Hi, I'm Justin.
I'm an Enrolled Agent in San Diego, and I run T Leaf Ledgers LLC.
I've spent twenty years in California community college administration, and I'm still there, in a senior finance role. The job is mostly about money that comes with rules attached: restricted funds, categorical money, grants with reporting obligations, and a general fund that has to balance in public. You learn quickly that the documentation isn’t bureaucracy. It’s the thing that holds up when somebody asks.
A few years in, I got interested in the tax side for its own sake, and I found I liked the part most people dread: taking something genuinely complicated and explaining it plainly enough that somebody can make a decision with it. So I sat for the Enrolled Agent exam.
What that credential is
An Enrolled Agent is a federally licensed tax practitioner, admitted by the Treasury to practice before the IRS in all fifty states, after a three-part exam on individual tax, business tax and representation, plus seventy-two hours of continuing education every three years. It’s the only credential the federal government issues specifically for tax.
Two things follow from it. I hold unlimited representation rights before the IRS, which means I can appear for you in an examination, an appeal or a collection matter, whether or not I prepared the return. And I’m bound by the Circular 230 practice standards, which govern what I can tell you, what I have to tell you, and how I’m allowed to describe this practice to you. The published fees on this site are part of that.
Who I work with
Flying clubs, aircraft owners and small flight schools. Nonprofits with restricted funds and grant reporting. And small businesses around North Park and University Heights that want their books and their return handled by the same person.
The through line is that all three have money with rules attached, and rules are the part I’m good at.
How I work
Everything runs through a secure portal. Email gets answered the same business day. Calls are evenings and Saturdays, scheduled, so you aren’t waiting on a callback. That turns out to suit most of the people I work with, who can’t step out of a shop or a hangar at two on a Tuesday either. Flat monthly fee for the books and the return, and no clock running when you call me with a question. Representation and specialist project work is the one thing billed by the hour.
You’ll know the cost and the timing before you commit to anything.
The rest of it
I’m an instrument-rated pilot and the treasurer of an aircraft partnership, which is how I ended up knowing more about section 280F than most people should. What instrument flying teaches you is that when you can’t see anything, you follow the procedure, and the procedure is the reason you get where you’re going. Bookkeeping is the same job.
Before any of this I designed theatrical lighting, which has nothing to do with taxes except that it explains why I care this much about where things are placed.
Credentials
- Enrolled Agent, admitted to practice before the Internal Revenue ServiceVerify with the IRS Office of Enrollment
- CTEC registered tax preparerVerify with the California Tax Education Council
- Member, National Association of Enrolled Agentsnaea.org
- B.A., University of California, Los Angelesucla.edu
- M.A., Rutgers Universityrutgers.edu
Software and platforms
- QuickBooks Online Certified ProAdvisorIntuit ProAdvisor Program
- Xero Certified AdvisorXero advisor directory
- Relay PartnerRelay Partner Program
I also run Smiley Notary Services. Mobile notary and loan signing across central San Diego, evenings and weekends.
Book a Ledger Check
Free, 30 minutes, written summary either way. Bring your books, your last return, or a notice you don’t understand.