Christopher aka “Toph” Sheldon is the Founder of Cincinnati Tax Resolution and Proprietor of CPA for the Self-Employed (and CPA for the Golf Industry®). He is a licensed Certified Public Accountant (CPA) specializing in tax problem resolution for the self-employed. He is an expert in representing, advocating, and negotiating for clients who have tax problems and helping them achieve the best and most permanent resolution possible. Despite his strong connection with the Cincinnati, Ohio, area, he is also licensed and authorized to represent clients located in all 50 states.

An unconventional CPA, Toph began his career as a PGA Golf Professional with no intention of ever getting into the tax industry. He started his first career working as a club golf professional, but quickly became burnt out working long and demanding hours. His real passion was playing and competing, so he decided to quit his club pro job and moved to Florida with the intention of trying to work his way up the mini tour ranks and ultimately make a career playing on the PGA Tour. With newly found independence and no day job, Toph started gambling to fill his time when he wasn’t competing or working on his golf game. His gambling quickly turned into a major problem and became the main contributor that sent his golf game into a negative spiral. After suffering several bouts with both the “yips” and “shanks”, the $50,000 loan Toph took out to invest in his golf career was suddenly gone. With no money and a deteriorated golf game, Toph was left with no choice but to put his golf career on hold and decided to pursue a new career as a CPA in order to find a more stable career. After passing the CPA exam and with his $50,000 debt still hanging over his head, Toph entered the corporate world with an aspiration of quickly paying down his debt and becoming a partner at his new firm. However, after eventually working for eight different companies over the next seven years, Toph finally realized the stability he was seeking was lacking and it was time for a much-needed change.

After getting out of the corporate world and with the majority of his original debt still unpaid, Toph spent the next couple years as a self-employed/unemployed freelancer trying to find a good niche business he could start. In the process of doing this, he liquidated retirement accounts and racked up significant credit card debt, just trying to stay financially afloat. Due to embarrassment, he also tried to hide much of this from his wife, Ashley, who was the breadwinner and working full-time. Eventually the self-employment income and early retirement distributions triggered balance due notices from the IRS that Toph couldn’t afford to pay. Add in a couple certified letters from the IRS that arrived in Ashley’s name and Toph’s secret was a secret no more.

With their financial situation in shambles and marriage on the rocks, Ashley gave Toph an ultimatum to think outside the box and find a good business to start or go get another job – or else. At this point Toph knew he wasn’t going back into the corporate world, so his only option was to find a good business to start, and he needed to do it fast. Shortly thereafter, Toph and Ashley exchanged ideas during a seven-hour car ride to North Carolina and by the end of the ride, they both liked the business idea of Toph going into his own practice as a CPA, specializing in servicing the self-employed. Toph came up with the tagline “CPA for the Self-Employed” (which he subsequently trademarked), put up his “shingle”, and the new business was launched. Initially, Ashley was relieved feeling like there was finally some sense of direction, but as we all know, every overnight success story takes a few years to build up. In this case, Toph Sheldon, CPA for the Self-Employed, struggled tremendously during its first year in business. Relying solely on referrals for new clients, growth was extremely slow and cash flow was basically nonexistent. Ashley’s sense of relief wore off quickly and Toph could feel the pressure as he knew another failed venture was inevitably going to lead to an ugly divorce.

Then in the midst of all this, with a stroke of unbelievably good luck and timing, the trajectory of Toph and Ashley’s life changed forever. It was a mid-November day and Toph was working from his home office, which also doubled as the laundry room as well as the cat litter depository. Since Toph’s business was obviously struggling at the time and daycare was unaffordable, Toph was the primary caretaker for their only child (at the time) when Ashley was at work. On this particular day, the baby was napping so Toph decided he was going to multi-task and do some laundry while also putting on a webinar in the background that would allow him to earn some continuing education credits. As time unfolded, Toph found himself captivated by the webinar playing on his computer, which happened to be on the topic of tax resolution. The presenter of the webinar was a former tax resolution practitioner who was trying to promote his new coaching business where he would provide coaching services to practitioners who were offering tax resolution services. At the time, Toph knew absolutely nothing about tax resolution, but there was something compelling about the presenter and the prospect of getting into the tax resolution business as a more niche business. Upon conclusion of the webinar, the presenter was selling his “toolkit” for about $5,000, which was designed to help anyone who wanted to get into the tax resolution business from scratch. Toph impulsively pulled out his credit card (which he couldn’t afford to pay off at the time) and invested the $5,000 right then and there (and no he didn’t tell Ashley right away either)!

From here, Toph Sheldon, CPA for the Self-Employed, became Cincinnati Tax Resolution and the rest is now history! To date, Toph and Cincinnati Tax Resolution have helped hundreds of clients permanently resolve their tax problems, saving them many millions of dollars, and most importantly, helping them restore their peace-of-mind!

Toph is a licensed Certified Public Accountant in Ohio (CPA#47109) and Member of the American Society of Tax Problem Solvers. He began studying tax law at The Ohio State University’s Max M. Fisher College of Business and The University of Cincinnati’s Carl H. Lindner College of Business. He holds a BBA in Accountancy from The University of Cincinnati. He currently resides in Madeira, Ohio with his wife (Ashley) and six children. Ashley, a native of Jamestown, New York, is a full-time mom and non-practicing Registered Nurse (RN). In her spare time when she isn’t running the household, she is a consultant and business partner of Cincinnati Tax Resolution. The Sheldon Family can often be seen walking around downtown Madeira and attending Madeira Schools functions and sporting events. They are a proud sponsor of the Madeira Schools Foundation.

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