Managing Member Jeffrey Schultz, CPA, is a graduated of the University of Michigan – Dearborn, and understood the value of money and financial management before he was able to drive. Jeff is a Michigan CPA. In fact, his passion for the accounting profession began when he was just a young boy. Jeff mowed lawns for neighboring homes.
Jeff lived in Dearborn until he was 15. After his grandfather passed away in the late 1970s, he would ride his bike to his grandmother’s house weekly and cut her lawn. Grandma would give him a couple of dollars. He kept all the money in a miniature safe in his bedroom.
The following summer, another woman requested that he cut her lawn as well. She paid him $5. Soon, he was hooked on the job and began cutting multiple lawns a week for $5 each. Most of which would end up in the safe. While he didn’t always know why he was saving it, he knew that when the time came, it was going to be used for something worth his time.
His mom has said to him on multiple occasions, “You probably have the first dollar you ever made.” She clearly recognized Jeff’s knack for tracking profits and spending money wisely — going all the way back to his lawn cutting days.
His first year of college was a breeze. But prior to registering for year two, a friend mentioned that accounting was a very hard subject to study. Having not previously taken any difficult classes, he signed up for it. All he knew was that it had to do with business and money.
When it came time to take the class, Jeff did not find it difficult. Instead, he found that it made sense and came naturally to him.
Jeff graduated from the University of Michigan–Dearborn in 1995. After which he immediately began his career as a Michigan CPA. He spent eight years with that firm providing accounting and tax services to a variety of Michigan-based small businesses. During his time there, the firm grew from a staff of three to an accounting staff of seven when he finally left the firm in 2003 to start Schultz & Associates, CPA, PLC.
In some ways, Jeff has had only one job his entire adult life. Many of the clients that he began providing services for back in 1995 are still clients to this day. His knowledge, honesty, availability, and ability to explain complex tax and accounting strategies have kept clients loyal for more than 25 years.
You can reach Jeff either by phone (734) 354-2380 ext. 104 or by email at jschultz@schultz-cpa.com.
Building Schultz & Associates, CPA
Jeff’s move to self-employment was three years in the works. It was slow and steady and started three years prior to its launch. It started as a Plan B in the event his current firm decided not to take on partners. A year or so passed, and it became clear that the firm was not interested in having partners.
So Plan B became Plan A.
In the year leading up to self-employment, Jeff developed his plan. The plan included timely results of financial information, the usage of complex tax planning strategies, and the development of a firm that can evolve and develop young talent — and do so using understandable methods to provide guidance and direction that the client understands.
Even though the plan was a long time in the making, step one was to work out of the house for a period of time in order to save on costs. However, after six months, the growth made it impossible to spend a tax season in the home office. A short-term office location was secured for the first tax season for Schultz & Associates, CPA. After the 2004 tax season, permanent space was found on Ann Arbor Trail in downtown Plymouth, where the firm stayed until May 2019. At that time, the office was moved to a larger and more prominent location on Main Street in Plymouth until finally moving into their permanent home in Canton, MI in 2022.
Tax & Accounting Expertise
Having spent his entire career working with small businesses, Jeff has crunched numbers at every level of the accounting profession.
Because many small businesses do not have the budget to hire an in-house staff accountant, an accounting firm geared for small businesses must know every aspect of the accounting practice. Small business owners must decide which parts of the accounting and bookkeeping process they are willing and capable of performing themselves, and then outsource the remaining functions to their accounting firm.
Different industries can have different accounting methods, and tax benefits can be different as well. Among many others, Jeff has expertise working with the following industries:
- Retail (general retail, wholesale, trade, shopping malls)
- Entertainment (musicians, bowling alleys, gun ranges, museums, golf courses, movie production, party rentals)
- Advertising & Technology (YouTubers, technology companies, software developers, blockchain)
- Building, Construction & Landscaping
- Real Estate (condominium associations, investment, underwriting)
- Manufacturing
- Medical & Veterinary (general physicians, dentists, optometrists)
- Legal
- Fitness & Martial Arts
- Funeral Home
- Restaurant
- Hair Salon
- Insurance
- Automotive (automotive suppliers, vehicle repair)
- Engineering
- Professional Employer Organizations
- Agriculture (farms, garden centers, farriers, florists)
- Private/Nonprofit (churches, day care providers, service clubs, foundations, professional theater groups, consulting firms)
Jeff has advised clients on the following:
- Retirement planning
- Payroll structure
- S Corporation elections, Limited Liability Company setup, and nonprofit formation, and ownership changes
- Business sale and acquisition
- Business litigation
- Corporate conversations
- Like-kind exchanges or real property
- Cost segregation studies
- Accounting department structure/accounting workflow
- Business security
- Partner buy-in
- Estate planning structure
- Gifting/charitable foundations
- Trust planning/Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts (ILIT)
- Foreign-owned businesses
- Consolidations/mergers
- IRS/IRS lien removals/IRS installment agreements
- Unemployment
- State of Michigan and Department of Labor audits
- Business loans, business net operating losses, and bad debt
- Guardianship’s
As the managing member of the accounting firm, Jeff continues to be involved in client business advisory. He is accessible and always ready to attack any client issue that arises.