Year after year, if you plan on earning a living in this world, most people have to worry about paying tax on their income.

But for many of us, that’s only really the tip of the iceberg as far as tax goes, and things get more complicated still if we run a business.

For many, even those with seemingly simple accounting requirements, this means a trip down to the local accountant, some patience and then a phonecall letting you know everything has been taken care of.

At a cost of course.

Seeking to capitalise on the accounting industry, Prepay CPA seek to provide their members with a prepaid alternative to the traditional model of the accounting industry.

Oh, and did I mention they’ve decided to combine it with a MLM compensation plan too? Read on for a full review of the PrePayCPA business opportunity.

The Company

Launched on November 22nd 2011 and operating out of Delaware in the US, PrePayCPA is headed up by Director Bruce Toone, Founder and President David Track (photo right) and COO Josh Rosenbaum.

Bruce Toone is ‘the managing partner and tax specialist at the CPA firm Toone & Associates’ and appears to be handling the accounting side of PrepayCPA, whereas David Track is handling the MLM side of things.

Founder David Track runs the MLM social network ‘MLM Social’ (which is a MLM opportunity within itself) and through his company ‘Track Companies Inc’, appears to have tried his hand at various internet marketing and MLM opportunities since 2003.

The PrepayCPA Product Line

PrepayCPA’s product line is centered in the accounting niche and to serve the varying needs and levels of customers, offer three tiers of services.

Basic Protection

The PrepayCPA ‘Basic Protection’ plan costs $24.95 a month ($299.40 annually) and includes;

  • a tax return review for the current fiscal year.
  • the addressing of all liens and levies from the IRS or your state during your membership enrollment
  • the addressing of IRS and state notices
  • one basic incorporation

Protection Plus

The PrepayCPA ‘Protection Plus’ plan costs $34.95 a month ($419.40 annually) and includes;

  • a tax return review for the current fiscal year
  • the addressing of all liens and levies from the IRS or your state during your membership enrollment
  • the addressing of IRS and state notices
  • one basic incorporation
  • an audit protection plan

Audit Protection Plan

The standalone ‘Audit Protection Plan’ is the same as featured in the ‘Protection Plus’ plan and offers subscribers ‘eight hours of audit preparation services in the event that our customers are audited by the IRS’‘.

The PrepayCPA Compensation Plan

The PrePayCPA compensation plan revolves around a unilevel structure which means that each customer of PrepayCPA distributor you enroll is placed directly under you (forming your first level).

Any distributors enrolled by the distributors you’ve enrolled count as your second level and so on and so forth.

PrepayCPA Membership Ranks

There are 6 levels of membership within the PrepayCPA compensation plan and along with their associated requirements, they are as follows;

  • Bronze Associate – join PrepayCPA and maintain $24.95 in monthly sales
  • Silver Associate – recruit 3 bronze associates and generate a minimum of $200 in monthly sales
  • Gold Executive – recruit 3 silver associates and generate a minimum of $2,000 in monthly sales
  • Platinum Executive – recruit 3 gold executives and generate a minimum of $7,000 in monthly sales
  • Diamond Leader – recruit 3 platinum executives and generate a minimum of $22,000 in monthly sales
  • Double Diamond Leader – recruit 5 diamond leaders and generate a minimum of $110,000 in monthly sales

Fast Start Bonus

The Fast Start Bonus is a 20% commission on the first product sale (min $24.95) of any new associate or customer you bring to the company.

Note that the Fast Start Bonus is in addition the ‘unilevel commissions’ offered (explained below). Unlike the unilevel commissions though, the Fast Start Bonus is paid out weekly.

Any difference between the Fast Start Bonus commission and your regular unilevel commission is paid out at the end of the month along with a member’s regular unilevel commissions.

Unilevel Commissions

PrePay CPA pay out unilevel commissions on up to 7 levels of your unilevel organisation, depending on a member’s membership rank.

Members are paid out

  • 15% on level 1 (all ranks)
  • 5% on level 2 (Bronze Associate or higher)
  • 10% on level 3 (Silver Associate or higher)
  • 5% on level 4 (Gold Executive or higher)
  • 4% on level 5 (Platinum Executive or higher)
  • 4% on level 6 (Diamond Leader or higher)
  • 5% on level 7 (Double Diamond Leader)

Global Bonus Pool

The Global Bonus Pool is open to Double Diamond PrepayCPA members only and consists of 2% of all commissionable sales of the company.

Each Double Diamond member is entitled to one equal share in the bonus pool.

Re-entry legs

PrepayCPA members are able to unlock commissions on further levels in their unilevel organisation once they’ve reached the membership level of Diamond or Double Diamond.

They do this through what the company calls a ‘re-entry leg’. Once a Diamond or Double Diamond member has 50 customers (in the first 6 levels for Diamonds and 7 levels for Double Diamonds), they are entitled to a ‘re-entry leg’.

This re-entry leg pays out on another 6 or 7 levels of commissions after the first 7, following the same percentages as the original unilevel commission payouts on the first seven levels.

Diamonds are entitled to an additional 6 levels of payouts and Double Diamonds 7 levels.

Joining PrepayCPA

Joining Prepay CPA as a distributor requires the purchase of a ‘distributor kit’ which costs $34.95.

Members must also purchase back office access and a replicated website which is $14.95 a month.

Annually PrepayCPA distributorship must also be renewed at a cost of $20.

Conclusion

In theory a MLM company built on the idea of prepaid accounting services should be a solid business opportunity but PrepaidCPA isn’t without its shortfalls.

First of all there’s the compensation plan. PrepaidCPA does have less membership levels than average, which is generally a good thing but the requirements between membership levels is steep.

For example the monthly sales requirement jumps from $200 –> $2000 –> $7000 –> $22,000 –> $110,000. By no means should achieving Double Diamond be a walk in the park, but in having such steep increases between membership levels, members are going to be potentially stuck at the same level for a long time.

Not a dramatic fault but in terms of morale it’s always good to feel like you’re progressing. Having to increase your sales by 1000% just to achieve the second membership rank within the plan is probably going to be a bit daunting for most people.

The second tier membership rank requirement of $2000 with PrepaidCPA’s most expensive plan, Protective Plus, at $34.95 is still 57 customers and/or distributors.

The level after that requires you to more than double this. Keep in mind this example assumes everyone goes for the most expensive plan, which they won’t!

There’s also the questionable issue of recruitment requirements too. They are combined with the sales but with limited product options (essentially two plans and one combined) there’s an all too easy incentive to just recruit people (the difference is just $14.95 a month between a customer and distributor).

With membership requirements on 5 of the 6 levels of membership within the company, there’s a strong incentive to just recruit people and place them on autoship (the $24.95 a month basic protection plan).

The second major shortfall is the PrepayCPA product line For starters, as a distributor you’re pretty much required to purchase at least the basic protection plan at $24.95. When combined with the required $14.95 a month fee, this effectively puts the true cost of being a PrepayCPA distributor at $39.90 a month.

You don’t of course have to purchase any plan, instead relying on sales to meet your monthly quota, but as with most service based MLM products, the first thing people will most likely ask you is whether or not you use the service yourself.

If you don’t see any value in PrepayCPA’s products enough to purchase them, how are you going to convince others the same. Looking at what’s offered, PrepayCPA’s products are obviously targeted at individuals so running your own business through PrepayCPA and having to file a tax return yourself, admitting to not subscribing to the company’s products would put you in a stick situation if someone asked (and they will).

Then there’s the products themselves. Particularly of note is the fact that PrepayCPA only offer to review a tax return, rather than compile one. You still need to either do it yourself or get an accountant to do it.

This is where things get a bit sticky.

PrepayCPA Director Bruce Toone is ‘the managing partner and tax specialist at the CPA firm Toone & Associates, who PrepayCPA exclusively use to do all the accounting work for them.

Naturally being involved in both companies, Toone doesn’t want PrepayCPA directly competing with his already established accounting firm so what you get with PrepayCPA feels more like a feeder program to more expensive services offered by Toone’s firm.

For example,  Toone & Associates are happy to prepare a tax return for you – but this external to any PrepayCPA plan and will attract additional fees.

Likewise the audit protection covers only eight hours of auditing. I’ve never been audited so I’ve got no idea whether 8 hours is enough time or not, but if it isn’t – Toone & Associates would be more than happy to keep working at an additional cost.

With Bruce Toone being involved in both companies, conflict of interest aside, it leaves the PrepayCPA product line feeling like little more than a feeder to the more extensive accounting services his firm offers.

Value wise I’m quite capable of filling out my own tax return and weighing up the slim chance of being audited, I’d be asking myself is it worth paying $300 a year to get my tax return checked?

Personally I’d answer no and just risk the audit fees on the rare chance I was audited one year but each person is different.

The trouble with PrepayCPA is that on their own the plans feel like entry-level services, services you’re already paying $300 a year for.

I kinda get the impression that most people are probably just going to get by with filing a tax return year to year and the idea of just having one checked for $300 isn’t all that appealing.

And regardless of whether we’re talking customers or distributors – at the end of the day that’s going to be a hard sell.