JOE W. KILPATRICK, CPA is the sole owner of the accounting practice he started from scratch in 1982. The practice is located immediately outside I-285 at LaVista Road, in the Tucker-Northlake area of Atlanta. Joe has over 45 years experience in accounting and auditing. The firm has two full-time CPAs, three part-time CPAs, and several other staff members.
Joe's common sense approach offers the practical help clients need to benefit from their experience with an accounting and tax professional. He frequently provides examples to illustrate the issues involved in the decisions clients must make.
Joe has helped his clients avoid millions of dollars in estate taxes and perhaps that much in income and payroll taxes. Choosing the right entity (LLC or S-Corporation;) making appropriate gifts; and using trusts can do wonders in tax planning. Getting the basic tax returns right sure helps, too. That means clients enjoy peace with the IRS.
Among non-profits, Joe's firm serves 10 audit, 2 review, and 3 full-disclosure compilation clients. Among for-profits, there are 5 audit clients, and 3 review clients. This is a total of 15 audit, 5 review, and 3 full-disclosure compilation clients. There are several dozen non-disclosure compilation clients.
Continuing professional education is vital to quality assurance. About 30 other CPA firms participate in tax, accounting and auditing courses with Joe. Each year he sponsors 72 hours of tax training covering individuals, businesses, estates and trusts. His firm prepares about 550 tax returns each year.
Annually, Joe sponsors 16 hours continuing professional education on non-profit accounting and auditing. This maintains qualifications for audits under governmental auditing standards, allowing service to the organizations that obtain government grants or operate under HUD regulations.
Clients operate under various entity forms; proprietors, regular corporations, S-Corporations, LLCs & partnerships, trusts and estates.
Active in the United Methodist Church, Joe recently completed 12 years on the board of directors of that denomination's Publishing House, an institution with over $100 million in revenue, where he chaired the finance committee. Presently, Joe is a trustee (serving on audit and investment committees ($120 million endowment) of the non-denominational Asbury Theological Seminary, one of the nation's ten largest seminaries with campuses in Kentucky, Florida, and on the web.
Joe married Carole, his high school sweetheart, in 1961 upon his graduation from Georgia Tech. Joe finished a Masters degree at Georgia State while they were raising two sons. Today Joe and Carole enjoy life with six grandchildren. Everybody lives in the Tucker area. The grandchildren attend Perimeter College, St. Pius High, Shamrock Middle, and Fernbank Elementary schools. Carole is the school secretary at Fernbank, near the Emory University campus.
ALTA BIRDSONG, with a BBA degree in accounting from the University of North Texas, has worked with Joe for 15 years doing compilations, audits, payroll returns, and non-profit filings, including applications for IRS determination. She has a long history as a volunteer with various non-profit organizations in metro Atlanta and as a volunteer for 13 years in allocations for youth-serving agencies of the Metropolitan Atlanta United Way. For several years she served as a cost engineer with Texas Instruments, Inc. in Dallas, Texas before moving to Atlanta.
Alta and her husband, Ken, have two adult children, Suzanne and Layne, and five grandchildren. For eight years "Camp Birdsong-Huffs" has been a special week in the summer for the grandchildren. Alta and Ken love to travel and are always looking for a new adventure.
LAWSON TRAVERS has been working with Joe in public accounting since July of 2000. Prior to that time she worked in the finance department at BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc. She and her family moved to Chapel Hill, NC in 2006, but thanks to technology and the power of the internet she has been able to continue her work with Joe and his clients in Atlanta. She especially enjoys consulting with clients on Quickbooks and other accounting software. Through her knowledge and experience with QuickBooks she has now obtained the status of Advanced Certified Advisor from Intuit.
Lawson and her husband, Steve, have two children, a 12 year old son and a 15 year old daughter. She also enjoys playing tennis.
TONY BUTLER is an Enrolled Agent and is a former Internal Revenue Agent. He began working for Harvey H. Hunt Company, CPAs of Atlanta, Georgia in January 1982 as a staff accountant. This CPA firm merged in December 1984 with Gerald L. Bailey, CPA and he continued working there until the merger with Joe W. Kilpatrick, CPA, PC on July 1, 2008. He is now employed with Joe Kilpatrick, CPA, PC as Senior Staff Accountant.
He has prepared income tax and employee benefit returns for many types of entities and businesses such as manufacturing, medical and dental practices, and financial services. Tony has experience in preparing estate and gift tax returns, compilation and review reports and IRS representation.
He attended Georgia State University majoring in Accounting after serving four years in the U.S. Coast Guard. He has been married to wife Sharon for more than 30 years and has two grown sons. Tony is a member of the American Legion and is a regular blood platelet donor in the Red Cross apheresis program. He enjoys reading, sports, music , and family activities.
STEVE REA joined the Kilpatrick firm in February 2010. Steve specializes in nonprofit organizations and in S corporations and ownership. Prior to joining Kilpatrick Steve served for over 10 years as controller for a $50,000,000 denominational arm of the United Methodist Church in North Georgia. During that time he designed the accounting and financial reporting systems for this institution, resulting in significant efficiencies and savings. These efficiencies included staff reductions through attrition and decreasing the pass-through payable cycle from three weeks to one day. He designed a revamp of the benefits billing systems that reduced mailing costs by 33% and reduced client workloads significantly. Additionally, Steve led nonprofit and clergy tax seminars for over 2,500 people during his tenure with the church, and served as a consultant for local congregations.
Prior to that, Steve served as CFO/Controller for entrepreneurial S corporations in the on-line for-profit education arena and in the South Florida television production community. In this latter role Steve was a part-owner and helped grow the company from one location to four while more than doubling revenue and expanding services. He served as the banking relationship manager, managing a $4 million credit facility. He negotiated the $8 million sale of the company to an SEC registrant. Steve started his career with Deloitte Touche in Fort Lauderdale. He specialized in nonprofits, governments, savings and loans and pump manufacturers. He served in both the tax and the audit departments. He graduated from the University of Pittsburgh with an MBA and a BA in Economics.
Steve lives in Duluth with his wife and teenaged children. He is active in Boy Scouts and was awarded the Whitney M. Young Jr. Award. He serves as a volunteer with Action Ministries, and as a tax and financial advisor to the Duluth High School Football and Band booster clubs. He also serves on the mission committee of his local church.
LISA STONE is a CPA who joined the practice as part of a merger with Thomas H. Skoog, CPA, where she worked on compilations as well as income, payroll, and sales tax returns. She has worked with the elderly as the controller at a nonprofit senior citizen housing organization. Prior to that, Lisa worked for 12 years as a government program compliance auditor with the U.S. Inspector General for the Department of Transportation. During her time as a stay-at-home mom, she functioned as a private consultant to businesses by helping them achieve and maintain GAAP compliance.
Lisa and her husband, Ken, have lived in Atlanta over 20 years and have 3 children, an eight year old boy and twin 6 year old girls. Lisa is very active at her children's charter school, volunteering as the treasurer of the PTA for three years and various other charter committees. She is also serving as her girls Girl Scout Daisy troop leader and treasurer of her son's Boy Scout pack. Lisa is very active in her church, having served three years as a deacon and a member of the budget and stewardship committees as well as the financial taskforce. She also participates in ongoing work with children's ministries. Lisa enjoys singing and anything outdoors, such as hiking and camping.
