Today we’d like to introduce you to Shonda Love.
Hi Shonda, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
The Association Of Black Tax Professionals was established in May 2019. We first began by creating a community for black tax and accounting professionals with just a few hundred members and have now grown to over 4k members. We offer resources, training, mentorship, education to obtain CE Hours, and more importantly support. We launched the first Nationwide Black Tax Professionals directory in July 2021 with over 500 professionals on our website. Now, we are embarking on the 1st National Tax Conference held in Atlanta, Georgia from July 28th-30th.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In any association, it will be faced with adversity but when you have an overwhelming amount of support you receive from professionals in the tax industry everything eventually aligns.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
Black communities have often struggled to find professionals who can relate to their lived experience. Meeting these unique needs was part of what drove the team behind the Association of Black Tax Professionals to develop a platform where people could connect with tax and accounting professionals, either in-person or remote, who could meet these requirements.
Since first opening its doors, the Association of Black Tax Professionals has striven to be a trusted organization across the board. They want the people who turn to them in order to find a tax professional to be able to rely on their recommendations and their word. The team’s incredible determination, both to be trusted by tax professionals to represent their interests and by taxpayers to provide reliable experts in the field, has brought the team incredible success.
Just some of the services offered by the team include the provision of tax-related resources, mentorship, and online training courses to equip Tax Professionals, CPAs, EAs, and Accountants with the most timely and relevant Federal tax resources, training, education, and tools. These tools are essential because they ensure that members of the Association of Black Tax Professionals are able to prepare and practice tax returns to meet the stringent requirements demanded by the Federal government.
The benefit of working with the Association of Black Tax Professionals primarily comes from being able to access their incredible network of professionals. Through social media such as Facebook, the team has been able to onboard many individuals, specializing in various tasks throughout the tax sector. Perhaps the easiest way to prove their continued success is the way in which the Association of Black Tax Professionals continues to grow as more and more people find out about how they operate. The team stands apart as an organization because they focus on supporting the success of tax and accounting professionals on every level.
To achieve this growth and support such a range of potential professionals, the team at the Association of Black Tax Professionals consists of Brand Ambassadors. One Ambassador represents each region, providing a united front and local knowledge. Currently, the Association of Black Tax Professionals has 22 Ambassadors, with each providing a direct link to the main hub of operation. As the voice of the Association of Black Tax Professionals, these Ambassadors connect, network, mentor, and train individuals on how to flourish within the challenging world of tax and accounting. Having access to this incredible resource is just one example of the holistic nature of the Association of Black Tax Professionals’ level of support.
Over the last few years, the team has set its sights as high as possible. Their growth into a renowned platform that serves the needs of black communities is one that is justly celebrated, but they don’t want to stop there. Already, the team at the Association of Black Tax Professionals is repositioning themselves so that they don’t just offer advice to tax professionals but that they act as a one-stop-shop for this intrepid group of people. By building a network that is truly second to none, they have opened up amazing opportunities for black communities across the United States.
Of course, even tax professionals are having to deal with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and nowhere is this more obvious than when people have to deal with the IRS Organization. As tax and accounting professionals, this is one of the more challenging aspects of the job to deal with as more and more people try to get in touch with this essential organization. Often, it’s impossible to reach a representative and ask for more detail on changing regulations.
The backlog that is being faced has started to impact more and more people, with more than 10 million tax returns currently unprocessed. The Association of Black Tax Professionals cannot deal with the understaffing of the organization, but it can act as a hub where professionals can ask questions and find those who have already had said questions answered. Building a community of professionals is no easy task, but the rewards more than speak for themselves.
What started as a way of providing a place for black communities to find people who shared their lived experiences has grown into an establishment that stands apart from the crowd for its unique values that are committed to reliability, authenticity, and trustworthiness above all else. The growth of the Association of Black Tax Professionals now seems assured. We look forward to seeing how this incredible organization develops over the coming months and years.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Yes, I visualize ABTP being one of the largest trusted platforms for tax and accounting professionals to receive ongoing support, mentorship, training, and education.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.blacktaxprofessionals.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blacktaxpros
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/BlackTaxPros
