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Dave Horwedel

Dave Horwedel

CEO, EA

A graduate of the prestigious Pomona College with a B.A. in Mathematics and Economics, Dave spent many years after graduation honing his communication and executive skills in specialized executive training and work experience.

Dave holds the highest federal tax credential, Enrolled Agent, which certifies his tax expertise and allows him to represent his clients as an attorney before the IRS.

He founded Torchlight Tax and Financial Services, a full-service tax firm, that does all kinds of tax preparation–business (sole proprietors, partnerships, LLCs, C-Corporations, S-Corporations), Estates and Trusts. The product of Torchlight Tax is the tax dollars our clients save without cheating or putting them at risk.

Torchlight also does support services such as bookkeeping and payroll which are needed to file a tax return properly. Quality IRS Representation which settles IRS Debt most favorably for our client has also been a specialty of Torchlight Tax. Due to surging demand for IRS Representation, Dave formed GuardDog Tax as a department of Torchlight Tax and gave it its own website text.

Ody was born in the Dominican Republic and came to the US at the age of 12 and was raised in New York City. She is fluent in English and Spanish and has a degree in accounting and 9 years of bookkeeping, accounting and tax preparation experience. She came to Torchlight Tax in 2021 and decided to become an Enrolled Agent (EA). In 2022 she became a full US Citizen, passed her first EA exam and conintued to work at Torchlight Tax Las Vegas. In October of 2022 she became pregnant with her second child. With a baby on the way and a two year old, she and her husband got a home in New Jersey and her Mom moved in. This gave Ody the support she needed to continue her EA career. She has opened the New Jersey office of Torchlight Tax.

Ody is now running the Torchlight New Jersey Office with Torchlight Tax EA and CPA support, and has recently completed training as an Enrolled Agent. 

Ody Tejada

Ody Tejada

Enrolled Agent

James Daloisio

James Daloisio

Tax Attorney

A graduate of Whittier College, Jim opened his tax law practice in 1993 and has been a practicing tax attorney ever since. He heads up the legal departments for both Torchlight and GuardDog Tax.

As a practicing tax attorney, Jim joins the EAs and CPAs and support staff of Torchlight and GuardDog Tax and allows Torchlight to have an enhanced ability to handle tax problems of any kind.

A graduate of Washington University in Saint Louis with a Bachelor of Science in accounting, Ken has been servicing taxpayers for over 30 years as an Enrolled Agent. He has extensive experience in all types of personal tax returns, business returns (sole proprietorships, partnerships, LLCs, C-Corporations, S-Corporations), Trusts, Estates, non-profits, and pretty much all aspects of the tax field. His main duties include tax preparation, IRS representation, quality control (side checking tax return filings before submission) and apprenticing new EAs and CPAs.

Ken has also kept up with the ever changing worlds of IRS codes and regulations. This, along with 60,000 hours of practical tax experience, makes Ken the go-to guy for oddball tax questions and situations.

Ken Jones

Ken Jones

EA

Kenneth Lich

Kenneth Lich

EA

Ken graduated from the University of Washington with a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting. He has been doing accounting and personal and business taxes professionally for over 20 years. He has experience in virtually all types of tax preparation and has been training and supervising others in tax preparation for most of this time. He has been certified as an Enrolled Agent by the IRS. As he holds the EA credential, he has been able to represent clients before the IRS for penalty abatement, Offers in Compromise and IRS Installment Agreements. The taxpayer simply needs to sign an IRS Power of Attorney for Ken to represent him.

At Torchlight Tax Ken has been side checking the tax returns prepared by others with particular emphasis on making sure no legal tax deductions or credits are missed.

Roy is an EA with a Master of Science in Accounting he has 27 years of tax, accounting, bookkeeping and payroll experience. Roy enjoys doing taxes that saves his clients money. He also likes doing accounting that allows business owners to really track expenses and figure out ways to improve their bottom line.
Roy Smith

Roy Smith

EA, Accountant

Emily Sang

Emily Sang

CPA

Emily earned her Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Brigham Young University and a Master’s Degree in Business Administration from Utah State University with honors. She obtained her license as a Certified Public Accountant in 1999. Emily worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Walt Disney Company, and State of Utah for a number of years. She also worked as a controller for a mid-sized security broker dealer firm for seven years before she started her own CPA practice. Emily’s objective is to provide highly customerized services that improve tax efficiency and maximizes cash flow to help business and individuals to reach their financial goals and objectives.
Calvin enjoys saving clients money by using his EA skills to get them every deduction and credit the law allows. As an added bonus, he can communicate to clients in Chinese (Cantonese). He is fully fluent in both Chinese and English.
Calvin Chen

Calvin Chen

EA

Luis Herrera

Luis Herrera

EA

Luis is an EA with 25 years of tax experience and can do taxes in English and Spanish. He heads up the Spanish speaking tax unit of Torchlight Tax.

After four years of college majoring in Electrical and Computer Engineering (Michigan Technological University), Scott continued his career in Michigan working for Fortune 500 companies.

He later moved to California where he worked In management, marketing, recruiting. training, and business development for medical start-ups, tech start-ups, and nonprofits.

In 2019, Scott joined Torchlight Tax team where his diverse skills allowed him to wear and oversee the multiple hats that were needed as the firm expanded. These included management, IT support, overseeing marketing and HR.

Scott is continuing to wear multiple hats and is also in progress on his Enrolled Agent training so that he can better service tax clients directly and the operations of the tax firm.

Scott Cook

Scott Cook

Vicepresident of Business Development.