TaxTeam expands to new location
As the TaxTeam reached the point where their old office just wasn’t big enough to contain their expanding business, the decision was made to make the move to 339 Main St. where a recent grand opening was held.
“We’d been at the other place for quite a long time and this office is quite a bit bigger,” said TaxTeam manager Michael Biette. “At the other place we didn’t have the space to give private intake-type stuff, where here we are able. People who were interested in us and haven’t seen us before can come in with no pressure and see what we’re all about and what we offer.” The new office space came with an added bonus. Not a tremendous amount of renovation was needed to fit the business, just a new coat of paint, some steam-clean- ing and TaxTeam was off and running. “(Space) was one of the biggest considerations, plus this place has a bit more of a professional look,”Biette said. “We like being downtown here; we were just down the street not too far away, but this place keeps the professional appearance in the downtown.”
TaxTeam has been a staple of financial businesses in the city for over 18 years, initially starting as a small tax-season preparation firm.
“When I first started, it was Doug Rempel and back then, it was just him and his wife and they’d rent out an office during tax time,” Biette explained. “The last few years, we’ve had five to 10 per cent growth, the first year we had maybe 100 clients; so far this year we’re pushing close to 5,000.
TaxTeam’s popularity partially comes from the wide variety of services they offer – every kind of Canadian tax return is offered from personal, business, farm, rental to corporate. On top of that, we have accounting services, bookkeeping and payroll.
“Anything involving those kinds of things, we’ll do it,” Biette said.
No appointment is necessary. TaxTeam carries a team of 18 to 20 staff during tax season, so they’re able to deal with a large volume of work in a short amount of time, even with a steady flow of clients. “Whenever you have your last slip come in, just bring it down and we can help out on the spot,” Biette said. “Just walk in; we have the staff and the accountants to do that.”
And then there’s their accuracy pledge – if a mistake is made and there’s a penalty from the government or interest charges, the business will pay back double that amount. That’s because the returns aren’t one-person shows.
“We’re able to do that because I don’t just sit down and do your tax return and give it back to you; we get your stuff and we have one accountant that works on it and we have a senior accountant that works on it, everything has multiple double check points,” explained Biette. “That way we won’t make mistakes and if there’s a credit we can find, we can let you know about that, too, and get the maximum refund.” TaxTeam hours of operation are 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday thru Friday, with extended hours open on Thursdays to 7:00 p.m. Saturday hours are 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.