It was the turning point in my life. I was furious. I could accept they didn’t need me anymore… But the way they did it and right on Christmas Eve to boot! As I slumped in my room that night alone, with the happy cries of party goers and sounds of merriment all around, I made myself a promise. I vowed nobody would ever do that to me again. I would never put myself in a position where they could do that!

But the problem was: How could I earn a living? Dead end jobs like the one I’d been fired from were really the only option for university drop-outs in South Africa. But I had one thing going for me, I have this gift: I am good with numbers. My brain is wired for mathematics.

My family were all Medical Professionals and they had pushed me to study something medical, but I never liked it that much. I had studied Dentistry, Genetics, Microbiology and then finally Accounting before I dropped out altogether, and I knew Accounting was what I wanted to do most.

I developed my own tax and accounting systems in South Africa to help my clients prepare and file their taxes and the response I got was astounding! Within the first year, I was helping 150 clients, with more knocking on my door every day. I got to know more about tax challenges than probably anybody else in the country and because of my systems I was many times cheaper than anybody else.

I grew it to a successful business with over 1,500 clients, but in 1997 change was again forced on me, this time by the growing violence in South Africa. After my wife and daughter were victimized by local thugs, I sought the safety of Australian shores. We settled in Perth, where I found a beautiful new homeland and a huge group of people with the same needs as those back home!

This seems crazy, but nobody in Australia had developed a system like mine and nobody was helping people with their tax at a reasonable price.

I had one dilemma: in Australia, only a Registered Tax Agent is allowed to prepare tax returns and you must be a qualified accountant who has worked for 12 months under a registered tax agent to even qualify. I was 43 years old, with a family to support. It was a bit hard to go back to university! What could I do?

The answer was simple. I would employ Registered Tax Agents to review the returns I prepared and then file them. Then studying part time, I completed my degree and finally qualified as a Registered Tax Agent myself.

I started Taxwise, a unique boutique company, in 2002 attracting in excess of 240 clients in the first year, and building it to over 5,288 clients in 13 years.

Our uniqueness is – we come to you – rather than you trying to gather and lug all your paperwork to us we come to you – why? – because that’s where the paperwork is!