ProConnect™ Tax Customer Council Member Profile: Matthew Hague, EA, CFP

Matthew Hague, EA, CFP®, is principal of Guide Wealth Management, a fee-only firm offering comprehensive financial planning, investment management and tax preparation services. He is a member of the Intuit® ProConnect™ Tax Customer Council.

ProConnect: Tell us about your practice.

Matthew Hague: We divided our practice into two areas: Guide Wealth Management, which offers comprehensive financial planning and investment management, and Guide Tax Management, which covers accounting and tax services. Despite two entities, our clients receive access to all of our services.

ProConnect: Why is the ProConnect Tax Customer Council important to the profession?

MH: It closes a feedback loop between what Intuit believes to be important and what the end customer needs. By taking a small group of tax professionals into the heart of Intuit’s development efforts, we are able to help influence things for the broader community of tax professionals.

ProConnect: What’s your favorite part of being on the Council?

MH: Collaboration. The team is diverse and brings many different perspectives into one room. When we start tackling problems with this base of knowledge, the answers are greater than the sum of their parts.

ProConnect: What kind of Intuit software do you use?

MH: We use Intuit ProConnect Tax Online, QuickBooks® Online and QuickBooks Payments.

ProConnect: What are your goals for your practice in 2020?

MH: Increase automation, and continue to refine our tech stack so that we have more time to focus on client service.

ProConnect: What was your very first job?

MH: I was a chef from age 8 working in the kitchen my father was employed in.

ProConnect: Who is your favorite author, and why?

MH: Patrick Rothfuss, who wrote the first two books in a trilogy, but still hasn’t released the final book. He’s one of the few authors I know who can get away with an eight-year delay on book three and still have people excited about it. I find that I prefer to read fantasy or science fiction books because I already read enough of the boring and sensible things for professional development and continuing education.

ProConnect: Speaking of continuing education, how can tax professionals keep up with all the changes in tax laws and regulations?

MH: That’s hard. There’s a lot of good information out there, but there’s also a trend where people and websites seek to be on the cutting edge of news, so they will release an opinion on changes to laws and regulations too quickly. You can sign up for all the news sources out there, but you need to have a good filter to be able to determine if something is accurate or just trying to be first to the table with content, only to miss key parts of proposed laws and regulations.

I suggest having a couple of different sources, such as your local accounting and enrolled agent chapters, some of the bigger websites such as The Tax Adviser, and if you’re really brave, subscribing to IRS Revenue Bulletins.

ProConnect: If you were stranded on a desert island with access to just one kind of technology, what would it be, and why would you want it?

MH: If you are truly stranded and cannot cheat your way out of the question with some sort of satellite phone that calls for an evacuation … then I’d probably go for water purification.

ProConnect: Thanks, Matthew!