Our Team – Shechter & Associates

MEET OUR TEAM

Philip J. Shechter, CPA, ABV, CVA is a partner with over 35 years of experience in audit, tax preparation, tax consulting, litigation support and business valuation services. He received his bachelor’s degree in accounting, with honors, from the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida. Philip is a certified public accountant in the state of Florida. He is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants; the AICPA Business Valuation, and Forensic and Litigation Services Section; the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants; the FICPA Valuation, Forensic Accounting and Litigation Services Section; the National Association of Certified Valuation Analysts. He has many business memberships and accomplishments, including the Key Partners Award from South Florida Business Journal. He is a member of the Collaborative Family Lawyers Institute. He is recognized as Top CPA’s in Litigation Support as published in South Florida Legal Guide. Mr. Shechter has published several articles and has lectured on many topics relative to his area of expertise.

Jennifer E. Shechter, CPA is a partner with more than 12 years of experience in Public Accounting. Jennifer started her career with a top 5 international audit, tax and advisory firm. She then joined a large regional firm ranked among the nation’s largest accounting firms. She received her bachelor’s in accounting and finance from Florida State University and continued her education to earn a Master’s in Accounting from the University of South Carolina. Jennifer is a certified public accountant in Florida and South Carolina and holds a privilege license to practice in North Carolina. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Jennifer has worked with a variety of private clients in the real estate, construction, private equity and professional and entrepreneurial businesses. Her client service experience includes providing tax compliance and consulting services to entities including federal, international, state and local tax reporting, consolidated returns, general accounting and IRS representation. Jennifer currently serves on Parent Teacher Association Board as treasurer. She enjoys volunteering with various organizations within her local community.

Barbara V. Beltran, CPA is a director with over 25 years of public accounting experience. She has extensive experience in serving the financial, tax and business needs of a vast array of clients. Barbara is an expert in the Nonprofit Industry, specializing in the tax compliance and information reporting for exempt organizations and private foundations. Her nonprofit experience includes the formation of not-for-profit organizations and preparation of exemption applications. She received her bachelor’s degree in accounting from the University of Miami. Barbara is a certified public accountant in the state of Florida and Georgia. She is a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Barbara specializes in working closely with clients to meet their needs in owner managed businesses, pass thru and nonprofit entities. During her free time, she enjoys participating in 5K races and volunteering in her community. Barbara resides in Kendall with her husband of 30 years and their two daughters.

Herminia Mendez was born in Cuba and came to the United States in 1961. Herminia began her accounting career in the United States working in private accounting as a controller in several industries. After working in the private sector Herminia started working in public accounting in 1970’s, which is when she joined Breslow & Shechter. She since has worked for several public accounting firms alongside Philip Shechter. Herminia is a manager at Shechter & Associates with more than 40 years of experience in audit, tax preparation, tax consulting and accounting. She has extensive knowledge in tax consulting and preparation for foreign individuals. Herminia enjoys volunteering in her local community. She volunteers and collects donations for a variety of charities including an orphanage in Nicaragua, Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent the Paul Miami, San Jose Obrero in Honduras and Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Miami.

Janice Garcia was born in Miami, Florida. She graduated from G. Holmes Braddock Senior High School being in the top 15% of the class. She is currently finishing her bachelors in Psychology at Florida International University and is pursing on getting her masters in Professional Counseling Psychology. Janice has been a part of Shechter & Associates for the past 5 years when it was previously known as South Miami Tax Inc. She is our paraprofessional and handles everything from processing to bookkeeping. Her future career goal is to become a Mental Health Counselor. When she isn’t in the office, Janice loves to spend her free time with her dog Daisy and takes part in doing community service with her Psychology Club for college.

CONTACT

Phone: 305.631.2288
Fax: 786-677-4100

LOCATION

4531 Ponce de Leon Blvd

Suite #200

Coral Gables, FL 33146

HOURS

Mon – Fri: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm

Saturday: Closed

Sunday: Closed

2023 Important Tax Season Updates

Thank you for choosing Shechter & Associates LLP to assist you with your tax and accounting needs. We hope to make this tax season a seamless and relaxed process for you. Tax season has officially start and we begin Saturday appointments on February 24, 2024. We wanted to share some information and helpful links to assist you during this tax season.

Client Portal

Shechter & Associates LLP now offers a client portal “Canopy Tax”. Our client portal offers an easy way to upload large documents securely and access your current and prior year tax returns. You can even upload documents with Canopy’s mobile app. Canopy’s mobile app is compatible with both iOS and Android. You can find it on both Apple iTunes and Google Play stores.

If you would like to access our client portal, please let us know and we will send you an invite or you can access the website here: https://app.canopytax.com/

Appointments with Philip

If you are interested in booking a Saturday appointment with Philip please see below. You can click on the link https://calendly.com/shechterassociates/2023taxreturn to schedule the time that works for you. If you are interested in a time Monday through Friday, please reach out to Bianca Pereira-Diaz at Bpereira@se-forenscis.com (preferably) or call us at (305) 901-2137.

Safesend

We are using a program called SafeSend Returns to electronically deliver tax returns. The email will contain a link that is safe to click. You will need to provide the last 4 digits of your SSN and enter an Access Code that will be emailed to you in a separate email. Upon successful verification, you will be able to:

Download, review and/or print tax returns
See if you owe taxes, are receiving any refunds and see your estimated tax payments if applicable.
Electronically sign your personal e-file authorization forms. For personal returns, the IRS requires identity verification so please do not be alarmed by the personal questions as these are pulled from public databases.

Tax Organizers

If you would like us to send you a tax organizer, please send requests to Stephanie Torres at storres@shechterassociates.com.

Invoices

Billergenie is our payment gateway. With a robust virtual terminal, hosted payment forms, and the ability to securely store payment methods on file, Biller Genie makes it easy to pay your invoice securely. Simply click on the link below to pay by credit card, please note that there is a 3.5% convenience fee to pay via credit card and make sure to have the invoice number handy. Additionally, this year we are also offering the ability to pay via ACH. If you would like to pay via ACH, please send an email to Stephanie Torres at storres@shechterassociates.com with the invoice number that you want to pay and you will receive the information to pay via email. Unfortunately, you would have to send an email every time you want to pay via ACH.
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