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Rachel Finley
574 TNRB
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT 84602
(801) 422-3598
prspecialist@byu.edu

Advisory Board Member Testifies in Washington, D.C.

Richard Dance, member of the Rollins Center for eBusiness Advisory Board, gave an unscheduled, but powerful testimony in front of the Small Business Administration 25 July.

As part of the hearing on small business regulations proposed by the Internal Revenue Service, Dance traveled to the country’s capital in hopes of voicing his opinion. Of the more than one hundred attendees, Dance was selected on the spot to share his concerns about how the regulations would affect small businesses like his own, 1031 Exchange Coordinators LLC.

Spontaneously presenting his findings and recommendations was no problem for Dance. “This opportunity to testify was a combination of luck and inspiration, but it was successful because I was prepared,” he says.

In his testimony, Dance identified the harsh impact of the regulations proposed by the Internal Revenue Service to modify exchanges where transaction taxes are deferred if held for use in a trade, business, or investment. This helps all sizes of businesses and individuals continue to invest in real estate and personal property.

His thorough research on the consequences of the proposed regulations helped sway the hearing. The IRS postponed implementing its regulations and has begun its own research based on the situation Dance foresaw.

“My testimony to the Small Business Administration was different because of my broad, humanities-based education at BYU,” he says. “It came from a different business point of view.”

Dance graduated from BYU in 1975 with a university studies degree. While in school, he catered to his appetite for reading and a well-rounded education. Instead of loading his plate with only business-based courses, Dance developed a taste for the most difficult and challenging courses from the best professors, regardless of subject.

“I was fascinated all the time with learning,” he says. “I think I learned more about auditing and accounting from an advanced history class that focused on the twenty-year period when Columbus presented his ideas to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabel of Spain. I learned we need to think for ourselves and go to the original source for our inspiration and interpretation of events.” Dance also developed a love of writing at BYU and has been writing for publications ever since.

His uncontested love of reading comes from his father. When Dance was in seventh grade, his father took him to the Evelyn Woods Reading Dynamics course.

“I learned to read rapidly,” he says. “My love of reading and learning was one of the main things that moved me into accounting, business, taxes, and knowledge management because all those fields require a lot of reading.”

Dance’s life-long search for inspiration and unique approach to education has lent itself to exciting professional opportunities. After earning his degree, he began working with KPMG. Many of the unique assignments he completed while there were given to him because of the non-accounting degree.

“Creativity and unique expression of your abilities and talents is a great way to live your life,” he says. “When the world looks out the window to see what all the noise and commotion is, I usually turn the other way to see what they’re missing. It will magnify your understanding of the world.”