Why WCG CPAs & Advisors Is Different (Planning-First CPA Firm for Real People)

If you spend enough time talking with small business owners, real estate investors, and high-income W-2 professionals, you quickly start hearing the same stories:

• “My old CPA just filed the return and sent a bill.”
• “I only heard from them at tax time.”
• “I asked about strategy and never got a straight answer.”
• “They told me I was too small for tax planning.”

A little mea culpa- In the early days, WCG was not much different. We were tax prep focused. Didn’t tend to tax strategy as we should have. Among other things.

It was August of 2012 when Tina and Jason left the basement to get serious about our firm. We listened, pivoted and made mistakes along the way. This is evolution, and WCG has compressed the evolution cycle better than most CPA firms. And we learned a resounding theme- People don’t just want a tax preparer. They want a proactive, consultative CPA firm that explains things clearly, helps them plan ahead, and removes the anxiety of not knowing what’s coming.

That’s the space WCG CPAs & Advisors intentionally occupies.

We’re not historians of your financial past — we’re collaborators in your financial future. Yes, we prepare tax returns, process payroll, compile financial statements, and maintain compliance, but the real value is our year-round tax planning, small business tax strategy, real estate tax expertise, and hands-on advisory that clients say they’ve never experienced before.

This is the “missing middle” of the tax world — and WCG was built to serve it. Ok, not entirely true. We initially built WCG not knowing where we were going, but we quickly set our sights on where we are today.

We Start With Understanding You (Not Just Your Documents)

Most CPA firms start by asking for documents. We start with your story so we can understand what you need, and how we can help. 55% of our business is advisory in nature with 45% being purely transactional tax return preparation. We are agnostic to which side of the room you want to sit on, but we need to know because if we apply a transactional approach to an advisory engagement, things break. Advisory, and specifically tax strategy, thrives when you story is understood-

• What are you building over the next 12–24 months?
• How predictable is your income — steady, seasonal, or “lumpy and bumpy”?
• Are you focused on reducing taxes now, later, or strategically over time?
• Do you see real estate investing in your future?
• How much complexity and risk are you actually comfortable with?

This consultative approach changes everything. We don’t guess. We plan, model, explain, and decide with you.

Proactive Tax Planning: Projections, Advisory, Strategy

The tax world is full of last-minute December scrambles — buying equipment you don’t need, writing checks out of panic, or making rushed decisions.

That’s not planning. That’s triage.

WCG divides tax planning into three structured layers to match where you are in the decision process:

1. Tax Projections

This is “your facts, your tax.” We build a mock tax return using:

• W-2 wages
• business income
• rental income
• investment income
• retirement contributions
• multi-state apportionment (when needed)

This gives you clarity on:

• what you will owe,
• how to adjust estimated tax payments, and
• how to avoid surprises altogether.

It’s basic but essential — and it’s included in all advisory platforms (business advisory and tax patrol including investor patrol).

2. Tax Advisory

This is where the “Should I…?” questions live:

• Should I pay myself $100k or $150k as S Corp wages?
• Should I cost-seg this year or next year?
• Should I buy the vehicle now or in January?
• Should I add my spouse or kids to payroll?
• Should I do a PTET election this year?

This is decision-focused tax planning — tailored to cash flow, goals, and risk.

3. Tax Strategy

This is multi-year, multi-scenario modeling — true tax strategy planning:

• five-year Roth conversion plans
• real estate acquisition timelines, including STR to LTR conversions, and 1031s
• depreciation strategies tied to future income (opt out of 5 year bonus?)
• entity planning for ownership expansion
• long-range residency and state-tax optimization

Tax strategy is where clients tell us they feel the most supported, because they finally understand not just “what to do,” but “why” and “when.”

Hands-On Guidance From Real Humans (Not a Black Hole Inbox)

Clients often tell us that the worst part of working with previous firms wasn’t the tax return — it was the communication.

• Delayed responses.
• Endless email threads.
• No clarity.
• No guidance.
• No advisor.

WCG is intentionally built differently. You don’t just get a CPA. You get a team, including:

• a partner or tax manager leading strategy conversations
• supervisors managing details and execution
• specialists for multi-state, STR/REPS, PTET, expats
• support staff who actually answer the phone

And the way we communicate matters:

• If your question is quick, email works great.
• If it needs explanation, we call you.
• If it’s a big decision, we schedule time.

Every major step gets a recap email so nothing slips through the cracks.

• If video fails, we roll to phone.
• If Calendly is full, our front desk finds you time.
• It’s structured, personal, responsive, and human.

Small Business Owners Are the Heart of Our Firm

WCG is built around the daily realities of:

• consultants and professional service providers including doctors, attorneys, engineers
• freelancers and independent contractors
• agents, brokers, and real estate professionals
• good old fashioned widget makers

We understand:

• how to time an S Corp election
• how to calculate reasonable salary accurately
• how payroll interacts with QBI, health insurance, and 401k
• the cash-flow challenges of short-year payroll
• the lumpy income patterns of commission and seasonal businesses
• how to structure one business — or three — without unnecessary complexity

Small business tax planning is not a side service for us. It is the core of what we do.

Real Estate Tax Strategy — Practical, Not Over-Engineered

Real estate is a major wealth building and tax planning tool for many of our clients. We work with:

• entity structures for rental portfolios
• rental startup and acquisition cost treatment
• long-term rentals
• short-term rentals (STRs)
• multi-state rental holdings
• material participation testing
• real estate professional status
• passive activity loss limitations
• grouping elections for rental activities
• home office, travel, and auto considerations for landlords
• rental property repairs and safe harbor elections
• cost segregation studies and QIP
• Section 179 and accelerated depreciation (and timing)
• 1031 exchanges and exit planning

But our approach is always grounded in practical reality, not hype. We don’t push unnecessary entities, exotic trusts, or overly complicated structures. We evaluate:

• cash
• participation ability
• risk
• short-term vs long-term goals
• future income expectations

The goal isn’t to win a cocktail party bragging contest. The goal is wealth-building with smart tax strategy. Besides, those who have money never have to brag about having money.

Where WCG Fits in the Marketplace (The Missing Middle)

The tax/advisory marketplace is oddly polarized. On one end: Inexpensive compliance shops — perfect for simple W-2 tax returns, but not built for business owners, real estate investors, and high W-2 earners. All with complexity. All with good acumen. All needing more.

On the other end: (and Yes, we are going to openly and candidly explore the bookends of our marketplace by talking about competitors… good bad or indifferent)

Hall CPA

A well-respected, premium real estate CPA firm focused heavily on real estate investors, syndications, and private equity funds. They’re excellent for large real estate portfolios and specialized strategy — but often priced and structured for clients operating at a scale far beyond the typical high-earning household. Then again, scale is just a number- 150 rentals might be simpler and more straightforward than 12 rentals. More is not complication. More is simply more.

Anderson Business Advisors

A national asset-protection and entity-structuring provider, known for big blueprint plans, trusts, and multi-entity diagrams. Many prospects who talk to us describe feeling overwhelmed by complexity or unsure how those structures translate into everyday operations. “Is it an illusion of precision?” Maybe. “Do I need it?” Maybe, but also unlikely.

Top 20 CPA Firms

World-class when you’re a corporation, private-equity fund, or eight-figure taxpayer. But they rarely want stand-alone individual returns or one-person S Corps, and typically require audit, valuation, or large corporate engagements. Their fee structures simply don’t make sense for most successful six-figure households.

Staying Grounded, The Center

We try to keep some basics in mind as position ourselves in the missing middle-

Just because something costs more doesn’t make it more valuable — selling scarcity in the land of abundance is marketing. Complicated tax strategy isn’t more valuable or impactful- it is just complicated. Simple tax strategy can have a huge impact, and the low cost of execution should not diminish the value. Sure, not sexy at the cocktail party but money is money no matter how many hoops you jumped through to save (or earn). Keep in mind that the person who can write a $500,000 check to the local soup kitchen and not say a word to anyone is the person you want to hang out with.

Form over substance is a real concern. A lot of exotic Venn diagrams with this owning that and that owning these can easily be viewed by a court as form without substance, and basically nonsense. Don’t get caught up in the madness or the bragging rights of some crazy tax scheme. If it takes a slide deck and a 4-hour presentation to explain it, you probably don’t need it. Good ideas don’t take a lot of explanation- they become clear and obvious easily and quickly.

Outsiders

Then there’s everyone else — seasonal preparers, budget firms, or generalist CPAs who may be great at filing tax returns but are not built for proactive, multi-layered planning.

This leaves a large population stranded:

• too successful for the $300 tax shop
• too practical for multi-entity asset protection architectures (complicating the uncomplicated)
• not large enough for big-firm private-client services
• and not wanting to build an empire just to save taxes

Across more than 3,500 households, WCG’s average adjusted gross income for the 2025 tax year is $399,000 — a perfect snapshot of this “missing middle.”

People at this income level:

• have complex tax lives (business + high W-2 + rentals + investments)
• have meaningful tax-savings opportunities
• need advisory, not just compliance
• want clear, practical strategy, not over-engineered structures
• want reasonable fees
• and want professionals who take their questions seriously

This is the vacuum we fill. This is the audience we built WCG for.

Many Walks of Life, One Kind of Complexity

On paper, our clients look different:

• W-2 professionals with big bonuses, RSUs, options, etc.
• 1099 contractors operating S Corps
• STR owners using (or hoping to use) the STR loophole
• real estate investors scaling from one door to ten

But they all share one thing: Their financial lives have outgrown simple tax prep.

They aren’t looking for a tax preparer — they’re looking for a relationship with a firm that:

• explains taxes in plain English
• anticipates issues
• plans ahead
• models scenarios
• gives frank, useful and complete answers
• helps them make informed decisions
• and respects both time and money

That’s WCG.