This is the Executive Connect Podcast - a show for the new generation of leaders. Join us as we discover unconventional leadership strategies not traditionally associated with executive roles. Our guests include upper-level C-Suite executives charting new ways to grow their organizations, successful entrepreneurs changing the way the world does business, and experts and thought leaders from fields outside of Corporate America that can bring new insights into leadership, prosperity, and personal growth - all while connecting on a human level. No one has all the answers - but by building a community of open-minded and engaged leaders we hope to give you the tools you need to help you find your own path to success.
Melissa Aarskaug (00:01.134)
Welcome to another episode of the Executive Connect podcast, where we explore stories and strategies behind today's top business leaders. Today, we're welcoming Morgan Q. Anderson, an enrolled agent and CEO of Golden Lion Tax Solutions. With over two decades of experience in tax debt resolution, Morgan has dedicated her career to helping individuals and businesses overcome
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (00:06.557)
We explore stories and strategies behind today's pandemic. Today we're welcoming Morgan C. Anderson, an involved agent and CEO of Golden...
So the two decades of experience or test test resolution. Morgan has dedicated her career to helping individuals and businesses overcome.
Melissa Aarskaug (00:30.128)
complex tax challenges. Welcome Morgan.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (00:34.647)
Thank you, Melissa. It's great to be here with you today.
Melissa Aarskaug (00:38.638)
I'm so excited to talk about your journey into the tax industry. love talking about this. Most people laugh when I say I like to talk about taxes. I think there's so much wisdom and so many neat things to talk about as it relates to dealing with your taxes and the IRS. So I'm excited to jump right in. And I'm really curious to get your perspective on how the landscape of
taxes has changed with the recent changes in tax law and the increased scrutiny from the IRS.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (01:17.191)
Boy, yeah, do you have a couple of hours?
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (01:23.869)
I say that just because just the IRS tax laws, right? It's so voluminous that somebody could dive deep into it for 10 years and still not fully understand every single little nuance to it. And what I do is more on the back end of the tax issues. I deal with
once somebody has filed a return or has gone through an audit and has a balance owed, that's when I step in and really work my magic. But having been in the industry for now, it's been 25 years, I have seen so much. So yes, take me down any rabbit hole and I will tell you if it's something that I can talk about or not, you know, because I'm more on the backend. But
I've seen a lot of changes over the last 25 years and it's one of those things where people hear the word tax and they go, ooh.
And it really, I I get it, I get it. But there's a lot to be learned and a lot to calm your nerves about it.
Melissa Aarskaug (02:40.024)
Yeah, I agree. think I've been interested, Morgan, in taxes for over 20 years. I've been working with the CPA most of my professional life with taxes. And I know just in the last few years, there's been a ton of changes in tax compliance or the IRS modernizing their processes, tax legislation. And so I'm curious from your perspective.
What are some common challenges people are facing when dealing with tax debt? And really maybe like the second piece, how do you approach solving these problems for your clients?
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (03:21.479)
Great questions. The most frustrating aspect we have right now in this post-COVID world, after, if you'll remember, the federal and state governments actually shut down completely for like six months. And all of the mail that was being sent to the IRS at that time was being loaded into boxes, in tractor trailers, or in random areas in these federal buildings.
Cafeterias in the IRS areas in these buildings were being stacked with boxes of correspondence that was received and not dealt with. So post-COVID, and we're in at the end of 2024 now, we're still feeling the effects. The system broke so badly that all of the internal processes broke apart.
And when they tried putting them back together, they had lost a lot of staff, they were underfunded, the tech needed to be updated. It's been a catastrophe and we're still feeling it today. When you call into the IRS, you will sit on hold sometimes for two hours and the system will just disconnect you because you've been on hold too long. So that is a huge challenge for anybody who gets, as I refer to them, love notes.
from the IRS or the state, you're calling in and trying to get answers and the people that you eventually get to most times don't have the answers that you need. And you can be told incorrect information depending on who you lottery wise end up speaking with. The notices that are coming out by the computer systems are not always synced with what's happening when you call in.
there are so many frustrations to anybody trying to deal with these tax agencies. So the second part of your question is, what do we do? So as a tax professional, we have ways to know when to call the IRS. We know what divisions to call. Same thing with the states. Calling, funny enough, if you are an individual taxpayer,
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (05:44.581)
and you've got a debt to the federal government, to the IRS, call on a Thursday or Friday evening around 5.30 or six o'clock your time. That is hands down the best time, the easiest time to get through to somebody. Their phone lines are up that late and you won't sit on hold for forever. But when we call in, we know what the IRS is looking for based on the notices being received.
and we have already spoken with the client, because we've been doing it so long, we know how to shortcut some of that red tape that you have to go through. So it definitely helps if you've got a situation, having somebody who's done it a thousand times, who knows, you know what, don't call that number on the notice, you're just gonna waste your time and get routed to somebody who doesn't have the answers we're looking for.
Melissa Aarskaug (06:42.8)
I love what you just said. First of all, that negative that call on after 530 is worth the podcast alone because as we all know, we sit online for a very long time. Like you said, we are waiting, waiting, waiting 3040 minutes, an hour, and then you get hung up on and you got to start the process again. So thank you for sharing that. I think another thing that's interesting to me too, with taxes is it's very different for
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (06:55.89)
Yeah.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (07:02.311)
Yes.
Melissa Aarskaug (07:12.462)
businesses and individuals and a lot of people now since the pandemic are both individuals and businesses. Maybe people have a W-2 job in their family and the other spouse has a business so they have to file a business tax return and an individual tax return. So it gets really kind of tricky on when to file and how to file which ones.
I know it's been interesting to learn myself over the years the different tips and tricks. So I know I talked a little bit at the beginning that you're an enrolled agent at NTPI, excuse me, enrolled agent and NTPI fellow. So what strategies do you use to negotiate with the IRS and how can our listeners apply them to their own tax situation?.
Melissa Aarskaug (08:58.648)
As an enrolled agent and NTPI fellow, what strategies do you use to negotiate with the IRS and how can our listeners apply these techniques to their own tax disputes?
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (08:58.799)
Mm-mm. Yes.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (09:20.977)
Well, I think the first thing, the first place that we start from is the taxpayer business or individual, their financial condition, because their financial condition drives the options available. So you could owe $5 million in unpaid payroll taxes in your business, but if your business shows that
while you're staying compliant moving forward, you can't afford to pay that debt back. They'll work with you on a solution. The big key is not adding more debt once you've reached a point of, okay, I'm gonna handle this. From that moment forward, you have to put a really thick line in the sand and say, okay, I'm going to pay every tax payment as it's due moving forward, and I'm going to file every return moving forward.
That lets you compartmentalize the debt. And then we look at a stable financial picture and say, okay, when we're considering this debt of $5 million in unpaid payroll taxes, and the business is now steady, what do we have available? What resources do we have to address the debt? And that's what drives it. It could be a repayment plan over 60 months or 72 months.
It could be an offer to settle the debt. It could be, if the business is staying stable, we're paying our current taxes, we're paying our necessary bills, and there's nothing left over to pay it right now. We've shown we have the ability in the past, we see that we have it in the future, we may even negotiate for the debt to be put on hold through an uncollectible status, which means
the IRS and most states have these programs as well, we'll place a hold on the case and say, okay, we're gonna let you get your feet back under you. We'll come back in a year or two years and say, okay, let's look at your financial condition now, as long as you're staying compliant with your current taxes, then we'll set up some type of repayment plan. There's as many different strategies to implement.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (11:45.987)
there are financial conditions and debts. So it's not just a one-size-fits-all.
Melissa Aarskaug (11:52.45)
Yeah, that's great. It made me think when you were saying that, know, $5 million is a lot of money for businesses. And so how does a business, you know, they want to remain profitable and still have money in the bank to pay their employees and do, you know, necessary, you know, expensive purchases for the company? How do they juggle, you know, paying back the money to the IRS with still having savings?
in their savings account or their checking account as a business? Like how do you balance those two things?
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (12:26.269)
We typically, this sounds kind of bad, but we strong arm the IRS a bit to ensure that there is a safety net for the business. They will say, okay, as a business owner with a company that has payroll taxes to this degree, you cannot pay yourself 350,000 a year in income.
They want you to have what's necessary and reasonable given the debt size. When it comes to individual taxpayers, we've run into this a lot, where they have not paid income tax, but they've put money into building equity in an asset like a second piece of real estate. The IRS says, mm-mm, no.
We'll let you have what's necessary for you and your family, but that extra, we want you to liquidate and use those funds to pay us because you created the value of that asset while you owed us money.
Melissa Aarskaug (13:36.406)
makes perfect sense. And I think you touched a little bit earlier about the importance of really having, you know, an expert. I'm a big fan of hiring and using experts in all areas of my life. you know, a lot of times I think people often think that they can do their taxes themselves, go through the strategies, figure it out.
you know, themselves, and I really do think it's important to seek professional help and guidance when navigating, you like these examples that you just mentioned. So I absolutely agree with that. I want to talk a little bit about financial literacy. I feel like we're losing some of that these days on and, you know, how can individuals learn
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (14:11.325)
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Aarskaug (14:29.4)
financial literacy and help their business stay out of tax debt.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (14:36.957)
Great question again. You're full of great questions today. You know, my biggest recommendation to business owners or people who are self-employed or even individuals with higher net worth, think of your CPA or your EA, your trusted tax professional as a member of your board.
You want to speak with them, you wanna meet with them on a regular basis. You want to say, hey, I'm thinking about investing in this asset, in this piece of equipment. I'm thinking about creating a new division of my company. What do you think? Here are the numbers I'm thinking of. And they're gonna help you hone in on ideas you have and thoughts you have, and they'll look at it from a tax strategy position.
and they'll be able to really guide you in the best way possible for you, your business, your goals. I think the trusted tax professional is an underutilized asset that all of us have sitting on our bench, right? For a business, same thing with your bookkeeper. Find a good bookkeeper and think of them as your priest.
Confess everything to them, give them every receipt, let them know what you're doing because they're gonna help you maximize everything you're doing as a business expense. They're gonna keep you out of trouble, but they're gonna make sure that every penny you can write off as a business expense is written off. utilize your resources more than you are.
Melissa Aarskaug (16:25.924)
Yeah, I love that. think having your own leadership team in your life personally, your doctors, your CPAs, your attorneys, is super good strategy and advice that you just gave.
Like I know personally a lot of people that don't use CPAs and haven't used CPAs a lot in their professional careers. And so what they've done is try to educate themselves on staying ahead of, you know, things that they don't know a lot about. So I want to get your perspective on, you know, how do you get educated?
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (16:57.906)
Yeah.
Melissa Aarskaug (17:04.577)
In order to a either do it yourself or be use a professional CPA or EA other classes out there Do you teach them? Can we talk a little bit about that?
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (17:13.245)
There There are classes out there, but I would caution anybody who's thinking of DIYing their own bookkeeping and accounting. I really would. And here's why. You don't know what you don't know. So yes, there is an abundance of information out there, but if you don't know that you should be looking under a rock over here,
you're not gonna look there. So in thinking about this, evaluate the value of your time, okay? Because there's a reason why people go to school and go through certification programs to perform these types of services. And I know when you're a new business owner and you're just starting out, you're like, my gosh, a bookkeeper is gonna be $200 a month or
whatever they quote you. An accountant, CPA, enrolled agent, any of them may charge you 800 or $1,000 to do your tax return at the end of the year. Well, I can go on TurboTax and do it. However, you're losing out on that expertise. You're losing out on the management of your financial condition in the proper way. Even, so I'm an enrolled agent.
And when I started my company, Golden Lion Tax Solutions, I contacted my accountant who is an EA and I said, okay, I know this isn't my area of expertise. How much are you gonna charge me to do my bookkeeping and keep me like do my quarterly reports and everything? And it's not because I'm not licensed to and I didn't study it. It's just not my area of daily expertise. And that's why I am
I am the first person to say, think about it as an investment into looking out for your best interests the best way possible. You can find online courses everywhere, but again, you don't know what you don't know, so you don't know to look for something.
Melissa Aarskaug (19:27.288)
Yeah, and I think back, I had a CPA really young and the reason I did is a mentor of mine said, hey, to build a wealth strategy, really, and in a long-term strategy when it comes to buying homes, selling homes, everything you want in your life, you really need a CPA to be part of that strategy. And so I was lucky enough to have somebody.
refer me to a CPA so I learned some really neat things from the CPA. So the other thing too is when you do engage a CPA, you know, I used to bring in questions to the CPA, hey I was reading about this.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (19:57.009)
Yeah.
Melissa Aarskaug (20:04.942)
You know, can I write that off or am I able to do that? Am I old enough to do that? And so I know my CPA that I had who has since retired, he used to sit with me and talk me through, okay, next year, let's focus on this. You know, let's plan ahead and get strategies going. you know, I would do different charitable, you know, giving or donate to Salvation Army or all the other things I, you know, had done, but all of that.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (20:21.051)
Right.
Melissa Aarskaug (20:33.796)
Morgan came from a licensed CPA and a mentor sharing with me the importance of having somebody on my wealth team. And you're spot on that you really got to find someone that knows what they're talking about. And the reason I originally asked the question about education because with AI, I feel like we can't scan the web or look through a magazine these days without.
hearing something about AI. And I know there is a lot of information out there now and people are solving some of their problems using chat GPT. So I wanna get your perspective on how you see technology shaping the future of taxes. And is there anything that you're excited about in that space?
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (21:17.917)
She's eating.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (21:27.389)
Maybe I'm the wrong person to ask, but I'm old school. You know, when I first started in my industry, we had these huge file folders and we had a phone on our desk and pens and legal pads. We had typewriters and, you know, we're going back to 99 and we were a little behind, but we weren't that far behind. So the whole technology bent to
to our businesses has been just mind blowing over the last 25 years. I'm hesitant about AI just because of the security factor. My IT company, because of the standards that were expected to maintain on our computer systems as dictated by the federal government and just security measures and trying to protect our clients data.
social security numbers, bank statements, things like that. We do not use AI at all on our computer system. I think if you are leaning on the internet for generic questions about tax principles, be very careful about the source it pulls from. Yeah, I am just not a huge proponent of it. I'm worried about it, honestly.
The IRS has come out with this free file program for people with basic tax filing needs. You always have to worry about, but are you really having us enter this information and you're really maximizing what we can claim, right? Are you really giving us a true picture of the tax that we owe?
Or because you're the body regulating all of it and collecting on it, are you going to have factors in there that will benefit the government versus me? Same thing with like TurboTax. When you're answering the questions and you're entering the data, it doesn't know what you're not telling it. it can't, you can't say for 100 % that those fill out and submit.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (23:46.301)
tax returns that you're doing on your own are accurate. Same thing with AI. If you're leaning on that for in-depth tax data questions that you're asking, are you asking it the right way for the AI program to really take in what you're trying to get answered and give you a sound answer based on what you're intending to ask it?
I just, see it as fraught for too many errors, too many issues. but again, I'm old school, you know, so take it for what it's worth.
Melissa Aarskaug (24:25.304)
No, I love that perspective. think, you know, from my perspective, I, when I was in my 20s, I had purchased a Quickbook subscription and I would get my month end credit card statement and bank account statements. And I would manually hand enter all the transactions that I had in that month in the software and get that up.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (24:46.621)
I remember those days before you could import, yeah.
Melissa Aarskaug (24:50.72)
Yes, back in the days manually do it. Well, now I have different tools that I use where automatically I get screenshots and updates on what my spend was last month. You know, it increased by this much to decrease by that much. And what I love about some of these tools is, you know, you mentioned fraud, I love that you mentioned that I think that's a really, really important topic. And AI always for me as well as cybersecurity.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (25:20.445)
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Aarskaug (25:20.936)
and so I think with some of these tools, if your expenses have increased a thousand dollars or $500 or a hundred dollars, you know, using some of these tools, you can go back and look at, is that an actual legit transaction or whoops did, you know, an automatic bill pay charge of twice. And I've seen that personally on my own bank accounts where I've had vendors that I'm on a monthly.
auto pay with charge me twice and they didn't even catch that they had charged me twice. So I challenge everyone if you're not using a CPA, you're not using software to go back. And every Monday, I look at my bank accounts and I check where things are, you know, what's due what's coming up and really make a plan. And so if you're not using tools or software,
at least look at your bank account in some kind of regular cadence and make sure what's being charged is indeed correct. I know for me, I've seen so many wrong charges or zeros added to the end of something. so I think it's really important. I wanna talk a little bit, kind of backtrack a little bit. So let's say somebody doesn't have an advisor or CPA.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (26:24.003)
Absolutely.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (26:30.151)
Mm-hmm.
Melissa Aarskaug (26:42.149)
and they're considering getting one, how should they go about that and what should they look for in a CPA?
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (26:49.149)
So I think first to understand is there's a couple of different layers of tax professionals. CPAs are certified public accountants and the enrolled agents are EAs. These two are on the same level. The only thing that a CPA can do that an EA cannot do is sign an audit. So I didn't know that's.
That is a little known fact, but EAs take similar exams as CPAs. So it's an emerging accreditation. More people are hearing about what EAs are. I've had my EA license since 2004, and I have chosen to be an expert in just the tax debt resolution corner. It's just, I love that problem solving.
CPAs and EAs and accountants, accountants are people who have been doing tax returns for years. They have a license to file tax returns, but they may not have the same level of education that an EA or a CPA has. Not saying that they're any less better.
I've met so many people who are accountants who have been doing it for 20, 30 years. They worked for their parents who passed off their accounting practice. And they have different areas of specialties. Nowadays, people are really honing in on, I do business advising and I do tax strategy planning and implementing, and I do corporate tax returns and partnership tax returns, but I don't do
income tax returns for individuals or I only do it for my clients who are business owners and I file their 1120. So first things first is to understand the different level of expertise that you want. Okay. The second thing to do is check their credentials. You can look on the IRS's website and check credentials. If it's a CPA, you can go to your state's board of accountancy and find it. I find that
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (29:06.391)
Double checking credentials is really important. Not that we want to say that somebody's gonna lie, but I've seen it. And it creates a sense of security threat to me if somebody is portraying themselves as something that they're not. So just do your homework. The other thing I would do is find somebody in your industry or a friend that you know that has a successful business.
Ask them for a reference. Go to your local Chamber of Commerce and see if there's any CPAs or EAs who have been members of the Chamber of Commerce for a long time, which means the ones that haven't been, that they've been flushed out by the members, right? Chamber of Commerce is a great resource for you. Look on the web, look for...
positive feedback from other people who have used this person before. In the end, my summary answer would be do your homework and then get on the phone with somebody. See if it's somebody that you can talk to. Is it somebody that you feel comfortable with? Is it somebody who has handled your type of business before? Okay, maybe you were a dentist and this person has handled doctors before.
they have an idea of what is standard for expenses in the medical industry or in that type of service industry. What you don't wanna do is be somebody's first. Like let's say you are in, you're a counselor, right? A psychologist, let's say, and you're going to a brand new CPA and they've never worked.
with like medical insurance billing and how that process goes. You probably don't want to go to that person. So do your homework.
Melissa Aarskaug (31:06.944)
Yeah, and it's that's so so spot on to I've I've had friends that I've used fairly new CPAs and because they were cheaper and they were could get them in quicker but their next year CPA caught some major errors in the previous years which ended up costing them a load of money and interest payments because they didn't pay the correct
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (31:28.37)
Yeah.
Melissa Aarskaug (31:33.845)
taxes that year so it's your spot on with due diligence ask around. I know we've covered quite a bit is there any kind of closing thoughts or anything we may have missed that you want to share with our listeners today?
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (31:50.237)
Like you know, in closing, I would say if you ever are receiving notices from the IRS or the state, don't be intimidated by them. There is always a solution to any problem that comes in those envelopes. Don't be afraid. Don't give the power position to the tax agency. Open it up, read it, see what it says, and take steps to address it.
If you don't, it becomes a runaway train and then they think you're not paying attention and then they get upset and then they take collection action. It could be something as simple as an audit. Your tax return got flagged because there was a miscalculation. It could be that you claimed something and didn't have the applicable documentation attached to support it. Whatever it is, there's always a solution.
When you get those notices, don't let your heart leap up into your throat. Don't start sweating. Just open it up and know that there is always a solution. In 25 years, I have never seen a client case that we couldn't solve. And if you have questions, reach out to me. I'm everywhere on the internet. I have my direct line on our website, goldenliontaxsolutions.com.
I'm on LinkedIn, send me a message. you're receiving something and you're worried about it, call me, we can talk about it. Nine times out of 10, it's something that's very easy to solve.
Melissa Aarskaug (33:24.952)
I love that. think that's really great advice. Morgan, thank you so much for being here on the Executive Connect podcast today.
Morgan Q. Anderson, EA (33:33.873)
Thank you, thank you Melissa, it was great talking to you.
Melissa Aarskaug (33:37.573)
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