We are the family owned and operated business of husband and wife team Chris L. Wilson and Blanche E. Wilson. We currently operate out of our office located at 1821 East Broadway Avenue, Maryville, TN 37804. This is at the corner of East Broadway Avenue and North Sixth Street – across East Broadway from Maryville Fastener.
Both Chris and Blanche have fulfilled all requirements set forth by the IRS to earn the Registered Tax Return Preparer (RTRP) designation. Being an RTRP requires maintaining a valid Professional Tax Preparer Identification Number (PTIN), having our own income tax return confirmed to be compliant and all payments current, and passing a competency test designed by the IRS and administered at a proctor center.
We specialize in personal income tax preparation services. Really, we mean this! When you come to our office we work with you on a personal, individual, one on one basis with privacy and discretion. We strive to offer a clean, comfortable, private office type environment. We will work hard to earn your ongoing trust and confidence.
As an independently owned business, we are able to work with you in terms of being flexible in how you pay us for our services. We understand that we all have bills to pay and sometimes it’s difficult to be able to pay for tax preparation services up front. So if you are due a refund we gladly offer “deferred payment” as long as you have a checking account. The lead time for your refund to be directly deposited to your checking account is between 8 to 15 calendar days, and we can tell you the projected date that the direct deposit is to occur. We will gladly hold your check for payment to us until after your direct deposit date! And if your direct deposit refund does not come through on time just let us know and we will continue to hold your check until it does.
We stand behind our services. We use top notch income tax preparation software that has excellent error checking safeguards. We electronically file all tax returns, which requires yet another level of accuracy before the IRS will accept the return as filed. However, we are humans too, so if we make an error that is clearly our fault and this error results in you owing additional tax, penalty, or interest, we will pay the penalty and interest (you pay only the tax that would have been due had the error not been made).
In the very unlikely event that you get called in for an audit, we will go with you to explain how the return was prepared and to interpret the tax jargon into English for you.
We want to truly get to know you personally. We request that all first time clients make an appointment and sit with us until we are certain that we have obtained all information necessary to properly prepare your return. This helps us get our database correct with Social Security numbers, dependents, etc. It also allows us to meet you and learn about your particular situation. (Please try to remember to bring a copy of your last year’s tax return with you.) After the first year, a lot of our clients like to just “drop off” their tax information for us to prepare. This works well as long as we have phone numbers where we can reach you with questions and to make certain we are up to date with your situation.
Who we are NOT:
We are not a franchise of a big box chain of a big corporation. We do not have a big waiting lobby where you sit and wait until someone yells “next” and then you go and sit two feet away from someone else getting their taxes prepared. We don’t try to sell you extra stuff like insurance or audit protection just to add to our profit. We believe that this level of support is a given and should come automatically at no extra cost to the client. We don’t offer RAL’s (Refund Anticipation Loans) because we believe that these things are ridiculously expensive and are bad for the consumer.
We are not CPA’s (Certified Public Accountants). There are times when you may truly need a CPA, and if so, we encourage you to seek one out. But if all you need is a competent, properly trained, experienced, income tax preparer then why would you need a CPA?
And since we’re not a franchise or CPA’s we don’t have their overhead costs and don’t charge high fees like they do. We’re completely confident that we are extremely competitively priced for this market area for the type of services that we provide – because we hear this all the time from our new clients! (See the “RATES” tab on the home page for an idea of our current fee structure.)
How we got started:
I (Chris) started in the income tax preparation business on a part time basis in 1987. I took the H&R Block Income Tax Preparation course in the fall of 1986. I took the course to learn how to do my own tax return. I did not have any sort of small business at that time, but like a lot of people I had a hope of starting one some day, and I knew that I needed much more knowledge about the tax consequences of owning and operating a small business before I got started in one. About midway through the tax class, something just clicked! I had never even considered that preparing income taxes might just be that business that I was wanting to start. I realized that, to my surprise, I was really enjoying the content of the income tax preparation class. This was really a surprise to me, because I just wasn’t that fond of the accounting classes I had in school. But soon I realized that this wasn’t accounting at all – this was tax law! This was using logic and math, two of my areas of strength. I really enjoyed seeking out all of the legitimate deductions, figuring out what you can and cannot do to save taxes, and following all of the steps all the way through the tax return to the end.
At the end of the class I had the opportunity to work for H&R Block, but my independent nature and desire to operate my own small business took over. I would have been paid a low starting commission rate as a rookie tax preparer. I decided that I would just go out on my own – charge about half (or less) of what Block was charging but keep all of the money I collected – and still bring home more than what they offered me in commission.
About this same time, Cannon was running commercials for their new PC3 Personal Copier. If anyone else remembers, Jack Klugman (of ”The Odd Couple”) was their spokesman on their commercials. This copier was about the size of a suitcase, had a carrying handle and was truly portable. One of the IRS’s requirements is that a copy of the completed return has to be provided to the client. Using a copier replaced the three part carbon copies and the typewriter! Wow – now that was progress! So, I drove to the Cannon distributor in Knoxville, bought the copier, had some business cards printed up, placed an ad in the paper, and advertised that if you preferred I would come to your home or small business and prepare your income tax return there. I’ve prepared many tax returns by hand on kitchen tables and coffee tables using a pencil, an adding machine, and of course that copier!
Blanche joins the business:
As the client base grew, primarily from word-of-mouth referrals, I realized that I needed some help during the busy tax preparation season if I was to take on any more clients during my available part time hours – or I was going to have to just stop taking any new clients at all. Finally, after much coaxing and begging, my wife Blanche took the H&R Block Income Tax Preparation Class in the fall of 1990 – and, to my delight, she really enjoyed it! Blanche then started on a part time basis and worked in the background her first year, mainly only working on those returns where the clients dropped off their information and came back later to pick up their completed return. Then she took the same class again in the fall of 1991. Taking the income tax preparation class, then doing some actual tax returns, and then taking the class again really helped Blanche get a thorough understanding of the tax preparation process. Now she was ready to make her own appointments with clients and prepare tax returns on the fly. Then she completed the H&R Block level II income tax preparation class as well as additional classes at the University of Tennessee for even more education and training. Blanche went full time in 1992, and soon it was really her business with me still helping out part time.
Stefan provides much needed technical and website support:
Our son Stefan graduated from the University of Tennessee Knoxville College of Business with a degree in Enterprise Management (magna cum laude) in May of 2008. This degree is basically a degree in being an entrepreneur and running your own business. (I guess he inherited this desire from his old man!) Stefan promptly opened his his own business, calling it SJW Tech Services, and began supporting both individuals and small businesses with just about any technological need – but focusing mainly on PC Computers, networking, and Internet support. While Stefan’s business grew nicely, it did not keep him busy full time. Through his business contats he was then offered a full time position in Information Systems support at a health care company in Knoxville. He worked there for all of 2010. Now, his entreprenurial spirit has returned with a vengance! He has transitioned once again back to running his own business, now called Allevia Technology offering managed services for computers and telephone systems to small businesses in the area. We are currently sharing commercial office space with Stefan at our combined location on East Broadway Avenue, Maryville, TN. Stefan is invaluable to us here in the office keeping our technology up and running, and is now offering his expertise in computer and technology to other small businesses in the surrounding communities.
Chris goes full time:
I truly enjoyed the tax business, but continued to work at my full time job – you know, the one with health insurance, 401K plan, and paid holidays. I worked in sales for a company in an automotive related industry. Unfortunately, due to the downturn in the economy – and particularly in the automotive related areas – the company decided to “reorganize” and eliminate my position in December of 2008. Viola! The decision has been made! Now I can go full time in the business that I started in 1987 and see what happens! With the help and support of my family, friends, and clients, I am truly excited about the potential of C. L. Wilson Income Tax Service! With Blanche continuing to manage the office and Stefan at the helm of technology support (aka website, email, graphic design, website support and hosting, etc), I can devote my undivided attention to growing our income tax service business and doing what I love most – working with clients and helping them with their income tax preparation needs!