August 29, 2025 • 23 mins
In this episode of The Due Diligence Project podcast, founder Alex Sonkin interviews elite CPA Jeremy Lederer about his journey from recognizing the inefficiencies in tax dollars to becoming a leading tax strategist. Jeremy shares how he transformed his practice to focus on legally eliminating taxes for seven and eight-figure entrepreneurs, and discusses his new book "The Zero Tax Strategy."
Key Topics Covered:
Career Journey: Jeremy's path from witnessing his entrepreneur father's tax struggles to becoming an elite tax strategist, including his pivotal moment when a managing partner rejected his $100,000 tax-saving idea for a client
Practice Philosophy: The fundamental difference between tax preparers and tax strategists, and why reinvesting dollars in local communities multiplies value by 10x versus the 60% efficiency rate of federal tax dollars
Due Diligence Project Impact: How joining the DDP community of nearly 1,000 CPA firms transformed Jeremy's capabilities through peer review, collective expertise, and access to vetted strategies
The Zero Tax Strategy Book: Jeremy's mission to share transformational tax planning strategies with entrepreneurs, evolving from a technical textbook to an accessible guide with stories and diagrams
Implementation Focus: Why proper execution and documentation are critical for converting potential tax savings into realized savings while maintaining audit defense readiness
Featured Quotes:
"Every dollar that goes into Washington DC, only 60 cents makes it out. They literally destroy dollars. Whereas a dollar reinvested in one's local community can multiply by 10." - Jeremy Lederer
"There's a huge difference between a tax preparer and a tax strategist... that was the light bulb moment for me." - Jeremy Lederer
"If you don't know how many pages are in the tax code, then you don't know how many strategies are in the tax code." - Alex Sonkin
"Zero tax is possible, it's legal and implementation is the key." - Jeremy Lederer
Resources Mentioned:
- The Zero Tax Strategy Book by Jeremy Lederer
- XIT CPA (Jeremy's firm), visit www.xitcpa.com to learn more, or book a consultation
- The Due Diligence Project Summit
- Website: www.duediligenceproject.com
This episode highlights how elite tax professionals can save entrepreneurs millions in taxes through proper strategy and implementation, while emphasizing the importance of working with experienced CPAs who have deep knowledge of the tax code and access to peer-reviewed strategies.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
All right, welcome to the Due Diligence Project
podcast.
We've got Jeremy Letter, one ofthe most elite CPAs in the
country, joining us and I'msuper excited to host this
meeting with you today, Jeremy?
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm doing great, Alex .
Thank you so much for having metoday and for writing the
foreword for my book.
It's been really great gettingto know you and being a part of
the due diligence project theselast couple of years.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
So I know you just completed the Zero Tax Strategy
book.
It's exciting, it's awesome.
I highly recommend everyonelistening to this to pick up a
copy.
But really, today we're goingto dive in and really get a
better understanding of Jeremy.
Today we're going to dive inand really get a better
understanding of Jeremy, why hebecame an elite CPA, what his
experience has been before thedue diligence project, after
(00:52):
joining the due diligenceproject, and really do a deep
dive into the mind of one of thetop tax professionals or tax
geeks as we endearingly like tocall ourselves in the country,
and what that work involves.
Because I think there's a lot ofbusiness owners out there that
are dealing with huge tax issuesincome taxes, state tax,
(01:14):
capital gains tax, all sorts ofother moving parts and we're
really, really proud to supportsome leading tax advisors family
office advisors who reallyspecialize in tax mitigation,
and Jeremy is one of the leadersin the country in that space.
So really excited to have youhere.
Let's start with some questions.
(01:34):
Tell us about you know, why didyou become a CPA in the first
place?
What was, what was?
What were you thinking there?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, to make a long story short, my dad's an
entrepreneur and I always sawhim struggling with taxes and
over time I came to realize thatthe dollars that go into
Washington DC only 60 centsmakes it out.
(02:08):
They literally destroy dollars,whereas a dollar reinvested in
one's local community canmultiply by 10.
So the situation isentrepreneurs are the best
allocators of capital in theworld and I feel like it's my
calling to help them keep moreof those dollars in their local
(02:28):
communities.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's a great way to make a difference in the world,
and certainly the Doge Report, Ibelieve, maybe supports some of
that thinking as well.
But before we get into all ofthat, let's keep going.
Let's keep going into your mind, and so you're here to make a
difference in the world.
Tell us about your experiencemaking that difference.
Before you joined the DueDiligence Project, which is the
(02:54):
largest independent peercommunity of tax professionals
in the world, you were doingsome great things beforehand.
Tell us about that experience.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I always knew that I was going to go into tax
advisory.
I shouldn't say always knew, butas I was working my way up the
ranks with an entrepreneurialspirit, I worked for a different
tax firm every year for fiveyears until the defining moment
came along the firm I wasworking for at the time.
(03:24):
It was early April and of courseI'm grinding through tax
returns.
I'm a tax manager at the timeand I come across a particular
tax return where it becamereally clear to me there was a
better way to report thistransaction and it would save
the client over $100,000.
(03:45):
All we had to do was pause workon the tax returns, go back to
the client and get some moreinformation.
So I took this to the managingpartner at the firm I was with
at the time and he basicallytold me to get back to work.
We're not getting paid for that, we're getting paid to prepare
the tax returns.
And that was the light bulbmoment for me, when I realized
(04:06):
that there's a huge differencebetween a tax preparer and a tax
strategist.
And from then on I wascommitted to that ideal and
found a small book of businessto acquire and grew that into
what it is today, which is avery boutique elite CPA firm.
We work with a lot of seven andeight figure entrepreneurs to
(04:29):
legally eliminate their taxes.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, where did you grow up and where did you?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
go to college.
I went to college at theUniversity of Denver.
I studied golf initially.
Once my eligibility ran out, Idecided I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
They have a great lacrosse team over there at the
University of Denver yeah, theydo, and I think, a hockey team
over there.
They got two leading sportsteams that make a big missile
over there.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, the hockey team .
That was fun to watch.
I definitely got into that.
The energy in that building wasphenomenal.
But I digress.
So you went to Denver.
How did you choose Denver?
And you'll still have a placethere.
(05:22):
I love going up there.
Southwest Colorado probably oneof the most beautiful places in
America.
They call it the Switzerland ofAmerica, although I've not been
to Switzerland so I can'tcompare.
But doggone it, it's beautiful.
The Telluride area it's a dreamcome true.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
It's cool, you know, ski resorts in Colorado, utah,
world-class and obviously veryexciting.
But let's get back to the taxplanning.
So, yeah, how did you, you know, when you joined the Due
Diligence Project, how did yourworld change, what capabilities
did you gain and how do you feeltoday about your ability to
(06:04):
really make a difference for thebusiness?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, great question.
It's been life changing After Istarted my practice in 2014,.
I was devouring all the contentthat I could find, whether it
was authored by Mark Kohler orTom Wheelwright or some of the
(06:29):
others.
That really got my wheelsturning.
But then there was somethingmissing.
All these people, or theexperts at the time, were not
thinking big enough for me and Iwas constantly searching for
somebody to show me how tolegally eliminate taxes or
(06:51):
situations where $1 can be $10,with the concepts of non-cash
deductions and leverage andcreating the right set of facts
to make this defensible.
And when I found the duediligence project, it really
clicked.
(07:11):
The way that we're able to gettogether multiple times per year
and vet emerging tax strategiesis truly unique, and I don't
take it for granted.
I mean, ideas are everywhere.
They're floating around us,literally in cyberspace.
They're not even cheap anymore.
They're free, and the tendencyto get overwhelmed, even for a
(07:36):
trained tax professional likemyself, is very high.
I can only imagine what theclients are going through, what
a regular entrepreneur is goingthrough.
How do you filter through allthis?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
It's nearly impossible and it takes an army
of missionaries, alex, and Ibelieve that is how I would
describe the due diligenceproject definitely slows things
down a little bit, but becausethe tax code is just so vast,
(08:24):
it's like all of the oceans onthe, you know, on the world,
combined, trying to do a deepdive and find everything in
these deep, dark oceans.
It's impossible for one personbut but like like eating an
elephant, one bite at a time.
As a community of hundreds andhundreds of tax geeks, we had
almost 1,000 CPA firms at ourlast summit.
(08:44):
That registered for our lastsummit.
And of course, every time we doa tax strategy there is
third-party CPAs, third-partyattorneys, third parties coming
in looking at the same taxstructure that the recommended
member of the due diligenceproject which the tax keeps
recommended after completingtheir due diligence.
So every strategy continues toget refined from other
(09:08):
professionals, tax professionalslooking at it, getting their
questions answered or not, andultimately going is this tax
strategy something that's legal?
Is it clean?
How complicated is it?
Is the specialist who'sdelivering it?
Is he someone who we're goingto respect and be able to work
(09:28):
with?
Are they easy to work with?
Is he going to make us look badin front of the client?
All of these questions CPAshave, and what we've done in the
due diligence project is reallymake those questions very, very
easy to answer and help the CPAcomplete three quarters, seven
eighths, of that due diligencethemselves, and then the last
(09:49):
quarter, you know, or one eighthyou got to do yourself, but you
got the notes, you got theresources, you get the you know,
the cheat sheets and everythingaround you where there's no
excuse for not doing the work.
And once you complete the work,the real benefit goes to your
clients.
But the key is you got to wantto do it and the more successful
(10:12):
you get, the more successfulCPAs get utilizing our structure
, the richer they get.
Sometimes they just go out andsell their practice to a private
equity firm.
The fact that you still want tobe here and deliver value to
the business owners and makethat difference is, I think,
really cool.
Let's talk about that.
I mean, there's other thingsbesides just straight up value
(10:35):
delivery.
You know why are you doing this?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, like it really is a
calling to to.
It's my way of supportingentrepreneurs, which I believe
are some of the most generous,hardworking people in the world,
and we really this country was,was built by those folks and
they're busy, they're extremelybusy, everyone's super busy
(11:01):
doing what they're best at, andit really creates a lot of
heartache for me when I pick upa tax return from a new client
and see just how many hundredsof thousands of dollars or
millions of dollars that werejust wasted or sent to
Washington where they weredestroyed.
So I wrote the Zero TaxStrategy book to bring the good
(11:24):
news, hopefully to a few peoplea few more people than would
otherwise hear it about thesetransformational experiences
that my clients have had overthe years.
It was a difficult process.
I never thought of myself as anauthor, but it just felt like
something I had to do and it wasa fun process.
(11:46):
I can tell you the first draft Iwrote Alex.
It was a textbook.
As you can imagine, I'm atechnical guy CPA, tax advisor,
tax advisor this thing nobodywould have read it.
I was working with a coach.
Thankfully that you referred meto.
She's like Jeremy no one'sgoing to read this.
It's a textbook.
(12:06):
You got to have stories, yougot to have pictures, you got to
have diagrams.
I'm pleased with the way itcame out.
Ultimately, I wrote that bookto bring the good news that zero
tax is possible and it's legal,and implementation is the key.
So if anyone's listening tothis like now is the time to
begin your tax strategy.
(12:27):
It's one thing to have astrategy which is at the plan of
action, but to really like thekey is like to convert those
potential tax savings intorealized tax savings.
Like we got to implement, wegot to execute on this before
your end.
So hopefully, whoever'slistening to this, if you're on
the fence, reach out to Alex,reach out to me and let's get
(12:47):
this thing done.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You know, it takes a very curious advisor like you
whose passion is beyond justmaking money.
And what we love about CPAs ingeneral is CPAs don't go into
the business for the money.
That is not what CPAs are goingto the business for.
They're going to the businessbecause they're technical people
, they have a math, they're verymath focused, they're maybe
(13:11):
engineering brain, they like howthings come together, they like
how these tax project mathprojects come together, come
apart.
But at the end of the day, youknow, being plugged into our
network, you, you know, isreally making a difference.
And when you talk about seeingtax returns that don't look good
to you, where people arewasting hundreds of thousands of
(13:32):
million dollars of taxes, youknow, we know those CPAs are not
just, they're not trying to doa bad job, it's just they have
not been exposed.
It's just like they're tryingto watch a movie but they're
going to blockbuster video,flipping over you know, covers
and trying to find taxstrategies in blockbuster video,
and go to the guy behind thecounter going have you ever seen
(13:54):
this movie?
Is it good?
Whereas we get the benefit ofthe peer review, where we get 20
years of experience, wherewe've been doing 20 years of
research on hundreds andhundreds of strategies, showing
them to hundreds and reallythousands of different CPA firms
and law firms and specialtyfirms and leading firms who
provide CE credits, who provideleadership to the tax planning
(14:17):
community, getting theirfeedback and going.
What's the worst thing that'sgoing to happen in audit or tax
court with this tax strategy?
And are you willing to signthat tax return?
Why or why not?
And getting those questionsanswered and then trying to get
those questions answered reallyand then sharing that knowledge
with hundreds of other CPAsreally shortens your learning
(14:40):
curve and gives you the abilityto process a lot of information
very quickly and create theconfidence that's necessary to
check off all the boxes and go.
You know what this tax strategyswipe left, swipe left, we
don't like.
Oh, this one, swipe right, thisis a good one.
I would do this for myself andat the end of the day, we're
(15:02):
just trying to make decisions,but the decisions need to be
made by people with at least10,000, 50,000 hours of
experience in audit and taxcourt.
You can't have your estateplanning attorney or your Morgan
Stanley financial advisorgiving you advice on tax or even
if they work at Goldman Sachs,do not take advice from finance
(15:23):
bros on tax unless they have 10,50,000 hours of experience in
audit and tax court.
And the only people who havethat experience guess who?
They are Tax-focused CPAs andthe most elite tax attorneys in
the country.
Except the attorneys in thecountry, they might be experts
in one or two things in the taxcode, whereas the CPA is forced
(15:44):
to be more of a generalist andforced to cover a lot more
ground in the tax code.
And the due diligence projectis there to just help them
facilitate and make sure theyhave access to the very, very
best resources that have beenvetted, ranked and rate over the
last 20 plus years in everypossible category.
(16:05):
So Jeremy has access to the bestresources that may live in
Miami, new York, california, allaround the country, all around
the world.
They're like his Lego buildingblocks in terms of building
solutions, but he's buildingsolutions with the very, very
best specialists in the countrywho've all been vetted by
hundreds of independent CPAfirms, which gives him
(16:26):
confidence, which gives hisclients confidence and,
ultimately, when you're usingthe best people and the smartest
people in the world to do yourplanning, the result is usually
a lot better than using yourlocal CPA and local financial
advisor and local estateplanning attorney that have
access to local ideas, who haveno idea how many pages are in
(16:49):
the tax code, have no idea howmany pages are in the tax code,
have no idea how many strategiesare in the tax code, and
therefore their tax planning,their estate planning and
ultimately, their financialplanning comes out as being
really, when we look at it asbeing very average.
And they may be working with abusiness owner who's the leader
(17:10):
in his entire market.
So you get a leader in themarketplace who's the number one
guy in his face, but he's gotaverage tax planning, estate
planning, asset management andhow does that work?
Is that okay?
I don't think it's okay, and soJeremy's curiosity and his
(17:33):
ability to find us and ourability to plug with him is
really how we work.
You know, and the top taxplanners in the country, they
know there's an issue, they knowthat there's a handful of
billionaires that pay no tax,and then you and then 85, 90% of
billionaires are paying so muchtax, and then forget about the
(17:55):
centimillionaires,multimillionaires and all these
other millionaires.
They're getting very averagetax planning advice from the
majority of the tax planningcommunity that has no idea how
many pages are in a tax code,and my question is if you don't
know how many pages are in a taxcode, then you don't know how
many strategies are in a taxcode.
How are you giving advice tomarket leaders in their
(18:17):
respective specialties who areabsolutely killing it in their
business, but now, when it comesto their tax work, they're
getting average work?
How do you feel about?
that, Jeremy you know it makesme sad.
There's also an opportunity foryou, though, I mean.
So it's like a bittersweetsituation, right?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, and it's.
It's just a lot of it'sdemographics, I mean.
I think the average age of aCPA in this country is
approaching 70 years old andunfortunately there's not a lot,
lot of incentive left forpeople in that stage of career
to keep growing and keepadvancing in their knowledge and
ability to help people.
But I can tell you that thepeer review that you've put
(19:00):
together in the back office ofthe Due Diligence Project is
truly impressive and one of thegreatest joys that I get in my
year is when I'm able to getthat switch to come on in the
client's mind and all of asudden they see tax day as
payday.
All of a sudden they're rushingin in March to get their tax
(19:21):
returns filed because they gotmoney coming back.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Listen, we're here no-transcript a long time and
(19:57):
I've never seen these ideas.
I love the ideas.
I totally get why hundreds ofCPAs would sign that tax return,
and I totally, and so we areable to.
It's almost like teachingalgebra to a bunch of math geeks
for the first time and seeingtheir get excited.
You know the non-math geeks.
You teach them algebra, youteach them accounting, you teach
(20:17):
them calculus.
They want nothing to do with it.
They're like I hate this stuff.
But the math geeks, when theylearn algebra ideas for the
first time, their brain justcreates, you know, releases
these hormones.
It's just like, oh my God.
It's like, wow, that's a mathproblem, that's how you solve
that problem.
It's exciting.
And that's who we are.
(20:39):
We're tax geeks.
We get excited about this stuff.
I love getting CPAs excitedabout what we do because they go
out there and they make adifference and they bring those
ideas to these elite businessowners.
And then these elite businessowners, like you said, they take
that tax savings and theymultiply it by 10.
And we love being a part ofthat.
(21:00):
We know we're the invisiblefirm back here.
We're here to make you thesuperstar, jeremy, but the thing
is these business owners can'tdo it without you, they can't do
without the CPAs, and mostpeople really don't understand
what it takes to be an elite CPA, what the work behind you know,
behind the curtain, really is,and I'm really happy that we had
(21:23):
a chance to connect today andshare you with the world, share
you with you know, inside thispodcast, so that the business
owners out there get a littlebit of a experience.
So so what I, you know?
Leave us with some thoughts.
You know, give us a couplethoughts about things that get
you excited, things that youmight want to just leave as a
(21:44):
nugget for our business ownerswho are watching this, or other
CPAs watching this, who are alsobusiness owners.
They're just in the CPAprofession servicing other
business owners and maybe acouple words about the due
diligence project overall.
Leave us with something toremember you by.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, thanks, alex.
It's been a pleasure being heretoday.
I wrote the zero tax strategyto reach more people and bring
the good news that zero tax ispossible.
It's legal and implementationis the key.
I can't emphasize that enough.
If you want to have the taxsavings, you have to put in the
(22:26):
work with your CPA and with therest of your virtual family
office team to implement itproperly.
That way, in that unlikelyevent, the IRS comes asking
questions, we are easily able tolet them go bother someone else
just by having all of thedocumentation ready.
And that's really what we prideourselves here at Exit CPA on
(22:50):
doing is a full and completeimplementation, so that not only
do you have zero tax, but youhave peace of mind and the
ability to defend oneself in aworst case scenario.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Jeremy, thank you so much for your time today.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story with our community.
We thank you for being on theDue Diligence Project podcast
and we wish you a great day,have a great rest of your week
and continued success.
My friend, thanks so much.
Thanks, alex.
All right, jeremy, this wasawesome.
Yeah, thanks, alex, that wasgreat.
All right, welcome to the Due Diligence Project
podcast.
We've got Jeremy Letter, one ofthe most elite CPAs in the
country, joining us and I'msuper excited to host this
meeting with you today, Jeremy?
How are you doing today?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
I'm doing great, Alex .
Thank you so much for having metoday and for writing the
foreword for my book.
It's been really great gettingto know you and being a part of
the due diligence project theselast couple of years.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
So I know you just completed the Zero Tax Strategy
book.
It's exciting, it's awesome.
I highly recommend everyonelistening to this to pick up a
copy.
But really, today we're goingto dive in and really get a
better understanding of Jeremy.
Today we're going to dive inand really get a better
understanding of Jeremy, why hebecame an elite CPA, what his
experience has been before thedue diligence project, after
(00:52):
joining the due diligenceproject, and really do a deep
dive into the mind of one of thetop tax professionals or tax
geeks as we endearingly like tocall ourselves in the country,
and what that work involves.
Because I think there's a lot ofbusiness owners out there that
are dealing with huge tax issuesincome taxes, state tax,
(01:14):
capital gains tax, all sorts ofother moving parts and we're
really, really proud to supportsome leading tax advisors family
office advisors who reallyspecialize in tax mitigation,
and Jeremy is one of the leadersin the country in that space.
So really excited to have youhere.
Let's start with some questions.
(01:34):
Tell us about you know, why didyou become a CPA in the first
place?
What was, what was?
What were you thinking there?
Speaker 2 (01:40):
Well, to make a long story short, my dad's an
entrepreneur and I always sawhim struggling with taxes and
over time I came to realize thatthe dollars that go into
Washington DC only 60 centsmakes it out.
(02:08):
They literally destroy dollars,whereas a dollar reinvested in
one's local community canmultiply by 10.
So the situation isentrepreneurs are the best
allocators of capital in theworld and I feel like it's my
calling to help them keep moreof those dollars in their local
(02:28):
communities.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
It's a great way to make a difference in the world,
and certainly the Doge Report, Ibelieve, maybe supports some of
that thinking as well.
But before we get into all ofthat, let's keep going.
Let's keep going into your mind, and so you're here to make a
difference in the world.
Tell us about your experiencemaking that difference.
Before you joined the DueDiligence Project, which is the
(02:54):
largest independent peercommunity of tax professionals
in the world, you were doingsome great things beforehand.
Tell us about that experience.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, I always knew that I was going to go into tax
advisory.
I shouldn't say always knew, butas I was working my way up the
ranks with an entrepreneurialspirit, I worked for a different
tax firm every year for fiveyears until the defining moment
came along the firm I wasworking for at the time.
(03:24):
It was early April and of courseI'm grinding through tax
returns.
I'm a tax manager at the timeand I come across a particular
tax return where it becamereally clear to me there was a
better way to report thistransaction and it would save
the client over $100,000.
(03:45):
All we had to do was pause workon the tax returns, go back to
the client and get some moreinformation.
So I took this to the managingpartner at the firm I was with
at the time and he basicallytold me to get back to work.
We're not getting paid for that, we're getting paid to prepare
the tax returns.
And that was the light bulbmoment for me, when I realized
(04:06):
that there's a huge differencebetween a tax preparer and a tax
strategist.
And from then on I wascommitted to that ideal and
found a small book of businessto acquire and grew that into
what it is today, which is avery boutique elite CPA firm.
We work with a lot of seven andeight figure entrepreneurs to
(04:29):
legally eliminate their taxes.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Well, where did you grow up and where did you?
Speaker 2 (04:33):
go to college.
I went to college at theUniversity of Denver.
I studied golf initially.
Once my eligibility ran out, Idecided I wanted to.
Speaker 1 (04:47):
They have a great lacrosse team over there at the
University of Denver yeah, theydo, and I think, a hockey team
over there.
They got two leading sportsteams that make a big missile
over there.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Yeah, the hockey team .
That was fun to watch.
I definitely got into that.
The energy in that building wasphenomenal.
But I digress.
So you went to Denver.
How did you choose Denver?
And you'll still have a placethere.
(05:22):
I love going up there.
Southwest Colorado probably oneof the most beautiful places in
America.
They call it the Switzerland ofAmerica, although I've not been
to Switzerland so I can'tcompare.
But doggone it, it's beautiful.
The Telluride area it's a dreamcome true.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
It's cool, you know, ski resorts in Colorado, utah,
world-class and obviously veryexciting.
But let's get back to the taxplanning.
So, yeah, how did you, you know, when you joined the Due
Diligence Project, how did yourworld change, what capabilities
did you gain and how do you feeltoday about your ability to
(06:04):
really make a difference for thebusiness?
Speaker 2 (06:07):
Yeah, great question.
It's been life changing After Istarted my practice in 2014,.
I was devouring all the contentthat I could find, whether it
was authored by Mark Kohler orTom Wheelwright or some of the
(06:29):
others.
That really got my wheelsturning.
But then there was somethingmissing.
All these people, or theexperts at the time, were not
thinking big enough for me and Iwas constantly searching for
somebody to show me how tolegally eliminate taxes or
(06:51):
situations where $1 can be $10,with the concepts of non-cash
deductions and leverage andcreating the right set of facts
to make this defensible.
And when I found the duediligence project, it really
clicked.
(07:11):
The way that we're able to gettogether multiple times per year
and vet emerging tax strategiesis truly unique, and I don't
take it for granted.
I mean, ideas are everywhere.
They're floating around us,literally in cyberspace.
They're not even cheap anymore.
They're free, and the tendencyto get overwhelmed, even for a
(07:36):
trained tax professional likemyself, is very high.
I can only imagine what theclients are going through, what
a regular entrepreneur is goingthrough.
How do you filter through allthis?
Speaker 1 (07:49):
It's nearly impossible and it takes an army
of missionaries, alex, and Ibelieve that is how I would
describe the due diligenceproject definitely slows things
down a little bit, but becausethe tax code is just so vast,
(08:24):
it's like all of the oceans onthe, you know, on the world,
combined, trying to do a deepdive and find everything in
these deep, dark oceans.
It's impossible for one personbut but like like eating an
elephant, one bite at a time.
As a community of hundreds andhundreds of tax geeks, we had
almost 1,000 CPA firms at ourlast summit.
(08:44):
That registered for our lastsummit.
And of course, every time we doa tax strategy there is
third-party CPAs, third-partyattorneys, third parties coming
in looking at the same taxstructure that the recommended
member of the due diligenceproject which the tax keeps
recommended after completingtheir due diligence.
So every strategy continues toget refined from other
(09:08):
professionals, tax professionalslooking at it, getting their
questions answered or not, andultimately going is this tax
strategy something that's legal?
Is it clean?
How complicated is it?
Is the specialist who'sdelivering it?
Is he someone who we're goingto respect and be able to work
(09:28):
with?
Are they easy to work with?
Is he going to make us look badin front of the client?
All of these questions CPAshave, and what we've done in the
due diligence project is reallymake those questions very, very
easy to answer and help the CPAcomplete three quarters, seven
eighths, of that due diligencethemselves, and then the last
(09:49):
quarter, you know, or one eighthyou got to do yourself, but you
got the notes, you got theresources, you get the you know,
the cheat sheets and everythingaround you where there's no
excuse for not doing the work.
And once you complete the work,the real benefit goes to your
clients.
But the key is you got to wantto do it and the more successful
(10:12):
you get, the more successfulCPAs get utilizing our structure
, the richer they get.
Sometimes they just go out andsell their practice to a private
equity firm.
The fact that you still want tobe here and deliver value to
the business owners and makethat difference is, I think,
really cool.
Let's talk about that.
I mean, there's other thingsbesides just straight up value
(10:35):
delivery.
You know why are you doing this?
Speaker 2 (10:38):
Yeah, as I mentioned earlier, like it really is a
calling to to.
It's my way of supportingentrepreneurs, which I believe
are some of the most generous,hardworking people in the world,
and we really this country was,was built by those folks and
they're busy, they're extremelybusy, everyone's super busy
(11:01):
doing what they're best at, andit really creates a lot of
heartache for me when I pick upa tax return from a new client
and see just how many hundredsof thousands of dollars or
millions of dollars that werejust wasted or sent to
Washington where they weredestroyed.
So I wrote the Zero TaxStrategy book to bring the good
(11:24):
news, hopefully to a few peoplea few more people than would
otherwise hear it about thesetransformational experiences
that my clients have had overthe years.
It was a difficult process.
I never thought of myself as anauthor, but it just felt like
something I had to do and it wasa fun process.
(11:46):
I can tell you the first draft Iwrote Alex.
It was a textbook.
As you can imagine, I'm atechnical guy CPA, tax advisor,
tax advisor this thing nobodywould have read it.
I was working with a coach.
Thankfully that you referred meto.
She's like Jeremy no one'sgoing to read this.
It's a textbook.
(12:06):
You got to have stories, yougot to have pictures, you got to
have diagrams.
I'm pleased with the way itcame out.
Ultimately, I wrote that bookto bring the good news that zero
tax is possible and it's legal,and implementation is the key.
So if anyone's listening tothis like now is the time to
begin your tax strategy.
(12:27):
It's one thing to have astrategy which is at the plan of
action, but to really like thekey is like to convert those
potential tax savings intorealized tax savings.
Like we got to implement, wegot to execute on this before
your end.
So hopefully, whoever'slistening to this, if you're on
the fence, reach out to Alex,reach out to me and let's get
(12:47):
this thing done.
Speaker 1 (12:49):
You know, it takes a very curious advisor like you
whose passion is beyond justmaking money.
And what we love about CPAs ingeneral is CPAs don't go into
the business for the money.
That is not what CPAs are goingto the business for.
They're going to the businessbecause they're technical people
, they have a math, they're verymath focused, they're maybe
(13:11):
engineering brain, they like howthings come together, they like
how these tax project mathprojects come together, come
apart.
But at the end of the day, youknow, being plugged into our
network, you, you know, isreally making a difference.
And when you talk about seeingtax returns that don't look good
to you, where people arewasting hundreds of thousands of
(13:32):
million dollars of taxes, youknow, we know those CPAs are not
just, they're not trying to doa bad job, it's just they have
not been exposed.
It's just like they're tryingto watch a movie but they're
going to blockbuster video,flipping over you know, covers
and trying to find taxstrategies in blockbuster video,
and go to the guy behind thecounter going have you ever seen
(13:54):
this movie?
Is it good?
Whereas we get the benefit ofthe peer review, where we get 20
years of experience, wherewe've been doing 20 years of
research on hundreds andhundreds of strategies, showing
them to hundreds and reallythousands of different CPA firms
and law firms and specialtyfirms and leading firms who
provide CE credits, who provideleadership to the tax planning
(14:17):
community, getting theirfeedback and going.
What's the worst thing that'sgoing to happen in audit or tax
court with this tax strategy?
And are you willing to signthat tax return?
Why or why not?
And getting those questionsanswered and then trying to get
those questions answered reallyand then sharing that knowledge
with hundreds of other CPAsreally shortens your learning
(14:40):
curve and gives you the abilityto process a lot of information
very quickly and create theconfidence that's necessary to
check off all the boxes and go.
You know what this tax strategyswipe left, swipe left, we
don't like.
Oh, this one, swipe right, thisis a good one.
I would do this for myself andat the end of the day, we're
(15:02):
just trying to make decisions,but the decisions need to be
made by people with at least10,000, 50,000 hours of
experience in audit and taxcourt.
You can't have your estateplanning attorney or your Morgan
Stanley financial advisorgiving you advice on tax or even
if they work at Goldman Sachs,do not take advice from finance
(15:23):
bros on tax unless they have 10,50,000 hours of experience in
audit and tax court.
And the only people who havethat experience guess who?
They are Tax-focused CPAs andthe most elite tax attorneys in
the country.
Except the attorneys in thecountry, they might be experts
in one or two things in the taxcode, whereas the CPA is forced
(15:44):
to be more of a generalist andforced to cover a lot more
ground in the tax code.
And the due diligence projectis there to just help them
facilitate and make sure theyhave access to the very, very
best resources that have beenvetted, ranked and rate over the
last 20 plus years in everypossible category.
(16:05):
So Jeremy has access to the bestresources that may live in
Miami, new York, california, allaround the country, all around
the world.
They're like his Lego buildingblocks in terms of building
solutions, but he's buildingsolutions with the very, very
best specialists in the countrywho've all been vetted by
hundreds of independent CPAfirms, which gives him
(16:26):
confidence, which gives hisclients confidence and,
ultimately, when you're usingthe best people and the smartest
people in the world to do yourplanning, the result is usually
a lot better than using yourlocal CPA and local financial
advisor and local estateplanning attorney that have
access to local ideas, who haveno idea how many pages are in
(16:49):
the tax code, have no idea howmany pages are in the tax code,
have no idea how many strategiesare in the tax code, and
therefore their tax planning,their estate planning and
ultimately, their financialplanning comes out as being
really, when we look at it asbeing very average.
And they may be working with abusiness owner who's the leader
(17:10):
in his entire market.
So you get a leader in themarketplace who's the number one
guy in his face, but he's gotaverage tax planning, estate
planning, asset management andhow does that work?
Is that okay?
I don't think it's okay, and soJeremy's curiosity and his
(17:33):
ability to find us and ourability to plug with him is
really how we work.
You know, and the top taxplanners in the country, they
know there's an issue, they knowthat there's a handful of
billionaires that pay no tax,and then you and then 85, 90% of
billionaires are paying so muchtax, and then forget about the
(17:55):
centimillionaires,multimillionaires and all these
other millionaires.
They're getting very averagetax planning advice from the
majority of the tax planningcommunity that has no idea how
many pages are in a tax code,and my question is if you don't
know how many pages are in a taxcode, then you don't know how
many strategies are in a taxcode.
How are you giving advice tomarket leaders in their
(18:17):
respective specialties who areabsolutely killing it in their
business, but now, when it comesto their tax work, they're
getting average work?
How do you feel about?
that, Jeremy you know it makesme sad.
There's also an opportunity foryou, though, I mean.
So it's like a bittersweetsituation, right?
Speaker 2 (18:38):
Yeah, and it's.
It's just a lot of it'sdemographics, I mean.
I think the average age of aCPA in this country is
approaching 70 years old andunfortunately there's not a lot,
lot of incentive left forpeople in that stage of career
to keep growing and keepadvancing in their knowledge and
ability to help people.
But I can tell you that thepeer review that you've put
(19:00):
together in the back office ofthe Due Diligence Project is
truly impressive and one of thegreatest joys that I get in my
year is when I'm able to getthat switch to come on in the
client's mind and all of asudden they see tax day as
payday.
All of a sudden they're rushingin in March to get their tax
(19:21):
returns filed because they gotmoney coming back.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Listen, we're here no-transcript a long time and
(19:57):
I've never seen these ideas.
I love the ideas.
I totally get why hundreds ofCPAs would sign that tax return,
and I totally, and so we areable to.
It's almost like teachingalgebra to a bunch of math geeks
for the first time and seeingtheir get excited.
You know the non-math geeks.
You teach them algebra, youteach them accounting, you teach
(20:17):
them calculus.
They want nothing to do with it.
They're like I hate this stuff.
But the math geeks, when theylearn algebra ideas for the
first time, their brain justcreates, you know, releases
these hormones.
It's just like, oh my God.
It's like, wow, that's a mathproblem, that's how you solve
that problem.
It's exciting.
And that's who we are.
(20:39):
We're tax geeks.
We get excited about this stuff.
I love getting CPAs excitedabout what we do because they go
out there and they make adifference and they bring those
ideas to these elite businessowners.
And then these elite businessowners, like you said, they take
that tax savings and theymultiply it by 10.
And we love being a part ofthat.
(21:00):
We know we're the invisiblefirm back here.
We're here to make you thesuperstar, jeremy, but the thing
is these business owners can'tdo it without you, they can't do
without the CPAs, and mostpeople really don't understand
what it takes to be an elite CPA, what the work behind you know,
behind the curtain, really is,and I'm really happy that we had
(21:23):
a chance to connect today andshare you with the world, share
you with you know, inside thispodcast, so that the business
owners out there get a littlebit of a experience.
So so what I, you know?
Leave us with some thoughts.
You know, give us a couplethoughts about things that get
you excited, things that youmight want to just leave as a
(21:44):
nugget for our business ownerswho are watching this, or other
CPAs watching this, who are alsobusiness owners.
They're just in the CPAprofession servicing other
business owners and maybe acouple words about the due
diligence project overall.
Leave us with something toremember you by.
Speaker 2 (22:02):
Yeah, thanks, alex.
It's been a pleasure being heretoday.
I wrote the zero tax strategyto reach more people and bring
the good news that zero tax ispossible.
It's legal and implementationis the key.
I can't emphasize that enough.
If you want to have the taxsavings, you have to put in the
(22:26):
work with your CPA and with therest of your virtual family
office team to implement itproperly.
That way, in that unlikelyevent, the IRS comes asking
questions, we are easily able tolet them go bother someone else
just by having all of thedocumentation ready.
And that's really what we prideourselves here at Exit CPA on
(22:50):
doing is a full and completeimplementation, so that not only
do you have zero tax, but youhave peace of mind and the
ability to defend oneself in aworst case scenario.
Speaker 1 (23:06):
Jeremy, thank you so much for your time today.
Thank you so much for sharingyour story with our community.
We thank you for being on theDue Diligence Project podcast
and we wish you a great day,have a great rest of your week
and continued success.
My friend, thanks so much.
Thanks, alex.
All right, jeremy, this wasawesome.
Yeah, thanks, alex, that wasgreat.
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