The annual Tax Day, April 15th, is fast approaching for hundreds of millions. Even sooner than that, March 16th is the deadline for partnerships and S corporations to file their taxes.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Taxfyle
Richard Lavina, CEO and Founder of Miami-based Taxfyle, grew up in the Magic City and attended the University of Miami. He has grown his company locally instead of a more-known tech hub like Silicon Valley. Labeled as “the Uber of Taxes”, Taxfyle has over 50 full-time staffers that oversee more than 2,400 registered CPA’s to take care of over 50,000 small business clients.
Taxfyle, the on-demand tax service company just relocated to a 14,000 square foot office in Coconut Grove, and was recently seeded by the venture capital firm, Rokk3r Fuel, also based in Miami. The up and coming tech/finance sector of Miami is well-served by the presence of companies like Taxfyle.
Lavina sat down with Haute Living for an exclusive interview.
Haute Living: When and how did the idea for Taxfyle originate?
Richard Lavina: When I was a CPA at a Big Four Accounting firm, I was working more than 3,000 hours a year (almost 60 hours a week, give or take), on a fixed salary, with little control over what I could work on, and from where. It was the typical white-collar office job. One day while riding in the back of an Uber, I had this epiphany: Despite the many years I had spent on my education, then working in what was supposed to be this coveted job, I had no control over my life, especially compared to the guy driving my Uber at that moment. I decided then that I would do everything possible to create a better future of work for the multibillion-dollar professional services industry.
HL: How long did it take to develop Taxfyle before launching it? What were some of the tweaks along the way?
RL: It took us about six months to launch the earliest version of Taxfyle, which back then was just “Uber for taxes,” helping people like you and me file our income taxes, or our business taxes. Since then, we’ve built out two more products: Taxfyle for CPA firms, and Worklayer. We’re also on version No. 3 of Taxfyle.
HL: What is the greatest benefit to the end user of Taxfyle?
RL: The best part about using Taxfyle is definitely the added convenience of getting your taxes filed return from the “comfort of your phone.” With Taxfyle, you don’t really have to worry about finding a CPA that works for you – you’re automatically connected to one, in just a few minutes. You’re really only involved in the process to send in the documents the CPA needs to do your return, then he or she handles the rest. You get quality work for an affordable price, without any DIY, a bunch of phone calls back and forth.
HL: You have the No. 1 downloaded tax filing app in the Apple App Store. How else has the company grown in audience and users?
RL: As a company, we’ve already tripled in size since Taxfyle started in 2015. We have over 2,400 CPAs on our platform across the country and have 10x our output in the four years since the Taxfyle app went live.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Taxfyle
HL: What made you stay in Miami instead of heading to tech hubs like Silicon Valley?
RL: When you start out and get interest from Silicon Valley investors early on, it’s very exciting. But then you dive into it and add up all the additional costs associated with moving and operating out of the Valley, and it becomes less appealing. On top of that: We love Miami! Even though there isn’t a tech ecosystem here yet of the scope of Silicon Valley, who’s to say we couldn’t be one of the first to create it? I’m happy to say we found investors who believe in our vision and are thriving, right where it all started.
HL: Tax filing is a very personal thing every year for everyone. Why should someone use Taxfyle over their own accountant?
RL: Taxfyle offers a reliable, efficient, one-of-a-kind service that saves consumers time and money, while still providing a personalized experience with a qualified professional. A personal accountant might be expensive, time-consuming, or inconvenient. You might find that you’re looking for something more modern or flexible. Plus, Taxfyle’s platform makes it easy to build relationships with our professionals, and you can always request that same person the next time you need to do your taxes, keeping that personalized touch.
HL: You’ve secured more than $10 million in funding for Taxfyle. What areas of Taxfyle do you see injecting these and future funds to keep growing the company?
RL: Growth is definitely on our mind as we continue to expand and evolve, and we want to make sure we’re growing in the right ways. We recently moved our headquarters to an awesome 14,000-square-foot space in Coconut Grove that’s conveniently positioned us for expansion as we continue to add to our tech, development, marketing and sales teams.
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