A little background
I grew up in Kansas and went to the University of Houston's C.T. Bauer College of Business. I've been a licensed CPA since September 2000, and I've run my own firm here in Harlingen since December 2007.
Outside the office, I'm married to Dr. Linda Burke, whose pediatric dental practice shares our building on Tyler Avenue, and we have six kids.
Most of the people I work with are Rio Grande Valley families and closely held businesses: farmers and ranchers, professionals with their own practices, families with rental property, and owners of the kind of businesses that keep a town running. Many of them have been with me for years.
The work runs from straightforward individual returns to the complicated parts: partnerships that own pieces of other partnerships, S corporations, estates and trusts, foreign income, and businesses being bought and sold. I like the complicated parts. I like it just as much when a family walks out understanding their own return for the first time.
What it means to work with a one-CPA firm
The person you talk to is the person who does the work. There's no account manager to pass your question along to, and no junior staffer who reads your file for the first time when you call.
The same person who plans your year also files your return. That matters, because the planning conversation in October is often the reason the return looks the way it does in April.
I have no staff, so I do the work on your file myself.
Hours are Monday to Friday, 8:00 to 5:00, by appointment. If I'm with another client, a message gets a call back on the next business day.
How I work
Plan, don't just report
A return tells you what happened. Planning can still change what happens. I'd rather help you before December than explain things after April.
Say it plainly
If I can't explain why you owe what you owe in regular words, I haven't done my job.
Guard your information
Your Social Security number never goes in an email. I use secure upload and keep sensitive information locked down. It's more work for me, and it's worth it.
Pick up the phone
Questions don't wait for tax season, and neither do I. Call during office hours and you'll reach me.
Referrals
Most of my new clients come from people I already work with, and I don't take that lightly. If you send me a friend, a family member or a business associate, they'll get the same care you get.
One worry to put to rest: your information stays yours. I don't discuss one client's affairs with another, including the people you refer. Not your income, not your return, and not even that you're a client.
Our neighbors
If the building looks familiar, Dr. Linda Burke's practice, Burke Children's Dentistry, is in the same building at 2102 E. Tyler. It's a separate business, with its own phone number. We share a parking lot, and when you visit, look for the CPA side.