Mark Klecka, CPA, Tax Attorney Member Spotlight
Houston native Mark Klecka is a CPA and tax attorney who believes tax preparation is a dying industry. He knows the industry well, having been a CPA since 1979 and owning his own tax preparation firm since 1991. During his 40 years as a CPA, Mark has had a front-row seat to the many changes putting pressure on tax preparation businesses.“There’s pressure on pricing from the big companies and online tax preparation services,”he says.“And on the other side, there’s pressure from the IRS increasing due diligence requirements. This puts the tax preparer in the middle of a risk-reward problem, and so I see a problemwith continuing in that area. That’s why I got into tax resolution.” Mark earned his law degree in 2012 and established a second business to provide tax representation and tax resolution services. As a seasoned CPA and new lawyer specializing in tax matters, Mark entered the tax resolution field with confidence in his abilities to solve his clients’tax problems. His challenge was to find the best way to promote his IRS representation services. He discovered a multitude of proven strategies to solve his challenge when he attended Roz Strategies first Tax Resolution Success Summit held in San Antonio. When asked which of Michael Rozbruch’s strategies has been the most successful for him, Mark says,“The biggest takeaway I got from attendingmy first Success Summit was to do a newsletter.”Mark personalizes the Tax ResolutionTimes, the done-for-you newsletter that Michael provides to Insider’s Circle members. Mark mails the newsletter to his growing list of referral sources, some of whom request extra copies to distribute in their offices.“Every time I get a business card, I put themon the mailing list. I’ve had requests fromCPAs and also from real estate agents and insurance agents for additional copies of the newsletter to put in their office because people liked it and wanted to take it with them. And I’ve gotten referrals from that newsletter.” One such referral recently led to a successful penalty abatement case for Mark. The client held the power of attorney for her mother, who suffered fromAlzheimer’s and hadn’t filed a tax return for 2016. The client owed the IRS $11,000 in penalties and interest, and her CPA was advising her to pay it. But the client had read in Mark’s newsletter that mentioned penalties could be abated, so she contacted Mark and asked for his opinion.
IRS, they said,‘Yes, you qualify for reasonable cause abatement, so we’re going to abate the penalty.’That left only the interest, which was less than $2,000, so it was about a $9,000 reduction, and they were extremely pleased.” At last year’s Success Summit in Austin, Mark purchased the referral generationmachine. He’s found it to be an effective system and uses it tomarket tomany different niches: CPAs and enrolled agents, divorce attorneys, and real estate agents and mortgage brokers. Since referrals are such a big part of getting new clients, Mark has started writing a book for real estate agents to further develop that referral source. One other marketing strategy Mark has implemented that’s proven to be successful for him is his radio call-in show.“I do a live call-in show every Saturday morning at 8 o’clock. It has establishedme as the tax resolution expert, and we usually close one or two cases per week that come in via the show.” Tomake his life easier in working the cases, Mark uses CallEnQ. com, a service that limits on-hold time with the IRS.“CallEnQ definitely makes you look like a hero,”Mark says.“When a client comes in and you can contact the IRS in less than three minutes when they have to stay on the phone for an hour, it’s easy to close the resolution deal.” In his free time, Mark, who has beenmarried for 40 years, has an interesting hobby.“What I like to do outside of the office is sort of unique,”he says.“I used to do baseball officiating, umpiring for high school, but I had to put it aside because of my business growing somuch. But I do high school football officiating, and it’s only 10 weeks, so I can usually do it in the fall.”
“I told her,‘You have reasonable cause,’”Mark says.“So, I got a retainer to do the work, and in 15 minutes of working with the
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