday. Okay, okay, So
Wednesday is like Wednesdays and Fridays are like the drop
days for.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
A di ors.
Speaker 2 (17:12):
That's when they usually drop their refunds.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Okay, Well, I hope that helps somebody out there. So
social media is going crazy right now. They're like, this
is later than other years and all of that. Marshanna,
you've been dropping some facts on social media. I saw
you saying that the way that we do taxes now
versus the two.
Speaker 3 (17:27):
Thousands is dead. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 4 (17:31):
So there are a lot of people who are upset
that they are getting smaller refunds, and of course, you know,
people usually be mad at the first point of contact.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
And all I did was prepare you taxes. I didn't.
Speaker 4 (17:45):
I wasn't there when you was paying taxes or not
paying taxes. I wasn't there when you was felling out
the Wfore I'm just here now to prepare the taxes.
The reason that people are seeing well, the reason that
people are seeing small and refunds, and the reason that
I said that things are different than they were in
the two thousands, because I'm pretty sure you remember with
way back when when people oh, yeah, I got four kids,
so I'm gonna get eight thousand back, and I'm gonna
(18:06):
get bla bla blah blah blahlah TV hello.
Speaker 2 (18:11):
And it's not like that anymore.
Speaker 4 (18:12):
So in twenty and twenty, the Trump administration introduced the
new W four. It was part of the tax cutting
jobs at and back in the day when we used
to fill out our W four, we used to just
put like one, two, three four to claim like personal exemptions. However,
we don't have personal exemptions anymore. In addition to some
(18:34):
other things that Trump has needed to change the tax code,
but the main thing is now, since we don't have
the personal exemptions W four's and the taxes that are
taking out of your check are based on the amount
of money that you actually make, Whereas at first it
wasn't like that you're getting taxed on every dollar, so
it was easy to overpay your taxes and then turn
around and put your kids on there and now you're
(18:55):
getting Now you're getting fat check.
Speaker 2 (18:57):
But it's not like that anymore.
Speaker 4 (18:59):
So they introducing the twenty twenty and if y'all remember
back in twenty twenty, times was hard and they were
trying to get more money flowing into the economy to
stop us from going into a depression. So in an
effort to do that, they introduce these new W fours
with the intention of putting more money on people's paychecks
to keep money flowing in the economy so that people
(19:19):
would not have to wait until tax time to see
these larger refunds. So now when you're feeling out the
W four, it's already accounting for the fact that you're
gonna claim your three kids, it's already accounting for the
fact that you're filing with your husband. It's already accounting
for all of these different things. So their goal is
they don't want to have to give you anything, so
because they've given it to.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
You already, on your check.
Speaker 4 (19:43):
So yeah, I feel like it's kind of starting to
settle to kind of sinking in for people. Yeah, and
they are also too, like when it comes to like
people who are married and they're filing with their spouse
and things like that, Like a lot of times people
are not accounting for their spouse's income when are put
in their w you know, when they.
Speaker 2 (20:01):
Feeling out those they before.
Speaker 4 (20:02):
So they may say, y'all, marry foul and jointly, but
you're not including your spouse's income. And they're also utilizing
you already said you marry foul and join these. So
now we need to know what your spouse is income
in so we can know how much taxes we need
to take out of each other check. So the less
information you provide them with on the W four, the
more of a chance that you have of them not
(20:23):
taking out the right amount of tacking them, putting yourself
in a position to possibly Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
And for me, that's what I do not want. I'm
fine with just breaking even.
Speaker 2 (20:34):
Own them and we good. There we go.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
I love it. Listen, you have the best advice I've
been seeing it.
Speaker 1 (20:44):
Like I said on social media, you've been giving a
lot of people advice, they've been asking for it, and
where can they find you if they want to, you know,
have my girl mar shaying to do their taxes or
just want information? Where can they find you website?
Speaker 4 (20:57):
You can find me on my website www dot mtmmoneymatters
dot com. You can find me on Instagram at MTM
Money Matters. You can find me on Facebook at MTM
Money Matters MTM like Marshawna t martin MTM Money Matters.
That's every every platform. Laying on Twitter as MTM Money Matters.
(21:20):
If you want to fam me on Twitter, I ain't
gonna tear you had a family.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
If they'll find you, they will find you well.
Speaker 2 (21:28):
I love it.
Speaker 3 (21:29):
Of course we're gonna have you posted on our website. Marshana.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
This has been just so insightful and great. I appreciate
you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 4 (21:38):
I really hope that the information not provided today can
help somebody feel out a W four right. Yeah, pick
a tax repairer that fits your needs, actually know what
they need to know about your specific tax situation. And
more important than anything, if you are a new business
owner or are you somebody that's just starting out.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Your mentor matters, Your mentor matters. Okay, that's that's what
we're gonna take from this today. That's what we go
in with, Marshauna. Thank you again.
Speaker 2 (22:05):
Thank you so much, Danny. It has been a pleasure girl.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
Oh
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy And Charlamagne Tha God!
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.