About Us
Avail Accounting & Tax, Inc. is a professional full service accounting, tax and financial consulting organization with a genuine commitment to professional, affordable and personalized service. Our team of well trained professionals specializes in providing accounting, payroll and tax reporting services among many other services to small and medium sized business clients . Led by Cynthia Lekey-Shipton, Enrolled Agent (EA) and an Accredited Business Accountant (ABA), Avail Accounting & Tax, Inc. is able to provide its clients with quality work at an affordable cost.
Certified Public Accountants
A CPA is an individual who is certified by the state to act as a public accountant based on a test and experience as a non-certified accountant. Many CPAs don’t specialize in taxation.
THE TEAM
Cynthia Lekey-Shipton, EA, ABA
After graduating from the University of California with a Bachelor of Arts in Mathematics and Accounting, Cynthia continued her education in the MBA program at Notre Dame with extensive study in the area of Taxation. With over thirty-five years of professional experience with various smaller-local, mid-sized regional and large-international public accounting organizations and financial institutions, her expertise is in the area of taxation as an Enrolled Agent (EA) and accounting as an Accredited Business Accountant (ABA). After working with General Dynamics in Clayton Missouri, Cynthia founded the firm “Avail Accounting and Tax” in 1995 and currently employees five additional professionals. She has served on the Chamber of Commerce board for over 6 years and currently serves and advises various boards at this time.
What is an E.A?
An Enrolled Agent is an individual who is licensed by the federal government and specializes in taxation. Unlike attorneys and CPAs, EAs are required to demonstrate to the IRS their competence in matters of taxation so that they can represent taxpayers before all administrative levels of the IRS. To obtain the credentials of an EA, one has to not only pass an extensive exam covering all levels of income tax including Individual, Corporate, Partnership, Estate & Gift Tax, but are required to complete 72 hours of continuing professional education every three years to maintain their status. Because of the difficulty in becoming an Enrolled Agent, there are fewer than 45,000 active EAs in the United States.
What is an A.B.A.?
An Accredited Business Accountant (A.B.A.) is an individual who has been tested in all areas of accounting, similar to the CPA exam and specialize in accounting services for individuals and small to medium size businesses. The comprehensive examination for accreditation in accountancy, administrated by the National Society of Accountants, covers all areas of financial accounting and financial statement preparation, business consulting services, taxation, business law, ethics and professional conduct.
When Cynthia is not working, she enjoys time with her family, golf, travel and scuba diving. You might even catch her singing with her “Juke Box Band” at the Eureka Winehouse.
Laura Wagner-Faust
Laura joined Avail in 2004 with an extensive background in both large and small business segments after passing CPA exam. She is experienced in Individual, Partnership, Corporate, Trust and Nonprofit accounting and tax preparation. Laura also handles our new business entity set-ups.
St. Louis has always been home; as a graduate of the University of Missouri she and her husband have four boys and love being members of the Eureka community. She is an avid beekeeper and has her local honey and hive products for sale at our office.
Laura has served as treasurer of many organizations in the community such as PTO, Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, subdivision associations and is currently serves as a board member of the Eastern Missouri Beekeepers Association.
Tony Bieser
Being the only male in a swarm of middle aged women, Tony was brave enough to join Avail in 2014 with over 35 years of accounting and tax preparation experience. He is Avail’s “Go-to-Guy” for tax law research and has a ‘Tony Button’ in his office to prove it. Soon after graduating from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and an emphasis in Accounting he married the love of his life and is still enjoying wedded bliss after 30 years.
Tony is very active as a lay minister in the New Apostolic Church. He is an avid sports fan (GO MIZZOU!!) and a participant when possible.
Linda DeLay
Linda has always lived by her personal motto: Balance hard work with something you love doing and you'll never want to quit. That's how she lives every day, working with clients and co-workers alike, and always having fun in the process.