Why CPAs know but don't implement

The payroll tax strategy 95% of CPAs
never implement.

Your CPA isn't hiding Section 125 from you. They almost certainly know about it. They also can't set it up — and that gap is why most operators with 10+ W-2 employees leave six figures on the table every year. Here's the honest explanation, named credentials, and how to bring this to your existing CPA in a way they'll actually engage with.

IRS Section 125 — Federal Law Since 1978
No New Insurance Required
No Changes to Current Benefits
ACA · ERISA · COBRA · HIPAA Compliant
Live in 30–60 Days

What CPAs actually do

CPAs are advisory professionals. Their work product is structured around three lanes: tax preparation (returns, extensions, amended filings), tax planning (strategy meetings, year-end reviews, entity structuring advice), and audit / financial reporting(financial statement preparation, audit response, regulatory compliance). Inside those lanes they're excellent. Outside them, the work product doesn't exist.

Operating a complete Section 125 Preventive Care plan sits outside all three lanes. It's an operational activity — drafting plan documents, running annual nondiscrimination testing, integrating with the employer's payroll provider, maintaining a HIPAA-compliant participatory wellness platform with telemedicine + medication + dental + mental health services, maintaining a licensed indemnity insurance carrier relationship that flows the wellness reward into employee paychecks, and carrying $500,000 of insurance-backed audit-defense coverage. None of that is in the CPA toolkit.

Why this isn't a CPA failure

CPAs aren't insurance agents. They're not plan administrators. They aren't licensed to sell or operate a wellness platform. The right division of labor is: the CPA confirms the structure makes sense for the client's tax situation; the plan administrator operates the program. CBIZ Advisors LLC — a Top-7 U.S. accounting firm with 135,000+ clients — issued the August 2025 independent review letter on the program precisely because they understand this division. CBIZ verified compliance; CBIZ does not operate Section 125 plans.

What your CPA will say when you show them the documentation

In our case-study set, three sophisticated CPA / attorney / advisor buyers verified the program with their own counsel before enrolling:

  • Brandon Zora, CEO and CPA at Black Tiger Transportation: reviewed every relevant IRS code himself before signing. Reported annual savings: $140,000. Case study →
  • Ariel Joudai, CPA, CFO at Affinity Hospice: commissioned the CBIZ Advisors LLC review himself before enrolling his nationwide hospice organization. $140K+/year savings. Case study →
  • Dan Salceda, owner and practicing attorney at Golden Living Point Loma: read the IRS codes himself, consulted CPAs, secured an independent legal opinion. $120,000/year savings. Case study →

Each verified the structure independently and concluded the same thing: real, compliant, mechanical math, but operationally outside the CPA scope. Each then enrolled through the plan administrator (Virginia Fish, CPA, at ACA Solutions Hub).

The credentials, named

HitesmanLaw P.A. — Darcy L. Hitesman, J.D., a Super Lawyer-rated ERISA attorney with 35+ years in IRC § 125 practice. AV-rated in Martindale-Hubbell since 1998. Co-author of the national ERISA compliance manual (Thomson Reuters / EBIA). Member of the ECFC Technical Advisory Group. Her May 5, 2025 8-page opinion concludes the program satisfies applicable IRS requirements and specifically addresses the IRS Chief Counsel Advice memoranda on double-dip arrangements.

CBIZ Advisors LLC — Top-7 U.S. accounting firm. Publicly traded (NYSE: CBZ), 10,000+ employees, 100+ offices, 135,000+ clients. Their August 22, 2025 independent review confirms compliance with IRC §§ 125, 105, 106, ERISA, ACA, and COBRA when operated per its provisions.

The credentials are named because anonymous “top firm” citations in tax-strategy marketing are exactly the warning sign your CPA is rightly trained to flag. Both the Hitesman opinion and CBIZ review are share-able PDFs available on your free 15-minute analysis call.

Full compliance authority page → · IRS.gov — Cafeteria Plans · 26 U.S.C. § 125

How to bring this to your CPA

The pattern that works in our network:

  1. Run the calculator below to see your specific projected savings.
  2. Book the free 15-minute analysis with the tax specialist for your exact verified figure.
  3. Bring the result + the Hitesman opinion + the CBIZ review letter to your CPA. Frame it as: “I want you to confirm this works mathematically and won't create audit risk. I'm not asking you to set it up — the operator handles that.”
  4. Most CPAs review the documentation in 10 minutes and confirm. If yours pushes back, the most common concern is the IRS “double-dip” flag — addressed directly on pages 4-6 of the Hitesman opinion.
  5. If your CPA confirms, enroll. The plan administrator (Virginia Fish, CPA at ACA Solutions Hub) handles everything operational.

Run your own number

The calculator below returns your specific net annual FICA savings + a Workers' Comp reduction estimate at your industry classification. Five quick questions, instant result, no email gate.

See What You'd Save

5 quick questions  ·  instant estimate  ·  no email required

Step 1 of 5

Minimum 10 W-2 employees  ·  $25K+ salary  ·  ACA-compliant health coverage required
Verified by CBIZ & HitesmanLaw  ·  Zero cost  ·  Zero obligation

⚖️ Federally Funded  ·  Zero Cost  ·  IRS Law Since 1978

When you're ready, book the free 15-minute analysis → with the tax specialist for your exact verified figure. The output is a number you can take to your CPA the same day.

Legal & Accounting Proof

Verified by the Best in the Country

Skepticism is the right response. We don't ask you to take our word for it — we bring institutional proof that convinced CPAs, CFOs, attorneys, and insurance brokers to enroll their own companies.

Darcy L. Hitesman, J.D.

HitesmanLaw P.A. · Minneapolis, MN

35+ years as an Employee Benefits attorney specializing in IRC Section 125, ERISA, HIPAA, and the ACA. Her May 5, 2025 opinion letter concludes: “In this firm's opinion, the Program described satisfies applicable IRS requirements.”

She specifically reviewed the IRS Chief Counsel Advice memoranda on "double-dip" arrangements — the exact schemes the IRS has flagged — and concluded this program is built differently and compliantly.

✓
Named a Super Lawyer every year since 2000. AV-rated (highest possible rating) in Martindale-Hubbell since 1998.
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Co-author: ERISA Compliance for Health & Welfare Plans (Thomson Reuters/EBIA) — the national compliance standard manual since 1999.
✓
Member, Technical Advisory Group — Employers Council on Flexible Compensation. She helps set the industry standards for Section 125 plans nationally.

CBIZ Advisors LLC

Top-7 U.S. Accounting Firm · Cleveland, OH · 135,000+ Clients

CBIZ independently reviewed the program against IRC §§ 125, 105, and 106, plus ERISA, ACA, and COBRA requirements. Their August 22, 2025 letter concludes: “If operated per its provisions, the Program appears to satisfy the requirements of ERISA, the ACA, and COBRA as well.”

This review was commissioned by Affinity Hospice's CEO before enrolling his nationwide organization — and the CFO (himself a CPA) shared the letter publicly in his testimonial.

✓
Top-7 U.S. accounting firm. 10,000+ employees across 100+ offices. Serves 135,000+ clients nationally.
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Review covers: IRC §125 cafeteria plan, §105/106 wellness benefit rules, ERISA plan asset treatment, ACA integration, and COBRA obligations.
✓
$500,000 legal protection per enrolled employer · $10,000 per employee participant · Insurance-backed.
🏛️

Direct From the U.S. Government

Section 125 has been in the Internal Revenue Code since 1978. Congress wrote it there specifically to encourage employers to fund preventive healthcare for American workers. This is not a loophole — it is the precise, intended use of a 47-year-old federal law, grounded in IRS Revenue Ruling 69-154, the specific published ruling supporting the benefit payment structure.

→ Verify on IRS.gov — Section 125 Cafeteria Plans ↗
CPA Conversation FAQ

What CPAs say when they review this

CPAs are advisory professionals. They advise on tax structure, prepare returns, and review filings. The complete Preventive Care Section 125 program requires operational infrastructure that no CPA firm operates: a formal IRS plan document, a HIPAA-compliant participatory wellness platform, a licensed indemnity insurance carrier relationship, ongoing nondiscrimination testing, and $500K of insurance-backed audit-defense coverage. Your CPA can confirm the program is real and the math is correct (and most do, in about 10 minutes). They cannot build the program for you. That gap is the entire reason 95% of qualifying businesses don't have one.
Standard benefits brokers handle group health insurance, dental, vision, FSA, and HSA. They do not draft Section 125 plan documents, run nondiscrimination testing, or carry the audit-defense backing. Some brokers will introduce the Section 125 Preventive Care program (and earn a referral fee for doing so), but the program itself is operated by a plan administrator — currently Virginia Fish, CPA, at ACA Solutions Hub in Aliso Viejo, CA. Your existing benefits broker stays the broker; the plan administrator handles the Section 125 layer.
Largely yes. There's no broker who proactively quotes it (it's not insurance), no payroll provider who proactively mentions it (it's not a payroll product), and CPAs typically only mention it when asked directly. The only people in the ecosystem actively introducing it are referral partners (like David Newman) and a handful of specialty brokers who've built relationships with the plan administrator. The result: most owners with 10+ W-2 employees would qualify, and most have never heard of it.
Probably not, when you bring the documentation. Show them the Hitesman opinion (8 pages, May 2025), the CBIZ review letter (August 2025), and the program structure overview. Most CPAs review them in 10 minutes and confirm the math is correct. The CPAs who do push back usually do so on the "double-dip" concern — and that's addressed directly in the Hitesman opinion, which specifically reviews the IRS Chief Counsel Advice memoranda on double-dip structures and explains why this program is built differently.
$681.60 net employer FICA savings per W-2 employee per year, after the program admin fee. A 50-employee business nets $34,080/year. A 100-employee business nets $68,160/year. Plus a Workers' Comp reduction at the next audit cycle (30-60% real-world for trucking, construction, drayage, auto-service, senior care). Plus a structural ~$72/paycheck raise for every participating employee. The "friction" is one 15-minute call with the tax specialist + sharing the documentation with your CPA. The return on that 15 minutes is six figures of annual savings for most operators with 50+ employees.
Zero Cost · Zero Obligation · 15 Minutes

Find Out Your Number.
Free. No Pitch. Just Math.

Book My Free 15-Minute Analysis →Text David

Verified: CBIZ Advisors LLC (Aug 2025) · HitesmanLaw P.A. (May 2025)
$500K legal protection per enrolled employer · IRS Section 125 · Federal law since 1978