Five years ago, Asia Today had the pleasure of introducing our readers to Nitin Gupta, CPA at Accounting Professionals LLC. With the support of our readers and growing community, we have watched Accounting Professionals grow and expand into becoming the household name for full service accounting needs in the valley. With the end of the year upon us and taxes on everyone’s minds, we thought it would be good to catch up with him once again to see where the firm has come in the last five years, as well as get guidance on how the economy has changed and its impacts to our readers.

A little bit of history…

Nitin grew up in New Delhi, India and moved with his parents and family to Los Angeles, California in 1990. With a passion for accounting and business, he completed his Bachelors of Commerce with Honors from Delhi University. Having studied both business and accounting and ending up in a country like the States, where taxes and financial accounting are at the core of everyone’s personal and professional lives, he was destined to land into the accounting business. In his own words, “everyone needs accounting and personal financials” and those that know him personally will know that his outgoing and caring personality is a natural fit for an industry that is responsible for helping people. Starting out as a bookkeeper in 1990, he transitioned into tax work in California in 1993. During that time frame, he lived in Manhattan Beach and worked in LA, a 17 mile commute that took an hour and a half drive each way given the LA traffic.

In 2003, he left the LA traffic behind to move to Phoenix, Arizona. Having spent 14 years growing up in Jaipur, Phoenix reminded him a lot of Jaipur. Also, Nitin found that the South Asian community in Arizona was increasing but lacked a CPA that could assist them with their financial needs, especially those wanting the comfort of being able to speak their native language without fear of conversations being lost in translation.

With over 25+ years of experience in multiple states, Nitin is well versed in full service accounting needs that include both personal and business income taxes, financial audits, financial reviews, day to day consulting for business management, federal and state tax audits and assistance with mergers and acquisitions. In addition to the services mentioned, he can also guide individuals and businesses on the effects of daily decisions and the impact it can have on their financials. Nitin has been known to speak at seminars on topics related to real estate all over the valley sponsored by various Title companies, real estate brokers and the Arizona Academy of Real Estate.

A Glimpse of the Past and a Look into the Future…

When we met with him last, the economy was in the midst of the largest real estate crash in history and he guided his clientele through tricky foreclosure and short sale situations, helping them figure out whether the savings in a short sale/foreclosure were worth the tax debt and assisted in working out payment plans for the tax liabilities. With the changing economy, the focus of the service has changed to help manage the growth and success of the business with tax strategies and planning. The firm has shifted to helping businesses survive through the downturn to maximizing their potentials in the good economic times.

At Accounting Professionals LLC, encounters with clients are treated as a long-term relationship and the firm does not believe in nickel-and-dime type of billing behavior. Nitin’s credibility and experience can clearly be seen in the fact that he does not spend any time or money in advertising/marketing efforts, but all his customers are either repeat or referral customers. He is a strong advocate for doing something right to begin with, because it is harder to fix something once it has been done incorrectly. Nitin’s belief is that a relationship with your CPA is very personal, because an individual must reveal extremely confidential details of their financial matters and a comfort and trust level becomes extremely important to making that relationships a success and giving the CPA the ability to assist them fully. Those personal relationships have benefited his clients that have been with him for years because his attention to detail and ability to remember where the businesses have come from and how they have grown and changes has provided a very personalized level of service to those clients.

Nitin’s easy demeanor and jovial personality puts his clients, friends, and family at ease right away. His personality reflects in the way he lives his life and his steadfast belief to never forget where one comes from. Even today, he returns to India every year to spend some quality time with those friends that he grew up with and rekindle their friendship and keep the relationship strong. This is the exact same principle he applies in his professional lives with his clients. His clients are long-term returning customers and his firm has experience with their individual, unique situations to be able to cater to their specific needs. Nitin prides himself on being there for his clients’ year around, unlike large tax chains that come around and establish bases during peak tax season, but are nowhere to be found if an issue arises post filing. These seasonal chains also hire data entry experts that are subject matter experts on data entry only. They can take the data provided by individuals and file their taxes. However, Nitin and the professionals at Accounting Professionals LLC are trained in the tax code and with the ability to ask the right questions to find tax deductions that may otherwise be overlooked. While talking with him, I learned for the first time that there are certain deductions that only apply to certain industry verticals such as doctors, construction, etc. His firm provides specialized service asking the right questions based on the person’s background to ensure nothing is overlooked. If all the reasons mentioned above are not enough to choose him as your CPA, clients also have the benefit of only being charged where absolutely necessary.

Final Message to Readers…

His final message to our readers is to understand the importance of staying current on your filing status and not ignoring such extremely important matters. Nitin and Accounting Professionals LLC can assist you with staying current moving forward, as well as help individuals and businesses in need of corrections or back-filing to get them up to date and corrected moving forward. He also advises clients to start changing their perspective and recognizing that paying taxes is a good problem to have; it means you are making money which you need to be able to show to accommodate your growth and future needs whether it is for business expansion loans or mortgages.

Nitin is also very grateful for the support of the community and the tremendous response after his last interview. Since then, the firm has grown in size and experience and the type of clientele being served. To accommodate the growing needs and better serve his clients, the firm will be moving into a new office which is twice the size of the current office space by the end of the year. In addition, his brother Gautam Gupta has also joined the firm as a CPA to assist with the growing needs of the firm.

Asia Today thanks Nitin for taking the time out to speak with us and provide our readers for this invaluable advice. We wish Nitin Gupta and Accounting Professionals LLC, best wishes for the coming year and in their future endeavors. Please visit www.apcpa. net for more information regarding the firm and their services. Nitin can also be reached at 602-482- 9101 or at nitin@apcpa.net