Real Estate & Construction

Maureen O’Gara-Adford Managing Partner gishSeiden Woodland Hills Maureen O’Gara-Adford works in the both the public and private sectors of accounting. Her specializations include construction, software development and restaurants. She has worked at gishSeiden since her graduation from California State University – Northridge in 1986. She became the first female managing partner in the firm’s history in 2006. gishSeiden ranks No. 27 on the Business Journal list with 14 CPAs on staff in the Valley region. Question: Who are your clients?  Our clients include real estate professionals, manufacturers, medical professionals, retailers, wholesalers, auto dealerships, motorcycle dealerships, craft breweries, medical and dental professionals, consultants and other service businesses. Clients hire us because of our expertise, our experience and our reputation. Our partners and professional staff have an extensive range of expertise and experience in accounting and taxation. Because of this, we acquire many of our clients through referrals from our existing clients. Most interesting part of the job? The choice of the proper entity type for the business. The entity choice is made to maximize the tax benefits while also providing the needed liability protection and flexibility to meet the client’s needs. Biggest challenge? Our clients contact us prior to any substantial business transactions, ownership changes or any other major actions that affect their business. Another challenge is the importance of good recordkeeping. Many times, it is more cost effective to hire an outside professional bookkeeper rather than to attempt to keep the books and records yourself. This also frees up the owner’s time to do what they do best, run their business. How does your personality help in this industry?  I love my job and I love what I do. I am really invested in my clients’ well-being and I think that it is apparent when meeting me for the first time. Accounting is very much a relationship business and a client must have a level of comfort discussing sensitive information with me. Seeing how much I care and my investment in their affairs allows them to let me in to do what I do best and solve their tax puzzle. They become forever grateful. How has real estate accounting changed in recent years? The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, or TCJA, has provided vast opportunities and changes for the real estate and construction businesses. Prior to the TCJA, construction companies were required to use the percentage of completion accounting method for their long-term contracts if their average gross receipts for the prior three years exceeded $10 million. Under the TCJA, this limit was raised to $25 million. This is a welcome relief from this cumbersome accounting method. The TCJA has provided a 20 percent deduction for income from qualified passthrough entities, sole proprietorships and owners of rental properties under the new IRS code. This deduction was enacted as an attempt to equalize the reduction in the corporate tax rates for individuals involved in these types of entities. This code section has proven to be quite complex and the final corrected regulations were just issued on Feb. 8, 2019. There are still remaining questions that the IRS needs to address. In spite of the issues that remain relating to this deduction, we are well prepared to assure that our clients that qualify for this deduction will be able to receive it. The TCJA is the largest tax law change since 1986. What do you see in the future for real estate accounting? Real estate accounting and the accounting profession as a whole is transforming due to productivity optimization available through new technology. Our role as accountants is becoming more advisory, as we are now using artificial intelligence to assist us in preparation of both tax returns and financial statements. In the last two years, our firm has begun using SurePrep, which is a tax automation program that reads government-issued tax documents and imports them into our tax software. What can your experience in real estate accounting teach people in other industries? The greatest lesson I’ve learned is that it’s OK to not know everything. Our profession, as is true for other industries, is constantly changing and evolving, so it’s impossible to know everything. It’s OK to ask for help or rely on other fellow professionals. I’ve been in this profession for over 25 years and I learn something new every day. That’s one of many reasons that I love what I do.