Eric L. Green never set out to be an author, nor did he plan to run a publishing company. Instead, he was focused on growing his law firm Green & Sklarz LLC ”” a task that turned out quite successful.
“In eight years, we went from two people to 23 people,” he said about Green & Sklarz, which operates offices in Stamford, New Haven and West Hartford. “And from that sprung a coaching program where I coach accountants and lawyers on how to build a representation practice before the IRS. Every summer, when the accountants are available, we do workshops ”” and the most popular one I do is about how to do an offer-in-compromise from start to finish.”
So, where does the book writing and publishing fit into this? According to Green, that came in response to his workshop audience.
“I get hundreds of questions from the audience and one of my staff said, ”˜It”™d be great if we could take all these and just do a Q&A book.”™ So, we pulled 4,000 questions over the last four years from that workshop and scrubbed them down until we had about 100 that came up constantly.”
Opting to take an entrepreneurial route to publishing, Green started his own company called TG Publishing in 2017 that focused on this niche subject.
To date, he has created four books that are available in both print and digital editions: “The Accountant”™s Guide to Resolving Tax Debt,” “The Accountant”™s Guide to Resolving Payroll Taxes and Personal Responsibility,” “The Accountant”™s Guide to IRS Collections” and “The Insider”™s Guide to IRS Offers.” The latter book, which was published in 2021, has generated the most positive feedback to date.
“The first part of it covers the process,” Green said. “If you”™ve never done an offer, it shows how the offer process works and then it goes through the top 100 questions and answers, all written out and cited. The feedback has been excellent ”” it”™s very user friendly, you can pick it up and all of the questions are listed in the table of contents so the reader can scroll through and say, ”˜Yeah, that”™s my issue”™ and flip to the page for an answer that is completely written out for them.”
Green”™s latest book is “The Accountant”™s Guide to IRS Representation Checklists, Letters, and Forms,” which is now with his printer and is scheduled to be made available later this month. This book provides its attorney and accountant readers with dozens of checklists and letters that enable them to respond to both clients and the IRS in a quick and impactful manner.
“They don”™t have to sit there and start retyping a five-page penalty abatement letter,” Green said. “They can take what we”™ve done and just edit it. My goal was to make this very practical.”
Of course, the U.S. tax code is not chiseled in stone and Green is constantly watching to see where changes are taking place.
“We”™re updating the book about every two to three years,” he said. “For instance, the IRS collections guide first came out in 2017 and we updated it at the end of 2019 ”” the book is still perfectly fine.”
In addition to TG Publishing, Green also operates the Tax Rep Directory Site, which helps consumers find tax resolution professionals with expertise in dealing with the IRS and state tax agencies, and the Tax Rep App, which is designed to help tax resolution professionals expand their business.
“I also created a training certificate program in IRS rep work, which I licensed to UConn Business School, and it is also selling nicely,” Green added. “I am a bit of a serial entrepreneur.”
