Spotlight on Tax Adviser and Professional Singer Angela J. Henry

Our Spotlight series highlights the careers and lives of tax professionals around the world. This week’s Spotlight is on Angela J. Henry, a certified public and global management accountant who is president and principal of Alegna Financial Management Inc. in Atlanta.

Henry specializes in advising businesses and people in the entertainment industry. She understands the industry as an insider—a professional vocalist and producer, she is a member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (the Grammys), Women in Music, and the National Association of Black Female Executives in Music and Entertainment.

She said she developed her tax specialty after seeing people “lose fortunes to bad money management. My passion was to educate and help empower my clients and other industry persons to better manage their business and financial affairs.”

Henry has won numerous corporate leadership awards, received recognition for her work with Sarbanes-Oxley and Six Sigma, and has been honored multiple times by Who’s Who in Black Atlanta.

What’s your official title and what does it mean? Principal—principal counselor, principal psychologist, principal hand holder, principal motivator, principal sickness healer, you get the picture. As the most trusted adviser to my clients, I do more than financial and business management. I offer health remedy advice, walk them through the scariest parts of their career and life, motivate and boost their confidence, and serve as a listening ear to all of their concerns—business and private.

Free time: book, audiobook, or podcast? Music. I’m a musician and lover of music. All types. I still perform as a singer professionally.

Tax is a huge subject. What’s your area of special interest? Tax planning. Researching strategies to lower tax liabilities on a case by case basis. Finding those deductions (lost or unique) that clients in my industry of entertainment often lose or miss. Planning a way forward for my clients. It’s personal to me. I spend the year thinking about my clients and what new strategies or plans I can design and utilize to improve their futures. I believe it’s my job to delight my clients and not just service them.

What’s the last movie or show that you watched and loved (DVD, Netflix, or in the theater)? I watched “The Woman King” as I was on a recent international flight. As exhausted as I was, I was glued to the screen. I saw the lead character’s strength, her keen ability to be strategic, her sharp intuition, but you also received a small glimpse into her challenge at being vulnerable and soft. It all hit home.

What college did you attend and what did you study? I began my studies as a pre-med major at Southern Adventist University, a private university just outside of Chattanooga, Tenn. I then received a full scholarship to the University of Tennessee, where I changed majors and completed my bachelor’s of business administration in accounting. I followed this by receiving my master’s of business administration in finance.

Go-to pick-me-up: Coffee or tea? Starbucks white chocolate peppermint mocha Frappuccino, only after days with no sleep during busy season. Otherwise, green tea.

What’s the best tax or financial advice that anyone ever gave you? Ha! One that I still use with my clients: Do not keep a car note. Pay off your car loan as quickly as possible, and then continue to put your car payment into a savings or investment account. When it’s time to buy a new car, you can borrow from yourself, pay cash—with negotiating power on the price, and continue saving the monthly amount of a car note into savings and investments for the next purchase in five to 10 years. It worked for me.

If you weren’t working in the tax profession, what would your dream job be? A studio mix engineer or mastering engineer. I’ve had the great pleasure of working on a recent international music compilation as the executive producer, to be released later this year. Not only did I plan, budget, organize, and manage the entire project, but I assisted with making studio edits and tweaks. This was actually my hopeful pursuit for a career until my Caribbean parents told me that I was going to get a “proper career.”

If you had the opportunity to make one change in the tax world—an extra credit, a disallowed deduction, whatever—what would it be? My response will probably be extremely controversial, but it has been on my mind as I contemplate my position and influence in this profession. The discussion about reparations to descendants of trans-Atlantic slavery has been long and contentious. Certain analysts have tried to calculate cash payments, identify which countries and corporations would be responsible for paying these reparations, and determine how these payments would be distributed.

Great wealth has been accumulated and passed down to generations as a benefit, and while a lump sum payment may be extremely complex to calculate and distribute, providing full tax credits—federal and state income, as well as other potential taxes—would help to gradually share the economic benefit of being a citizen with those descendant communities over generational time.

Research has revealed that the median wealth of a White household is $147,000, which is about 41 times greater than the median wealth of a Black household, which is $3,600. This is staggering. There have been certain initiatives and programs instituted to help equalize the black communities, and I believe those and more should continue. But I also have not heard a “real discussion” about considering and instituting a full tax credit to these descendants in addition to the current initiatives. This is a topic that certainly warrants serious consideration, and I’d be happy to participate in that discussion.

Favorite food, snack, or candy during tax season or other busy time? Chocolate! I’m a true chocoholic.

What tax news or move made the most impact on your practice or clients this past year? Pass-through entity tax. The ability for an individual to pay their individual state tax liability through their PTE and the states allowing this deduction at the entity level. Because of the federal SALT limitation, my clients were losing very large deductions from the cap on SALT. Now, with various states passing legislation to allow the payment of state and local tax through pass-through entities, this deduction has been regained in a different way and has improved some of my client’s tax liability positions. Of course, you should always “run the numbers.”

If you received a big tax refund check right now, what would you do with it? Pay off my mortgage! I truly believe in attempting to live debt-free. Always working to pay debt and expenses doesn’t allow you to be free to give back to initiatives that inspire you. Living without debt allows you the freedom to be impactful in other lives, in your community, and to live to your fullest potential.

You can find out more about Henry on Linkedin.

You can learn more about Henry’s firm, Alegna Financial Management, Inc., on its website or on LinkedIn.

If you’d like to recommend a tax pro to be featured, send your suggestion to rbaker@bloombergindustry.com with the subject: Spotlight. Please include the following information: tax professional’s name, title, email address, and geographic area (city/state/country).