Who Is TaxMama? ... Eva Rosenberg ... Bio

Ask TaxMama.Com
Tax Information With A Mother's Touch

Published by Eva Rosenberg, MBA, EA

What they're saying about TaxMama:

Thanks for your site on how to properly dertemine how many exemptions to claim on your W-4 without getting a headache.

These should be the directions on the actual form as opposed to what the IRS has on them.

Doug Davis

2/15/01

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Bring Humor to your working life - I-Laugh

As TaxMama, people come to me all the time to help them with life's decisions. Someone asked me the other day, "Should I quit my job and start a business?"

What's a TaxMama to say? "What? Are you out of your mind? Leave a nice, cushy job, with 8-6 hours, evenings and weekends off, paid vacations and sick leave? To get what?"

"Well, in my own business, I could make lots more money and work my own hours." He replied.

"Uh huh. Yup. You can work your own hours, all right. All twenty-four of them." I intoned."

With some people, it doesn't help. No matter what you say, they're going to forge ahead and start a business. Some of them will succeed with fanfare. Some will lead comfortable, easy modest lives. Many will fail.

It takes a certain kind of person to be an entrepreneur. You've got to have a certain zest for the unknown. You must have a sense of fun and creativity. But, to succeed, you must also have a flair for organization and time management.

Some of us will chafe in a full-time corporate environment. Some of us want windows that open, air flowing through, the ability to take off in the middle of the day when your husband or wife calls and says s/he's done. But we're willing to pay the price and work all night to make up the time. It's that kind of spirit that makes an entrepreneur.

Running your own business can be the most exciting and rewarding experience you'll ever have. But if you're used to all the perqs and support structure (that you never realized was holding up your job), the steady paycheck, you'll chicken out after the first few months.

Me, I never expected to have anything to do with business or money. Despite my father's urging, I absolutely never wanted to learn typing or bookkeeping. My goal was to learn all the major languages (and some of the less used ones) of the world and collect all the folk tales from the elderly before they were all lost. I knew that there was so much in those tales that would help people around the world see how much alike they are, rather than how different.

Although I never picked up more than 4 or 6 languages, here and there, I did become most fluent in Tax. Don't even ask how that came about. But it did result in a couple of degrees in Accounting and International Business, several years in national and local CPA firms, lots of years of free-lance and consulting work with companies of all sizes, and across many industries. And a tax preparation, consulting and writing practice of over 20 (mumble) years.

In the course of trying to perfect my skill at Tax language, this li'l ol TaxMama found that the best way to learn was to teach. You can't snow a class of tax professionals - if you don't know the material, they'll catch you out. So, I developed seminars and workshops covering material that I dearly wanted to learn. I brought in others, like IRS officials to teach these subjects with me (and, boy, I had better not mess up in front of them!) ... and so, I became even more fluent in Tax.

Today, my popular weekly Ask TaxMama newsletter translates obscure tax code into plain English that anyone can understand. I keep my brood laughing and crying their way through the maze of tax laws, in print, on the Internet, at seminars and on radio shows around the country.

And since that technique worked so well for Tax. I decided to pick up another new language: Internet. Being completely inarticulate in that language, and figuring, correctly, that others were equally clueless, this TaxMama created the HelpDesk to get answers to my own questions. In the course of my quest for clarity, about 4,000 others joined my pilgrimage.

Today, I moderate one of the friendliest and liveliest general Help Forums on the Internet. My HelpDesk is the one place where anyone can safely ask any question about any e-commerce topic on the WWW. My HelpMates have found suppliers for each other, written snippets of code, explained things that they thought everyone knew as a matter of course, gotten ISPs to turn web sites back on, and even helped console Mates whose spouses have died. And some say, my unconventional sense of humor and love of life brings lots of laughter, fun and practical jokes to the Forum.

Learning from my HelpMates, I have built several websites founded on the theme of cross-cultural communication (Yes, Tax is a culture, even if it's a counter-culture). These days, large companies bring me money and pay homage to my advice on designing and marketing their Web sites. What a great interpreter I've become.

Wherever this TaxMama goes, I build a family of caring, giving people. And they do find that, the better they treat each other, the more they get from the process. Some have called it 'care-ware.'

But, let's go back to my original ambition, reaching out to the world and helping people find their commonalities - and having nothing to do with business. Hmmm. I think I may have it halfway right.

Am I an entrepreneur? Let's see now ... these are my current web businesses (under development):

I have a full-time tax practice; I teach all over the country; keep writing chapters in books; and articles for CBS.MarketWatch.com... no, I don't think anyone's given me a W-2 for a long while ...?

So - You bet your sweet tax returns! And I love the challenges, the uncertainties and the rewards. And the people I've been privileged to meet have enriched my life beyond mere dollars .... but, now, it's time to go after the dollars, too.

Eva Rosenberg
Your TaxMama

______________
Vitals:

B.A. Accounting, California State University, Fullerton
M.B.A. International Business, California State University, Fullerton
E.A. Enrolled Agent, licensed by the U.S. Treasury Dept. to represent taxpayers before the IRS

Taught classes and seminars for tax professionals and taxpayers at places like:
UCLA, USC, UCI, and Enrolled Agents Society Updates around the U.S.A.

Books, authored and co-authored:
Tax Anxiety Xperience, the T.A.X. Planning Guide
The Educator's Tax Planning Handbook
2 chapters in West's Income Tax textbook, 1998 (co-authored)
(and she keeps getting quoted in lots of other upcoming books, for some reason...???)

Acclaimed in (among others too numerous to relate)

Who's Who in California,
Who's Who in Authors, Editors and Poets,
International Who's Who of Professional and Businesswomen
one of 2000 Notable American Women

© Eva Rosenberg, 2000-2002

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