About – buttonowcpa

About Our Firm and Tax Professionals

About Our Firm

We have years of experience, helping thousands of clients and tax firms – when you have an illness, you want an experienced doctor to diagnosis and use their years of experience and thousands of patient interactions to cure you effectively. Our firm has been in tax controversy for over 37 years and helped thousands of our clients resolve their issues with the IRS and state taxing authorities.

We take the lead in tax problem solving – we help taxpayers, tax pros and even the IRS with solutions to resolve tax issues and tax administration. We have taught and built tax problem solving software for tens of thousands of tax pros to help them solve their client’s tax problems. We also regular work with IRS Advisory Committees and decision makers on improving tax administration. Our clients benefit from our industry leadership.

We take a personal approach to your issues and treat it like an emergency room case - Tax problems are personal – and can be daunting to resolve. They also require immediate action. Many who come to us for help are experiencing anxiety and losing sleep over their issues. We will seek to quickly understand your situation and circumstances - and give you line of sight, with a free consultation, on the steps to resolve your issues. If you decide to proceed, we are there to represent you before the IRS and State. If you don’t proceed with us, you can use the valuable information to help yourself or evaluate another provider.

We have a broad spectrum of tax problem solving knowledge – we teach other tax pros how to solve many types of issues, including audits, tax debt solutions, back unfiled returns, penalties, etc.

Our goals are simple – to get you the best outcome in the least amount of time. To reduce your stress, we are be accessible by phone, email, and text to answer your questions.

We help you stay in compliance – after we resolve your case, we will monitor your IRS account in the future -at no charge to you -for any subsequent compliance issues. If an issue arises, we will contact you and work with you again to address any open issue or notice.

Meet Our Professionals

Founder & Prinicpal

Jim Buttonow, CPA CITP

Jim Buttonow is the Managing Principal of JL Buttonow, CPA, PLLC. Jim has over 37 years experience in tax and accounting. Jim’s specialty is IRS Practice and Procedure – more commonly referred to as a tax problems, IRS controversy, or tax disputes.

His extensive knowledge, shared in numerous publications, led to his being voted to Accounting Today’s Top 100 Most Influential People for two years. Jim has helped thousands of taxpayers and the largest firms and tax preparation companies in the world. Jim was the chief architect and inventor of the post-filing tax controversy software, Beyond415, that is used by tax giants such as Thomson Reuters and H&R Block to help their clients with tax problems. Jim has also provided strategic leadership to numerous other tax firms and financial service providers, including Jackson Hewitt Tax Services, to enable them to work better with the IRS.

Jim’s book, The Tax Problems and Solutions Handbook, is published by Commerce Clearing House (CCH) tax research division and has sold thousand of copies. The Handbook provides tax professionals practical solutions to the most common tax problems facing their clients. Thousands of tax professionals use his book everyday, along with his webinars, to resolve their clients’ IRS issues.

Jim and his team provide tax controversy consultation and representation services to both tax clients and tax firms.

Enrolled Agent

Madison Whitfield, EA

Madison Whitfield is an Enrolled Agent at JL Buttonow CPA PLLC, where she specializes in resolving post-filing tax problems and working with the IRS. Madison represents clients in IRS and State tax problems such as audits, unfiled tax returns, penalties, business and payroll tax issues, tax debt solutions, and other areas of tax controversy. Madison uses her deep knowledge of IRS procedures ensures clients receive effective solutions to their tax challenges.

In addition to her hands-on work with clients, Madison serves as the bi-annual editor of CCH’s “Tax Problems and Solutions Handbook,” a leading resource that provides practical guidance on resolving tax controversies. Her contributions keep tax professionals updated on the latest resolution strategies and IRS procedures.

With a reputation for thoroughness and dedication, Madison’s goal is to empower individuals and businesses to navigate their tax obligations confidently and efficiently.