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The Roz Report
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2023 888.670.0303 WWW.ROZSTRATEGIES.COM
AUTHORIZED MEMBER 2023
Remembering My Friend Eva ‘TaxMama’ Rosenberg THIS SUMMER, THE TAX WORLD HAS LOST A TITAN
If you attended our 2023 Virtual Tax Resolution Success Summit, you might remember stopping by a booth run by a warm, kind, no-nonsense woman named Eva Rosenberg. Eva’s company, TaxMama, has sponsored all of our virtual events for the last four years. She was a titan of the tax industry and an old friend — and just a few days after our summit, she passed away at age 70.
believe it! I stared at my computer screen and willed this message to disappear. Unfortunately, it didn’t, and I had to reconcile myself with the fact that Eva was truly gone. It’s hard to imagine the tax industry without her. Eva encouraged hundreds of tax professionals to become enrolled agents and taught them valuable lessons through TaxMama’s books and EA review courses. In fact, that’s how we met in 2010.
Back then, Eva and I both lived in the San Fernando Valley. I was a CPA just starting to think about exiting my tax resolution business, and she was an enrolled agent already running TaxMama, teaching workshops, and writing books. I sometimes spoke to chapters of the California Society of Enrolled Agents, and I ran into Eva at one of those talks. Eva and I quickly became friends, and she helped me get even more speaking gigs around the valley. Then, one day, she turned to me and said, “Mike, we’re both great teachers — why don’t we develop a 10-module tax resolution course?” I thought that was a fantastic idea. We crafted the course together and took turns teaching each module. We also co- taught some of them. When Roslyn and I launched Roz Strategies in June 2014, Eva was one of the people who supported us by flying out to Denver, Colorado, with us to film a segment for our four-hour live launch webcast. The webcast was a huge success, and afterward, we went out to dinner with Jaime Buchwald of Pitbull Tax Software, and Larry Lawler and L.G. Brooks of ASTPS, who also supported us on that launch.
I heard the news from one of our Mastermind members, and I couldn’t
Jaime Buchwald, L.G. Brooks, Michael Rozbruch, Eva Rosenberg, and Larry Lawler at the June 2014 Roz Strategies Launch
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT Break Your Own Rules
Have you ever done something spur-of-the-moment, out of your routine, and it turned out to be the best thing you ever did? That happened to me exactly 40 years ago on Nov. 11, 1983. First, the back story. It was a Friday night, and at the time, I was a hairstylist working in a high-end hair salon called Papillons in Studio City, California, near a lot of studios like Universal, CBS, and Warner Bros. Many TV celebrities like Valerie Bertinelli, Michael J. Fox, and Loni Anderson, to name a few, came to get their hair cut, colored, and styled at Papillons. Those three weren’t my clients, but I had a few celebrity clients and behind- the-scenes people of my own like Dusty Springfield, Sandahl Bergman (from “Conan the Barbarian”), and Patricia Kingsley, the publicist for Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. As a rule, I never went out on Friday nights because Saturdays were my busiest, most profitable day of the week. I wanted to get a good night’s sleep and be my best for Saturday. But a friend of mine named Alan from my teen years moved back to Los Angeles from New York after a relationship breakup, and he wanted to meet up with me and another mutual friend, and that was the night that worked for all of us to get together. I broke my rule of never going out on a Friday night. I’m all about having fun, and this was an exception to just going out with the usual group; I was seeing someone I hadn’t seen in a long time. Plus, the early ‘80s was the height of the disco craze, and I was a disco queen. This particular night, we decided to go to one of the best discos, Le Hot Club. People dressed up to go there, the DJ spun great songs, and it was the place to play
the game of the ‘80s: backgammon. Alan and I were sitting at the bar having a drink waiting for our other friend to join us. We started talking about who our “types” were for
40 years later, babysitting our granddaughter in 2023
relationships, then about looks. “Who in here looks like your type?” he asked me. I looked around the room and pointed to the handsome man across the bar talking to another guy. “That guy,” I said. After chatting with Alan for a few moments about why the guy across the way looked like my type, he said, “You should go ask him to dance.” I didn’t want to ask that guy or any guy to dance. What if they said no? I’d be embarrassed. But after a little more encouragement, I asked the guy across the way if he’d like to dance with me. That guy turned out to be Michael Rozbruch. What happened next is history because we hit it off and started dating, and Michael proposed to me eleven months later. As a side note, after dancing, we started talking, and Michael told me he was a “cost accountant.” It sounded impressive, even though I had no idea what a cost accountant was. Many people who know us know this story, but it feels magical to me that Nov. 11, 2023, is the anniversary of the night I met Michael exactly 40 years ago. I recently learned that the number 11 is a magical number, and we met on 11/11, so that’s a double blessing. If Rod Serling from “The Twilight Zone” came up to me on that night and said, “You will marry this man, and exactly 40 years from now, you both will be babysitting your granddaughter while your daughter goes on a babymoon with her husband,” I would have never believed it. And it all happened because I broke my own rule. I do believe Michael and I were meant to be, so maybe I would have met him another way, but maybe I wouldn’t have either. The point is that it’s good to have exceptions to your own rules. It’s good to break away from your routines and do things differently. That leads me back to you: What rule have you broken that has made an impact in your life for the better? It’s something to think about. And to Michael, I say, “Happy anniversary! It’s been an incredible, interesting, certainly never boring, wonderful 40 years!” –Roslyn Rozbruch
Le Hot Club, 1983
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From the Practice Corner: DID YOU KNOW THE IRS IS USING CHATBOTS?
The IRS recently announced they are going to expand their use of chatbot technology to help quickly answer basic questions for people receiving notices about possibly underreporting their taxes. The new chatbot feature will assist taxpayers who receive notices CP2000, CP2501, and CP3219A. These notices inform taxpayers that the IRS received information (1099s, etc.) from third parties that doesn’t match the information taxpayers reported on their income tax returns. This technology expansion is supported through the Inflation Reduction Act funding to transform the IRS and improve services to help taxpayers. IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel had a lot to say on the matter, making it sound all sunshine and flowers. “Through our transformation efforts, we are working to expand technologies to help taxpayers and tax professionals interact with us in the ways they prefer,
including expanded digital, phone, and in-person assistance options,” said Werfel. He added, “We understand receiving a notice from the IRS can be concerning, and people frequently have questions. The use of chatbots in call centers has emerged as an effective practice in both the private and public sectors, making it easier for people to quickly get basic information to resolve their issues and avoid wait times on the phone. Deploying chatbots at the IRS call center helps taxpayers get their issues resolved quicker, and it helps free up valuable phone resources for other taxpayers with questions on more complex issues.” The oxymoron here is that if the same PPL/ACS personnel who currently answer questions from the public and tax professionals are the same people feeding information to the chatbots, we (and the American taxpayer) are in big- time trouble. I speak to dozens of Roz Strategies members every month, and
one of the biggest challenges I hear is that the inconsistent — and many times straight-up incorrect — information they’re getting from the IRS is mind- boggling, even on basic questions. Even though the IRS has hired over 10,000 (and is continuing to rapidly hire more) new employees, they are not receiving proper training, if any training at all. This leads me to give you some advice: When speaking to IRS agents from ACS or PPL, and you KNOW the answer you are receiving is wrong, don’t even try to argue. It will get you nowhere, and you’ll be that much more frustrated. Do what I did and what so many of our members do: Politely disconnect the call, and call again and again until you get someone with more experience who knows what they’re doing and follows their own guidelines as outlined in the Internal Revenue Manual (IRM). –Michael Rozbruch
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We want to give a BIG shout out to the over 700 of you who attended our 8th Annual Tax Resolution Virtual Success Summit this past August! This year, we showed you how to be a champion for your clients! And you are champions because you fight the good fight for your clients’ rights against the IRS every day. We switched things up this year, and Michael taught a lot of new content. We also brought the entire Roz Team with us to South Carolina
for the first time for our virtual conference, and we had some of our own members teaching at some of the sessions! Thank you to all who attended! It was an amazing experience, and we’re already planning next year’s Success Summit!
The Roz-Man and Platinum Mastermind member R.C. Thornton getting ready to dive deep into marketing
John and Ruthie working hard
Michael and Roslyn
Parham Khorsand
Dave Dee
Nick Morgan teaching about Google marketing
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The Roz-Man getting ready to get on stage
Diamond Dallas Page, Michael, Roslyn, and the Roz Team
Lior Weinstein diving deep on AI
The Roz-Man teaching
di getting technical
Michelle and John from our production team
Roslyn and the Roz Team making sure all attendees are being taken care of
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SHOUT
... continued from Cover
Afterward, Eva and I kept in touch. We would talk on the phone every now and then. She also sent enrolled agents our way so we could help them grow their tax resolution businesses, and we referred our unlicensed members to TaxMama’s Enrolled Agent Course. They all gave Eva’s teaching rave reviews. Like I said in a blurb I wrote for one of her books, she had “the uncanny gift of making the arcane world of taxes easy to understand, fun, and engaging.” As you can probably tell, Eva always prioritized helping others. Sometimes, that meant pouring hundreds of hours into her books and courses. Eva was constantly looking for ways to make her family happy, encourage her friends, and improve the tax industry. People got a sense of warmth and comfort simply from being around her. She even managed to conjure up that feeling through email with her regular signoff: “Hugs, Eva.” I wasn’t the only person devastated to hear about Eva’s passing. The news triggered a huge outpouring of caring and sympathy across the tax world. Maybe you were part of it. Reading through the 100-plus messages that fellow tax professionals left on Eva’s obituary, it struck me that none of us — even titans of the industry — will be around forever. I’m always aware to live life to the fullest because you never know what the next day will bring, but Eva’s passing brought it front and center and reminded me of that. I spoke to Eva the Friday before our event, on Aug. 26. She was operating a booth at our summit, and on Aug. 31, she was gone. In my last newsletter, I shared I had been working on creating more free time for myself. For me, that means spending more time on my hobbies, which include traveling with Roslyn and driving the streets in my 1968 Oldsmobile 442. If you’ve found your work-life balance tilting too far toward work lately, be sure to create more personal time for yourself and do the things that make you happy. Take care of yourself — just like Eva would have taken care of you. –Michael Rozbruch
High-five to Randy Martin for following the Roz-Man’s advice on improving his closing skills and reaching a record high of $183,300 in sales in one month! That’s what we’re talking about! Congratulations to Melinda Tolbert for receiving a proclamation from the Mayor of Columbus designating Sept. 6 as MJ Day in honor of Melinda’s company, MJ Tax, being in business for 18 years.
Melinda Tolbert with the Mayor of Columbus
Congrats to Ovie Gibson for the release of his book, “Game-Winning Strategies to Defeat Your IRS & State Tax Problems: What Baseball Taught Me About Winning the Game,” and for it becoming a No. 1 bestseller on Amazon. High-five to Patrick Noone for reducing his client’s tax liability from $287,000 to $141,000 by patiently waiting for $146,000 to fall off due to the CSED. Congrats to Elizabeth Holladay for achieving her best sales month, thanks to having effective systems in place. Despite a busy month, she successfully met her sales goals and is on track to do $500,000 this year!
Ovie Gibson’s newly released book
Way to go Douglas Dick for successfully closing the largest sale of his career, a $24,000 fee, after a client discovered him through Google ads and his website.
High-five to LuSundra Everett for obtaining a partial pay installment agreement for a client after working on it for over a year and a half. Now, instead of her client paying the IRS $165,000, her client will only pay $55,000.
Kudos to Jon Neal for removing $30,000 in penalties on an innocent spouse case, even though it was initially denied by the IRS.
Congratulations to David Rappaport for following up on a prospect using the phrase, “Have you given up on this?” and signing the prospect. A $30,000 case was saved — a good reminder to keep following up!
Way to go Eugene Ganeles for negotiating a $10,000 offer in compromise for a client who owed the IRS $200,000.
High-five to David Tudor for reducing his client’s tax debt from $29,900 to $1,974 in tax court.
Kudos to Joaquin Torres on his weekly radio segment, “Tax Relief With CPA JT,” where he discusses various tax topics with an IRS revenue officer, positioning himself as the A.C.E. — Authority, Celebrity, Expert.
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OUTS !
Kudos to Rafael Quezada , Rachel Foley , and Sheraline Thomas on signing their first clients. Congratulations to Greg McCauley and his wife, Samantha , on the birth of their daughter, Charlie Joe.
Happy Birthday to Our Members!
Charlie Joe McCauley with her two big sisters
Congrats also to Toph Sheldon and his wife, Ashley , on the birth of their daughter, Nelle Ashley. One of the best parts of the Founder’s Mastermind is the friendships we build and seeing fellow Roz members at various events. Joaquin Torres and Jesus Abikarram met up at the IRS Nationwide Tax Forum; David Rappaport , Yvette Best , and Peter Marchiano crossed paths at an ASTPS conference; and David Rappaport and Guy Finocchiaro organized a barbecue with their families.
Toph & Ashley Sheldon’s new baby girl
High-five to Daniel Cotts , Daniela Romero , Amit and Ranju Maheshwari , Julian Gonzalez , Laruen Wilson , and Dwayne Harrison for mailing out your referral letters.
Founder’s members David & Guy having a joint family BBQ
Do you have a story or picture to share with us about something you’ve implemented, a client you’ve helped with a tax problem, or anything else you’d like to share? If you do, email it to Info@RozStrategies.com, and we will give a Shout Out to you!
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Inside This Issue pg 1 ∙ Michael’s Tribute to Eva ‘TaxMama’ Rosenberg
pg 2 ∙ Break Your Own Rules
pg 3 ∙ Did You Know the IRS Is Using Chatbots?
pg 4 ∙ We Had a Blast at Success Summit 2023!
pg 6 ∙ Shout Outs!
pg 8 ∙ The IRS Tackles a Super Bowl Winner
IRS TERROR TALE OF THE MONTH UNPAID TAXES FROM 1998?! NFL LINEBACKER BILL ROMANOWSKI’S LONG-TERM TAX TROUBLE
If you’re a longtime football fan, you probably remember the explosive on-field anger of former NFL linebacker Bill Romanowski. In 1997, the NFL fined him $7,500 for spitting on San Francisco 49ers wide receiver J.J. Stokes. Then, in 2003, he paid $20,000 for punching Oakland Raiders tight end Marcus Williams in the face during training camp. The blow smashed Williams’ eye socket and forced him out of the NFL for good. Now, Romanowski is at the center of another explosive conflict — this time with the IRS!
have unpaid taxes dating all the way back to 1998. In total, they owe the IRS more than $15.5 million in back taxes, penalties, and interest from 1998–2007. The agency ordered the couple to pay their bill in 2013 to no avail. Now, they’re facing an IRS lawsuit. The suit notes that “despite timely notice and demand for payment, the Romanowskis have neglected, refused, or failed to pay the assessments against them.” It also accuses the couple of strategically misusing funds from their supplement company, Nutrition53 (aka Lean1), for personal expenses ranging from rent payments to plastic surgery bills to avoid paying taxes.
Bill Romanowski was a force to be reckoned with on the football field when he played for the 49ers, Denver Broncos, and Philadelphia Eagles, but will he be able to fend off the IRS before the clock runs out? We’ll have to wait and see. Hopefully, Romanowski has an excellent tax resolution specialist on his side to increase his odds of success.
According to the agency, the four-time Super Bowl winner and his wife, Julie,
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