John Wood, C.P.A., Offers Trusted Tax Preparation & Accounting Services

Whether it’s tax preparation, IRS audits and other tax resolutions or small business accounting services, John S. Wood, C.P.A., P.A., in Tampa Palms, is here to help you.

Whether you’re a small or emerging business, an individual or a pass-through entity like an S-Corporation or Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), John S. Wood, C.P.A., P.A. can help you navigate the ever-changing tax codes and if necessary, negotiate with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) on your behalf.

“Tax laws change every year and the code can be complex, especially if you have multiple investments,” Wood says. “In the case of negotiating a tax debt, I can speak directly with the IRS on behalf of a client and can help get the problem resolved, so they can move on with their lives.”

He also says that the IRS can put liens on property and levy bank accounts.

“The IRS has access to every database known to man,” Wood says. “Once they start actions, they don’t go away. But, once a client comes to me, they don’t have to deal with the IRS anymore.”

Wood’s firm offers “rescue” services for taxpayers who owe back taxes. The firm offers guidance, representation and can help the client get into an installment agreement that will sometimes get the IRS to accept less than the original tax bill.

“As small business owners, we do so much by ourselves. One place we don’t want to mess around with is taxes and the IRS,” says Brandon Diehl of STRATIX Marketing. “It was beyond easy to work with John, he double checks everything and as a business owner, he’s invaluable to me. Even if you keep your own books, it’s good to have a C.P.A. you can call.”

Looking Back…& Forward, Too

Wood, whose office is located in the Palm Lake Office Building off Amberly Dr. in Tampa Palms, remembers a time when life in the area was a bit more simple. He moved to the New Tampa area in 1987 and graduated from the University of South Florida with a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) degree in Accounting in 1997.

“When I moved to the area, there was barely anything between Skipper Road and S.R. 54,” Wood says. “The area has developed a lot. There’s more diversity, which is a positive aspect, and the impact of technology on our lives has changed the way we do business.”

When Wood started in the business more than 21 years ago, he says that much of the client interaction was face-to-face. Clients would bring in the proverbial, “shoebox” of receipts and sit down across a desk from Wood. It’s not to say those types of interactions don’t exist anymore, but they are certainly much rarer today.

“It’s transitioning to a virtual practice these days,” Wood says. “Accounting trends like cloud-based software as well as new programs and applications make it so that I actually see less and less of clients. The old days when I’d get people’s bank statements in the mail are gone.”

New Tech, Old Time Service

Wood also says that new technologies are helping to streamline the process for both tax preparation and accounting services.

Quickbooks has been around since the early 2000s but can now be integrated into online platforms that a C.P.A. like Wood can share in real time with a client. Wood says he also started using an application called Hubdoc this past year. Hubdoc can automatically pull your bills and bank statements into one secure hub. Wood can then access the hub and get all pertinent financial information that he needs to provide service to a client.

“A lot of the manual processes of accounting and bookkeeping have been eliminated by this technology,” Wood says.

Hubdoc, coupled with the LogMeIn application, streamlines the process even further. LogMeIn allows C.P.A.s like Wood to remotely access his own or his client’s computer. Wood has been able to utilize the technology for the last five years.

“The screens pop up on my computer just like they were on my client’s,” Wood says. “We’ll actually take turns using the mouse; the technology is amazing.”

The remote access can save clients a significant amount of time and help them negotiate financial programs like Quickbooks or even the IRS website.

With 90 to 95 percent of Wood’s business coming in via digital or electronic submissions, it slashes preparation time and can give hands-on assistance to a client without even being in the same room.

Do You Still Need A CPA?

There are several other reasons why a client would want to use a C.P.A. and not try to file their taxes themselves. The biggest one? Money.

“I’ve had clients where I’ve amended previous tax returns for them and gotten them a bigger refund,” Wood says. “Part of bringing a new client on board is that I’ll review their previous year’s tax return.”

He also says that he often finds credits and deductions on clients’ previous tax returns that they missed when they filed themselves.

“Credits are a dollar-for-dollar reduction of what you owe, while deductions lower your taxable income,” Wood said. “The layperson is not aware of many of these.”

Did you send a child to college last year? There’s an education credit you can use. Even if you run a small business, Woods’ services could help make it run more efficiently.

“Businesses need much more than an individual,” Wood said. “You’ll need a profit/loss statement and something to keep track of it. You’ll need to put it in a format that’s properly classified to fit it on your tax return.”

Wood also provides value to your business by managing assets, measuring, processing and combining financial information. Making a profit is essential to any business. At John S. Wood C.P.A., P.A., customers get what they need to measure their financial results so that they can take appropriate action to maximize their businesses’ profits.

“John’s services have been an absolute asset to my company,” says Loren Staker of West Coast Water Tech. “He’s done wonders, he’s kept me up to date on changes in the tax law…I could go on and on. He’s a friend and business associate and I would recommend him to anyone. As long as I’m in business, he’s my accountant.”

Wood offers free consultations and brings back a bit of the interaction lost in technology.

Now is the busy time of year, he says, estimating that 65 percent of his business comes in between January and the end of April. Beyond that, his services extend year-round for individuals who have filed extensions or businesses that have quarterly payroll and sales tax reports.

Wood says he likes to rely on word-of-mouth advertising, although he admits that he has been an avid Neighborhood News reader himself since the beginning.

“Most of our new business comes from referrals,” he says.

Whether it’s tax preparation, tax resolution or small business accounting services, John S. Wood C.P.A., P.A. is here for you. His office is located at 15310 Amberly Dr, in Tampa Palms, and he can be reached at (813) 514-2920 or you can visit JWoodCPA.com .

Communication, Education Keys To Comprehensive Care at Ferrera Dental

General & cosmetic dentist Dr. Robert Ferrera of Ferrera Dental Care, located just off BBD Blvd.

If you’re coming in for an appointment at Ferrera Dental Care, located just off Bruce B. Downs (BBD) Blvd., south of E. Bearss Ave., be prepared to use your mouth — and not just to “open wide.”

General and cosmetic dentist Robert Ferrera, D.D.S., believes that effective, two-way communication is key to achieving excellent results.

“I know it sometimes drives my staff crazy because they are looking at the appointment books,” Dr. Ferrera says, “but I always like to have a conversation with my patients before we start any kind of procedure.”

Those conversations help familiarize the patient with their dentist, which helps build the kind of patient-doctor relationship that makes any local practice thrive. As a result, Dr. Ferrera has had some clients who have been with him for most of his 30-year career, like Bob Cornett.

“I have known Dr. Ferrera for many years, in fact I was his first patient,” Cornett says. “Over the years, I’ve been blessed to have been associated with him. I can’t say enough for the respect I have for Dr. Ferrera and his entire staff. I’m there every three months, and have been doing this for many years.”

The initial conversation also helps Ferrera ascertain what the patient is or is not doing that could be causing his or her problem. Oftentimes, it’s not something quite as simple as forgetting to brush your teeth. Permanent and full mouth damage can be caused by certain habits that patients develop, sometimes unbeknownst to them.

“Most people who come in needing full mouth rehabs did the damage to their teeth unintentionally,” Dr. Ferrera says.

Full mouth rehabs are a specialty at Ferrera Dental.

Teeth grinding is one of the leading causes for patients requiring full mouth rehabilitation. Dr. Ferrera says that grinding is not only something people do while sleeping, but something they also may be doing while they are wide awake.

Having a conversation with patients prior to a procedure can reveal clues about the causes of other dental/mouth issues. Whatever the solution, a friendly, familiar environment is provided where the patient can relax, even when undergoing an otherwise uncomfortable procedure. (Don’t worry, though — Dr. Ferrera’s office offers sedation dentistry for patients who want it.)

“Full mouth rehabs are not just problems with your teeth, it’s where the uppers and lowers don’t fit together properly anymore,” Ferrera says. “The work is partially cosmetic, but we give patients function they haven’t had before.”

It’s not an overnight process, Dr. Ferrera says. There’s a strategic approach that he takes in order to start moving forward in the treatment process, using implants, crowns, bridges and veneers. Sometimes, if the case warrants it, Ferrera will refer a patient to one of the orthodontic specialists or oral surgeons he has worked with before.

“I try to work with specialists who have worked with me for a long time, so we can get the result the patient wants in the long run,” Dr. Ferrera says. “Some of these specialists I refer patients to have worked with me for 15 to 20 years.”

That familiarity helps Ferrera Dental maintain a level of consistency. This is especially important when it comes to patients who require ongoing treatments.

“I happen to be one of those individuals that needed extensive dental work,” Cornett says. “Dr. Ferrera not only diagnosed my problems, but set me up with the appropriate surgeons to have the surgeries performed. After the surgeries, he took care of all the dental fixtures that were required.”

Continuing Education & New Technology

Even though Dr. Ferrera says he has been a practicing dentist for more than 30 years, he never stops learning.

While the State of Florida requires 30 hours of continuing education every two years, Ferrera says he takes 60 hours every two years. At each course or seminar, he says he looks for at least one new piece of information that he can apply to his practice.

“Technology and procedures are constantly changing and evolving,” he says.

Cerec Restoration is one of those developing technologies. Cerec is a dental restoration system that allows dentists to produce and place custom-fitted ceramic dental restorations using a variety of computer-assisted technologies.

Ferrera got involved with Cerec in 2009, during the nationwide economic downturn. Domestic laboratories were raising prices for lab work and many dentists turned to sending crowns offshore to keep costs down.  “I never wanted to send anything offshore,” Dr. Ferrera says. “I realized that I could control my costs by using the Cerec machine.”

Today, instead of multiple appointments and sometimes a weeks-long process, Dr. Ferrera can now create and place a crown in only one day.

There are two parts to the Cerec machine. The first uses two tiny cameras to map a 3-D image of the patient’s tooth or mouth.

The information is sent to a second machine that processes the information and mills a piece of porcelain right there in the office. The system can be used to produce any permanent, single-tooth ceramic restoration, including crowns, veneers, onlays and inlays.

A Hometown Guy

Ferrera has deep roots in the Tampa Bay community.

He graduated from Tampa Catholic High School and earned his Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree from the University of South Florida.

He graduated at the top of his class in 1985 from the Ohio State University College of Dentistry in Columbus, with his Doctorate of Dental Surgery (D.D.S.) degree. His first job upon returning to Tampa after college was with the late Dr. Richard Valdes, who had an office in northeast Tampa near what is now Florida Hospital Tampa on BBD.

Ferrera’s father, Robert, worked at the American Canning Company in Tampa until the plant closed down and shipped production overseas. Robert Sr. then got a job as a security officer at Avila. It was there that he met Dr. Valdes, one of the few residents the elder Ferrera felt was gracious and down-to-earth. One day, Ferrera’s father waved down Valdes and asked him to counsel his son.

“I was very fortunate (Dr. Valdes) chose me,” Ferrera says. “I see him as my mentor. If there’s anything I’m good at, it’s because of him.”

Dr. Ferrera worked in an associate position for Valdes for seven years, until his mentor passed away in 1991. By then, Ferrera was already involved in the Temple Terrace Rotary Club. He would soon team up with his friend and neighbor Bill Leonard (as well as Tom Wade) to help create the Rotary Club of New Tampa in 1995, which still meets Fridays at 7 a.m. at Tampa Palms Golf & Country Club.

Ferrera has held every chair position in the Rotary Club of New Tampa with the exception of president.

Participation in community events attracted Ferrera to other organizations, like the Krewe of the Knights of Sant’ Yago & Sant’ Yago Foundation, and the Rough Riders, which both are part of Gasparilla.

The Sant’ Yago Foundation connected Ferrera — whose grandfather was from Spain and grandmother was from Cuba — to his Latin roots. The foundation provides full-ride scholarships to 22-25 junior and senior students at USF, the University of Tampa and Hillsborough Community College who are of Hispanic origin.

Ferrera joined the Rough Riders in 2017. The Rough Riders are a 501(c)(3) non-profit group whose members dress in regalia reminiscent of U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders, who camped in Tampa on their way to Cuba during the Spanish-American War. In addition to participating in Gasparilla, they organize their own Saint Patrick’s Day in Ybor City and go on teddy bear runs, delivering plush toys to children in hospitals; they also visit veterans in VA hospitals.

Ferrera has lived in Tampa Palms with his family for the last 26 years. His wife Cheri manages the accounting department at Ferrera Dental and his daughter Morgan runs the office. Dental hygienists Diantha Higdon and Marie Crenshaw each have 20 years each of experience, as does dental assistant Lisa Snow, who works the front desk.

“I can actually say I look forward to my visits,” Cornett says. “If you’re looking for a dentist with exceptional skill and compassion, give his office a ring.”

Ferrera Dental Care will celebrate its 20th anniversary at its 15047 Bruce B. Downs Blvd. location in March. For more information, call (813) 558-6684 or visit DrFerrera.com.

Three New Hotels Add Heat To Wesley Chapel’s Business Climate

The six-story, 125-room Hilton Garden Inn on Silver Maple Pkwy. will open this summer. 

For years, Pasco County has grappled with attracting tourists and giving them a place to stay.

Florida Hospital Center Ice (FHCI) and a planned RADD Sports Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex, as well as the Tampa Premium Outlets (TPO), the Shops at Wiregrass mall, the massive “connected city” project and dozens of local restaurants will help take care of attracting visitors.

In a few months, a long-standing problem of finding beds for all of those visitors’ heads will be solved as well.

During the months of June and July, Wesley Chapel expects to see three new hotels open along the burgeoning S.R. 56 corridor, joining the Holiday Inn & Suites that opened last year next to FHCI (and the Hampton Inn & Suites, which has been open for many years).

“The two industries (tourism and hospitality) go hand in hand,” says Hope Allen, the CEO of the North Tampa Bay (formerly Greater Wesley Chapel) Chamber of Commerce. “It’s almost like you can’t have one without the other.”

Barring any weather delays, a six-story, 125-room Hilton Garden Inn on Silver Maple Pkwy., across S.R. 56 from FHCI, is scheduled to open in June, a 92-room Fairfield Inn & Suites is expected to open in June or July a few miles to the east (in the Wiregrass Ranch development), and the six-story, 132-room Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center will open in July at the Cypress Creek Town Center across from TPO.

The newest hotels have all been planned since late 2015.

The Hyatt Place Hotel & Convention Center

Impact Properties is building the Hyatt Place, and recently hosted a “topping off” event to show off its progress. Impact just began building the $24-million hotel last summer. The Hyatt Place will share the north side of S.R. 56 with a host of new restaurants and retailers (see story on page 6).

The conference center addition fills another area need, says District 2 Pasco County commissioner Mike Moore. “This is going to be a great development all around,” Moore said during the Hyatt Place event. “When you talk about a convention center, that has been something that has been a big need in Pasco County, especially on the east side. You won’t have a problem keeping it full.”

Impact president Dilip Kanji said he has had his eyes on the Cypress Creek location for years, patiently waiting for the right moment.

“I’ve been looking at Wesley Chapel since 2012,” Kanji says, citing the Cypress Creek Town Center’s permitting woes dating back to 2007. “If you remember, (our interest) goes back to the days when the mall was going to go there, the problems with the wetlands and the Army Corps of Engineers, all that stuff, so we just kept looking. But, Wesley Chapel has arrived, Pasco County has arrived, everyone wants to be here. We had an idea for what we wanted to do; we were just waiting for the right time.”

Kanji said his company also eyed the Shops at Wiregrass mall and Florida Hospital Wesley Chapel areas in Wiregrass, as well as the area near FHCI (where the Holiday Inn Express is today).

“There’s been the potential (for a hotel) in the area, but the place we always wanted to be was on that (the west) side of the interstate,” he said.

A Little History…

Impact Properties was founded in 1981, two years after Kanji, a biochemist at the time, visited San Francisco and stayed at a family-run hotel that he fell in love with. He decided, without the benefit of any business schooling or real estate courses, to enter the business.

Impact Properties president Dilip Kanji

“I never stepped in a lab again, and never looked back,” said Kanji, who works closely with brother and VP Nash Kanji, whom he describes as a construction “whiz.” They started with a small motel in Gainesville that Kanji says his attorney at the time joked was known as a “no-tell motel.” Since then, Impact Properties has grown into an award-winning development company, owning and managing more than 25 hotels, and was awarded the key to the City of Tampa by then-Mayor Dick Greco for developing the Hilton Garden Inn in Ybor City, the first hotel to be built in the historic district in more than 100 years.

Impact Properties currently owns a hotel in Gainesville, two in Jacksonville and two in Tampa, including The Westin on Westshore Blvd.

The company also is developing a hotel in Treasure Island, FL, in addition to the Wesley Chapel location, which Kanji says is one of the most coveted areas around.

Speaking Of Hot…

Kanji says people have asked him if he’s building his next hotel in downtown Tampa or St. Petersburg, and when he tells them no, they ask why, because those are the hot areas.

“I don’t even go where it’s already hot,” Kanji says. “We identify an emerging area, growth areas that are going to be hot. And, we get there first.”

He says that was his plan when he built a hotel in Brandon years ago, the first he says to do so on the old I-75 bypass. “The interchange wasn’t even working,” he says. “We identified where Brandon was going — it was the bedroom community of Tampa — and we identified that area as hot. We got there first. There were growing pains. We did not hit our numbers the first year or two. But, we said we will control the market.”

In the case of Wesley Chapel, however, Impact Properties will be entering a market that is already considered hot, and growing crowded quickly — landowner Bob Sierra said at the “topping” event that if the Hyatt Place is successful, Kanji has an option to build a second in the Cypress Creek Town center.

In addition to the three hotels set to open this summer, the RADD Sports Wiregrass Ranch Sports Complex – which could open in spring of 2019 — will have a 120-room Marriott-branded Residence Inn on site, and the Brightwork Crossing development north of S.R. 54/56 and west of C.R. 54/Wesley Chapel Blvd. has stated plans in 2016 to build an unnamed hotel with up to 150 rooms on that site.

Also, plans were filed with the county in August for a proposed, also-unnamed  160,000-sq.-ft. hotel to be located behind the Walgreens at the S.R. 54 and Bruce B. Downs Blvd. intersection.

A report in 2016 by consultants analyzing the potential for a sports complex in Wesley Chapel pointed out the lack of hotel rooms in the area. And, while it still made a sizable economic impact (estimated at $3-million a year), it has been believed that one of the main beneficiaries of the DICK’s National Lacrosse Championships held at Wesley Chapel District Park the last several years were nearby Hillsborough County hotels, such as those in New Tampa, which took in 60-75 percent of the tournament’s teams and visitors.

While saturation may become an issue, the new hotels are anticipated to help the county’s tourism efforts and fill tax coffers. The county approved doubling its tourist tax, or bed tax, from 2 to 4 percent last year.

“What you’re seeing in Pasco County is quality,” Moore said. “There is a lot of time and effort put into these projects. We’ll be getting rooms filled, heads in beds…and we appreciate the help. It helps us grow, and helps us bring in additional profits to the county.”

Wesley Chapel Chamber Gets A New Name & A 2018 Taste Update

Hope Allen

Is there any way to change something that has been hugely successful without ruffling some feathers?

Based on the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC)’s recently announced name change to the “North Tampa Bay Chamber,” the answer is probably “no.”

However, that doesn’t mean that the name change wasn’t a necessary thing to do, nor has it been anyone’s plan to throw away all of the good will that has been created by the only Chamber of Commerce Wesley Chapel has known for the last 20 years.

Even so, CEO Hope Allen of the new North Tampa Bay Chamber has been hearing some unhappiness about the Chamber’s name change from people who wonder if the newly named Chamber will still be the first place people see when they search “Wesley Chapel Chamber” on Google or Facebook.

“We still own the name and the domain name online, so we should still come up when people are searching for Wesley Chapel,” Hope says. “Once we completed our acquisition of the Greater Pasco Chamber last year, we knew we’d have to change the name. We also knew that there was no way to please everyone, no matter what name we chose.”

Even though Wesley Chapel has been the name (and the community) that has given the Chamber its identity the last two decades — especially during the last few tremendous growth years that are continuing to make “The Chap” one of the fastest-growing communities in both Florida and the nation — the fact is that the expanded Chamber (which also acquired the failed New Tampa Chamber of Commerce a few years ago) no longer is confined geographically to “just” Wesley Chapel.

“We are now the largest Chamber in Pasco County,” says new Board Chair and local dentist Dr. Zack Kalarickal. “But, we also serve the businesses in New Tampa, Lutz (where the Chamber recently moved to a new office), Land O’Lakes, Trinity and even north Pinellas County. And, our name needed to reflect that.”

Some of the Chamber’s members have been trying to find a way to still incorporate Wesley Chapel into the new name, even if it has to be a subhead. As the primary news media in Wesey Chapel, I also found myself wondering what anyone could do to somehow not lose the Chamber’s Wesley Chapel connection.

Although I couldn’t come up with a name that would make it work, I hope there could at least be a subhead or subtitle that says something like, “Built in Wesley Chapel; Building a Chamber to Serve the Tri-County Area.”

Whatever you call it, the newly expanded Chamber has more than 800 member businesses and has renewed its commitment to WCNT-tv — Wesley Chapel & New Tampa Television.

To that end, I hope you’ll check out the next several episodes of WCNT-tv’s “Chamber News,” which feature Dr. Zack being interviewed by WCNT-tv’s Mollyana Ward (photo above), shot at the amazing Overnight Success Studio owned by Chamber member Miroslav Beck. Those segments are available now on our Neighborhood News Facebook page and on the WCNT-tv channel on YouTube.

I also hope you’ll keep an eye out for some exciting announcements about the only web-based “TV channel” serving both New Tampa and Wesley Chapel. The new Chamber may be expanding beyond those borders, but we will continue to focus our energies — both online and in these pages — on our two “home” communities.

Taste 2018 Off & Running!

I’m also really excited about the plans for the 2018 Taste of New Tampa & Wesley Chapel — on Sunday, March 25, noon-4 p.m., at Florida Hospital Center Ice (in conjunction with the new Chamber)  — as the Rotary Club of New Tampa hosts the event for the second time. Last year, my restaurant committee was able to attract nearly 50 restaurants and beverage providers and about 2,000 people attended. This year, sponsorship committee co-chairs James Carner and Jason Contino already have surpassed last year’s sponsorships and I’m already at nearly 25 food and beverage providers, with just about six weeks still to go until the Taste.

Those sponsors (in alphabetical, not monetary, order) already include:

•Acme On The Go

•Audi Wesley Chapel

•Campaign of TK Hayes

•Central Bank

•Family First Allstate

•Harbor Bank

•Ierna’s Heating & Cooling

•New Leaps Academy

•Murtha & Murtha LLC

•Pilot Bank

•Pinot’s Palette

•Suncoast Credit Union

•TSYS Merchant Services

•Usman Law Firm

Among the new restaurants already committed to serving samples at the Taste are Acai Brazil, Bruster’s Ice Cream, Cappy’s Pizza, Cinebistro at The Grove, O’Brien’s Irish Pub, Pinchers Crab Shack, Taco Son, Texas Roadhouse, Top Shelf Sports Lounge and Wicked Chickens, Deviled Eggs.

For more information about the 2018 Taste, including how to pre-buy tickets or volunteer, visit TasteofNewTampa.org! And, check out our exclusive Taste 2018 Preview Section in our next issue of Wesley Chapel Neighborhood News!