Sometimes, students may feel like they need to learn a new language just to understand tax forms.
W2, 1040, 1040 short, 1099 — many have no idea what all these terms mean.
But two Central Michigan University students want to help.
Sanford senior Baron Kimble and Chesterfield senior TJ Thomas have started “Tax Finish,” a business that offers tax preparation services for $50 each.
“If you go to H&R Block, they’re going to charge you double or triple, at the very minimum, for something you can do,” Kimble said. “Basically, I can do the gambit for you.”
The duo has distributed dozens of fliers around campus promoting their business. So far, Kimble said, they have had about 25 customers.
Kimble, an accounting major, was working in the film industry in Los Angeles two years ago when he found himself dissatisfied with the direction the business was headed. He began looking for other opportunities that might be less affected by economic turmoil.
Kimble contacted accounting professor William Hood.
“I don’t even know he got my number,” Hood said. “He’s such a hard worker. Accounting and tax is not easy to pick up, not many people pick it up passively.”
Kimble premiered his personal tax business idea by entering the LaBelle Entrepreneurial Center’s “Make-a-Pitch” contest in October 2009. The contest awards a CMU student $500 to start a small business.
He lost the competition, but pursued his vision anyway.
“I tried to think of a practical business idea for (Central Michigan University), something that could be done with low cost of capital entry,” he said.
Easy paperwork
Kimble got the idea after seeing fliers for personal computer services around campus with many of the tabs pulled off.
“I thought, ‘Someone out there is being paid basically $20 per hour to run spyware on a computer.’ I’m going to go into taxes, and nobody is probably going to compete against me,” he said.
Thomas and Kimble are both accounting students and became fast friends after working on a class project.
The ability to think critically is what Hood makes Kimble a standout student, Hood said.
He said Kimble is fascinated with his work and would always have questions that went beyond the scope of textbooks and homework.
Kimble said his accounting education has given him the chance to offer better service than some professionals.
The pair, Thomas said, like to collaborate and bounce ideas off each other.
“The workload between us is almost even, but he’s done more with advertising and his number is on the flier,” Thomas said.
“If more students were like (Kimble), this job would be a lot easier,” Hood said.
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Joe Martinez
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I am likely the person you are referring to with the computer repair flyers hung around campus. I feel like the comment quoted by you in the article was slightly derogatory towards me and my business. The comment suggests that all I do is simply sit around, scan for spyware, and charge lots of money. In fact, I do spyware removal, but also any other number of complicated repairs. As far as my rates go, most repairs (as my flyer states) are billed for 1 hour. So the spyware/virus scans that take several hours are usually billed for only 1 and my rates are less than 1/4th the rates of other businesses in town. So while you and I are on a similar page as far as costing a fraction of the rates of other businesses, I have to bill 2.5 hours to reach your flat rate of $50. Most tax preparation takes less than 1 hour (especially students who almost always file a 1040EZ form).
Now, I’m glad you were able to use some of the ideas deployed by me to help you out in your business. A service you should look into is Google Voice, a free service. Once you sign up, you can create your own local phone number and assign it to both you and your partner’s cell phones. When someone calls that number, it will ring both your phones. The first person who answers their cell phone will speak with the customer while the other phone simple stops ringing. I’ll go ahead and give that to you as a freebie, the next time I’ll have to bill you for 1 hour, $20
H&R Block charges $39 for a 1040EZ or $49 for a dependant return, so how is $50 two to three times cheaper? Who is being deceptive and shall I say slandering here? Yes H&R Block will charge 2-3 times more than $50 often, but that is for a complex return that I would not want to trust to a college senior thank you very much.
WHAT! 50 BUX FOR A 1040EZ! What a rip-off, those take like ten minutes to fill out!