
A serial entrepreneur since he was in junior high school, Joseph C. Dobosz today operates a corporate specialty tax and advisory firm that counsels companies on a broad range of available federal and state tax incentives in the energy sector.
Among the offerings are a comprehensive review of energy-based accelerated federal tax incentives such as Section 179D for commercial buildings and Section 45L for multifamily properties. To assist with determining and calculating the potential savings, Dobosz developed what he calls the Integrated Fixed Asset Review.
The exclusive product reviews a taxpayer’s entire depreciation schedule to identify what may have been overlooked. Dobosz and his team of 40 specialists — tax attorneys, CPAs, and certified engineers — have a presence in all 50 states.
“At the outset, we use our software program to put together a comprehensive feasibility study that’s free for a client to determine what savings they may be eligible for,” says Dobosz, founder and president of Lexicon Tax Strategies Group in Shelby Township. “From there, we do a deep dive into a client’s operations, including site inspections, to review what can be underutilized and largely unknown federal and state tax incentives.”
Founded in 2009, Lexicon Tax Strategies has advised hundreds of companies, from small firms to Fortune 500 corporations, and collectively saved clients more than $1 billion in engineering, technology, and advanced tax planning, Dobosz says. The company gets paid a small percentage of the total savings identified.
“When you can save someone $10 million to $15 million, it’s a lot of fun,” he says. “Right now you can go back to 2006 to capture potential tax credits, and some of these final reviews can be as long as 600 pages. In many instances, you can take a 30-year depreciation in a single year.”
Lexicon is part of a string of businesses Dobosz has started and operated, including three different distribution companies in the plastics industry.
“In 1995 I was working for my father at his plastics company, and I set up a distribution company and started supplying my employer,” he says. “I also had a mobile auto detailing business in high school, and we quickly added boat detailing.
“After a few years, I left my father’s company and set up another plastics distribution business that worked with suppliers to stockpile materials and manufacture under my private label.”
In 2005, Dobosz launched Lexicon Lighting Technologies, a reseller of primarily American-made LED products (lighting) for commercial applications. He moved on from the lighting business in 2009 to focus almost entirely on Lexicon Tax Strategies.
During middle and high school, Dobosz came up with the idea of selling trips to Cedar Point, a theme park in Sandusky, Ohio, to his fellow students.
“I ran it for three years, and I typically had between two to five buses per trip, and I averaged 50 students per bus, plus two free-of-charge chaperones per bus,” Dobosz recalls. “I needed my father’s attorney to draw up the contractual agreement for the conditions of the trip, being the students were minors, and my mother was collecting the money and giving receipts.
“By the time I graduated from high school, I had a very good understanding of how businesses work.”