Joshua Beal's tax practice wasn't created for a specific niche, but rather for an entire underserved community, of which he is a part.
That practice, DeafTax, originated when Beal was working in the Washington, D.C., area at Schwarz Financial Services, the oldest deaf-owned tax preparation firm in the U.S.
After earning his bachelor's degree in economics at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Beal relocated to D.C. to be part of the large deaf community in the capital region. In 2005, he started working for Louis Schwarz, who founded the firm in 1971 and would become his mentor.
"I was very excited to work with other deaf people," Beal said. "I never had that opportunity in my life before; I'm usually the only deaf guy. I didn't have a lot of friends who were deaf until I moved to D.C."
Beal quickly identified a lack of targeted advertising to the deaf clientele that Schwarz Financial Services served, so Schwarz supported Beal in establishing DeafTax.com as part of SFS in 2007, the same year Beal started grad school to get his MBA in entrepreneurship at the Rochester Institute of Technology.
Beal steadily grew the website with the support of Google search and the rising popularity of Facebook, and then all the other social media platforms that were soon to sprout up. "Social media is everything," Beal said of DeafTax's growth, which reached over 50% a year by 2012. About 90% of DeafTax's services are tax preparation, with the rest dedicated to bookkeeping.
In 2018, Beal, along with his partner Charles Sterling, spun off DeafTax from Schwarz Financial following a venture capital investment from nonprofit Communication Service for the Deaf's social venture fund. Since then, Beal reports revenue growth of 231% and a client count increase of 164% over a five-year period.
"Our business model is seasonal, so we focus on finding deaf professionals with an accounting background, preferably a BA degree and/or tax preparation experience, who are already currently employed and looking to find consistent supplemental income," he explained.
DeafTax, an S corp that Beal hopes to eventually structure under an employee stock ownership plan, currently employs eight part-time, commission-based employees who are all deaf, serving about 290 clients, 95% of whom are deaf.
"I always had the attitude of helping the community," Beal said. "Maybe I missed out on more money, but that's OK. I've given a lot of opportunity to other deaf people … . The culture I built is hiring deaf people, supporting deaf people, and serving our own community."
Communication methods
Beal has long been serving this community. In 2007 — the same year he was launching DeafTax and starting grad school — he joined up with the National Disability Institute, its signature program the Real Economic Impact Tour, and the Internal Revenue Service to build inclusive, virtual tax preparation services for the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program.
"There were a lot of hurdles, and eventually over a few years, the IRS passed new regulations to allow the use of the [video relay service] videophones to provide remote tax preparation services via the VITA program," he explained.
As a result of his work, there is now VITA training in American Sign Language, and the IRS, along with several financial institutions, have adopted the VRS for everyday operations to better serve deaf customers and employees.
Beal also utilizes VRS at DeafTax. "The VRS service is utilized in two ways — directly to another deaf person, or making the call through a trained ASL interpreter relay agent which introduces a third party," Beal explained. "The direct call through VRS videophones is deaf-to-deaf, so we can communicate clearly using ASL. The VRS videophone resolution is fantastic, which is understandable as it's regulated by the FCC, so the standards are the highest possible for videophone communications."
DeafTax employees work at home and rely on VRS, but Beal said the rise of mobile apps and communication since the practice's founding have also been tremendously helpful for staff and client communications. These conversations also take place through the firm's software applications, like QuickBooks.
But Beal has also found some clients prefer in-person meetings, which can be accomplished at the DeafTax office in Tysons Corner, Virginia, or the WeWork space it has in Michigan, though the remote workforce of DeafTax spans multiple states.
"They are happy to have someone to talk to; [some are in] a very rural area," Beal shared. "They want to go to the office and talk to Charles [Sterling]; they feel isolated."
Continued growth
While Beal said those feelings of isolation can sometimes be attributed to being part of a minority community, the problems he and his team are helping their clients solve are universal.
"I used to think it was unique, clients saying, 'I don't understand that, this letter from the IRS, I thought I paid already…,'" he said. "But it's the same for everybody, not just deaf people. It's not limited to deaf people, it's all people. Always, people have procrastinated, have made the appointment for the last day, every year. That goes for everybody."
At the same time, Beal doesn't want his community viewed as a monolith.
"The general public often doesn't realize the deaf community is quite diverse, encompassing all walks of life and socioeconomic levels," he said. "Also, that some deaf people also have additional disabilities such as blindness, Down Syndrome, and so forth."
The deaf community that counts itself as Beal's clients has proven loyal, he reported: "Our clients are constantly referring our services to other deaf people from their families and communities because of the tremendous value that they gain from getting valuable knowledge and information about taxes, which empowers them to make better financial decisions."
Besides referrals, Beal continues to rely on the SEO prowess of DeafTax's website to grow the practice, along with its robust social media channels, which have sprawled out to include Instagram, LinkedIn, X (formerly known as Twitter) and YouTube. He also has plans to add more staff and additional funding.
"We would like to continue growing DeafTax, as there is still a large unmet need for professional tax preparation services in the U.S. deaf community," he shared. "That being said, we're focused on organically growing our pool of deaf tax preparers by bringing on new people and training them every year. Meanwhile, I'm working with the CSD social venture fund, who are our first investors, to continue tuning the business and finding the right investors for our second round, such as a publicly traded tax preparation company or a regional firm that can support our rapid growth."
In finding more employees, Beal touts the flexibility of the role, where people can earn extra income in the work-from-home setting that has become more normalized, while maintaining their full-time jobs. But the allure goes beyond convenience.
"There's personal fulfillment that comes from being a part of my organization," Beal explained. "I show my gratitude, for helping the deaf community … . We've helped a lot of people … . My heart, soul and passion is with the deaf community, by all means."
