The Taxley Story
“Clarity is the Entrepreneur’s Competitive Advantage.”
– Anisha Bailey, EA | Founder & CEO, Taxley
That belief wasn’t created in a boardroom or marketing meeting.
It was earned through nearly two decades of working alongside entrepreneurs, which changed how we think about tax resolution, business leadership, and what entrepreneurs truly need to succeed.
Taxley wasn’t built around a service – it was built around a realization. After years of helping entrepreneurs navigate IRS and state tax matters, a consistent pattern emerged: the tax problem was rarely the whole story. That insight became the foundation for how Taxley works today.
It Started with a Simple Goal.
When I left Corporate America and Deloitte in 2008, my goal was simple: build a business that helped entrepreneurs build stronger businesses.
Like many entrepreneurs, I was building a life at the same time — raising two young children, creating financial stability, and learning in real time what business ownership required.
At first, that meant providing bookkeeping, accounting support, tax preparation, and financial guidance to small business owners.
As the work evolved, so did Taxley. What began as broad financial support increasingly led me into complex IRS and state tax matters, and eventually into tax resolution.
Along the way, I was learning something else too: being good at the technical work was not enough. I also had to become a better entrepreneur.
Looking back, I was becoming the very entrepreneur I would spend the next two decades serving.
That experience fundamentally changed how I understood the entrepreneurs behind the tax problems — and ultimately shaped the way Taxley approaches the work today.
The Pattern Emerged.
Every entrepreneur’s story was different. The pattern wasn’t.
As my work evolved, I became an Enrolled Agent and began helping entrepreneurs navigate increasingly complex IRS and state tax matters.
The more cases I handled, the more I realized tax problems rarely began with the IRS. They often reflected broader financial, operational, and leadership issues that had been building long before a notice arrived.
That changed how Taxley approached tax resolution. The work could not simply focus on the balance due or the collection alternative. It had to account for the entrepreneur’s broader circumstances, the decisions that created the problem, and what would be required to move forward more sustainably.
Over time, that same insight changed how I thought about tax resolution itself. If better outcomes required stronger judgment, better processes, and more capable practitioners, then the opportunity was bigger than resolving individual cases.
Stories Were Different
Every entrepreneur had a different business, different circumstances, and different tax challenges. Yet beneath those differences, the same financial, operational, and leadership patterns kept appearing.
Responsibilities Multiplied
Entrepreneurs weren’t just running businesses. They were making decisions that affected cash flow, employees, families, taxes, and long-term stability – often all at the same time.
Tax Problems Were Symptoms
The IRS was rarely where the story began. Tax problems often reflected deeper business, financial, or leadership issues that had gone unaddressed.
Stronger Capability Matters
Better tax resolution depended on more than technical knowledge. It required sound judgment, disciplined processes, strong communication, and practitioners capable of seeing the whole picture.
“The next chapter wasn’t about resolving more cases. It was about building more capable practices.”
After years of operating Taxley as a tax resolution firm, the opportunity became clear: turn what we had built into something other firms could use.
It All Started Coming Together.
For more than 14 years, I built and operated Taxley as a tax resolution firm – representing more than 500 taxpayers nationwide, developing case strategies, building financial analysis processes, managing client delivery, training practitioners, and creating the systems needed to operate the practice itself.
That experience became the foundation for something larger.
I realized the greatest opportunity was no longer simply to resolve more cases myself. It was to take what I had learned and developed – the methodology, operating structure, practitioner development methods, judgment, and client-delivery standards – and help other firms build that capability inside their own organizations.
Today, Taxley works with tax, law, and accounting firms to build and strengthen tax resolution practices.
We help firms establish the processes, methodology, practitioner capability, leadership, and talent pathways needed to deliver the work consistently and sustainably.
The goal is not to create dependence on Taxley. It is to leave the firm with stronger institutional capability – a practice its own people can operate, develop, and sustain.
That is what Taxley Practice Development was built to do.
Developing the People Behind the Practice
Stronger practices also require capable practitioners and a deliberate way to develop future talent.
In 2022–2023, I worked with the U.S. Department of Labor to establish the first Registered Apprenticeship program for Enrolled Agents in the profession’s then 139-year history, creating a structured pathway into the profession.
That work now informs the People and Pipeline components of Taxley’s practice-development methodology.
Taxley Academy
Supporting career development pathways for entrepreneur-focused tax resolution, from pre-apprenticeship career exploration through registered apprenticeship.
ExplorEA™
Career Exploration
A structured Enrolled Agent career exploration program combining practical career insight and real-world work exposure for emerging professionals entering tax resolution.
ApprentEA™
Registered Apprenticeship
A structured Enrolled Agent career development program combining employment with education and on-the-job training for professionals advancing in entrepreneur-focused tax resolution.
I also serve as Chair-Elect on the Board of Trustees of the National Association of Enrolled Agents Education Foundation, supporting
EA education and workforce development initiatives.
Media, Recognition & Affiliations
A Note from the Founder
If you’ve made it this far, thank you.
Building and operating Taxley has taught me that strong practices are rarely built by having all the answers. They are built by asking better questions, exercising sound judgment, creating disciplined systems, and developing people who can carry the work forward.
Those lessons shaped how I led Taxley, how I approached tax resolution, and ultimately why I chose to bring that experience into other firms.
Today, my work is focused on helping firms build tax resolution capability that is practical, durable, and truly their own.
The goal is simple: leave the practice stronger than I found it – so the entrepreneurs it serves have greater clarity when it matters most.
Because after nearly two decades, the belief at the heart of Taxley hasn’t changed: Clarity is the Entrepreneur’s Competitive Advantage.
— Anisha Bailey, EA, MSEL
Founder & CEO, Taxley