A tax bill nobody saw coming
When planning waits until filing season, the number is whatever it is — and it’s due. The time to change it was months earlier, when the decisions were still yours to make.
The play: Tax Planning → Tax Preparation
Nick Meals CPA PLLC · Maryville, Tennessee
Trusted experience. Personal service.
Tax, accounting, and valuation guidance for individuals and businesses across Blount County — from a CPA and CVA with over 20 years of experience, and an Enrolled Agent with more than 20 years serving this community. Two people. Your name, known.
Free consultation. You talk with Nick or Laura directly — never a call center. Downtown Maryville, serving all of Blount County.
- CPA · Certified Valuation Analyst
- Enrolled Agent on the team
- Blount County Chamber member
CPA + CVA One person — your accountant and your valuation analyst
Enrolled Agent Laura Hardin, EA, on the team
40+ Years combined — Nick’s 20+ plus Laura’s 20+
Member Blount County Chamber of Commerce
Est. 2025 Opened in Maryville, October 2025
The Coach’s Playbook
Every situation has a play. Watch yours get drawn.
Blount County knows Nick Meals from the ballfield — Coach Nick. It turns out coaching is exactly how he runs a practice: see the situation, call the play early, execute it step by step. Pick your situation and watch the whiteboard.
Why the play matters
Most money mistakes are just plays nobody called in time.
Guessing what your business is worth
Sell too cheap, overpay, or hand it down blind — without a real valuation, the biggest transaction of your life runs on a hunch and a hope.
The play: Valuation Services
Books that can’t answer questions
A buyer, a lender, or just you at midnight — messy books turn simple questions into expensive doubts, and every decision into a guess.
The play: Bookkeeping → Business Advisory
Services
Five services. Every one a play we run well.
Flagship — the CVA advantage
Valuation Services
“Understand business value.”
Most CPAs can’t value your business — they send that work out. Nick doesn’t have to: he’s a Certified Valuation Analyst as well as a CPA, so the person who knows your books can also tell you what the business is worth. Selling, buying, or passing it down to family — it starts with a number you can defend.
Run the valuation play →Tax Preparation
“Prepare and file taxes.”
Individual and business returns, prepared and filed from records that agree with each other — no scramble in April, no surprises in the mail.
Tax Planning
“Plan ahead before tax season.”
The decisions that shape your tax bill happen all year long. We make them on purpose — early, while they can still change the outcome.
Business Advisory
“Make informed business decisions.”
Growth, hiring, buying, selling — a CPA who knows your numbers, in the room when the big calls get made.
Bookkeeping
“Keep books organized.”
Books kept current and clean all year — so every decision, and every filing, rests on real figures instead of reconstructions.
Who walks in
Individuals & Families — taxes prepared and planned Small Business Owners — books, taxes, and the big decisions Companies Seeking Strategic Advice — a CPA in the room
Client words
“I have had terrible experiences with other CPA’s in my 20 plus years of being in business. Nick is by far the best we have ever worked with. He’s extremely knowledgeable and will always guide you in the right direction. As long as I’m on God’s great earth he will be my CPA.”
Proud member — Blount County Chamber of Commerce
Meet the team 
Two people. Both of them know your name.
Nick Meals, CPA, CVA
Owner — “Coach Nick”
Over 20 years of experience in tax and accounting — and a Certified Valuation Analyst, credentialed to put a value on a business. Blount County knows him another way, too: he coaches youth baseball and football. He lives here with his wife and two children. This is his hometown practice, and it runs like one.
Laura Hardin, EA
Tax Professional — Enrolled Agent
More than 20 years of experience serving Blount County and the surrounding communities — individuals, families, and small businesses. When your taxes are in Laura’s hands, they’re in experienced ones.
Our story
Nick opened the practice in downtown Maryville in October 2025 — after more than twenty years of doing this work — so the people of Blount County could work with a CPA they already know. The practice is new. The experience behind it isn’t.
20+ Years of Nick’s experience — CPA & CVA
20+ Years Laura has served Blount County
40+ Years combined, on one small team
2 People. The whole team — you always know who has your books
Getting started
Your first huddle is free.
Say hello
Send the contact form or call 865-448-4234. The consultation is free — that’s how every relationship here starts.
See your play
Sit down with Nick or Laura. Talk through where things stand, and they’ll show you the plays that fit your situation — in plain English.
Decide with clear eyes
You’ll know exactly what working together looks like — and what the next step is — before you commit to anything.
Questions, answered straight
Before you ask, here’s the answer.
What does a CVA do — and why does it matter that my CPA is one?
A Certified Valuation Analyst (CVA) is credentialed to determine what a business is worth — the number a sale, a buy-in, or a family handoff actually turns on. Most CPAs have to send that work out. Nick Meals holds both credentials, CPA and CVA, so the person who knows your books can also value your business — one conversation, one set of numbers that agree with each other.
I’m thinking about selling — or passing down — my business. Where do we start?
With what it’s worth. A valuation comes first, while there’s still time to act on it; then we plan the tax on the transaction before anything is signed — not after, when it’s simply a bill. Clean, current books carry the rest: they answer a buyer’s questions before those questions become doubts. That sequence is the first play in the Coach’s Playbook above.
My books are a mess. Is it too late to fix them?
No — messy books are a starting point, not a verdict. Getting books organized is a service in itself here: we catch them up, clean them up, and keep them current, so planning and filing rest on real figures instead of reconstructions. Plenty of our work starts with a shoebox.
Do you only help at tax time?
Tax season is when taxes get filed — it’s the worst time to plan them. Tax planning here happens ahead of the season, while the decisions that shape your bill can still change it. Preparation then files a return that was planned, which is how a tax season becomes stress-free.
Who will I actually work with?
Nick Meals or Laura Hardin — that’s the whole team, and it’s by design. Nick is a CPA and CVA with over 20 years of experience; Laura is an Enrolled Agent with more than 20 years serving Blount County. You’re never handed to a queue or a stranger: the people whose names are on the door know your name and your numbers.
Is the first consultation really free?
Yes. Every relationship here starts with a free consultation — a conversation with Nick or Laura about where things stand and what the next play is. Reach us through the contact form or by phone at 865-448-4234, and we’ll set it up.
Where are you located?
Downtown Maryville, at 101 W Broadway Ave, Suite 220, Maryville, TN 37801 — serving individuals, families, and small businesses across Blount County and the surrounding communities.
Your move
Let’s draw up your play.
A sale, a season, or a shoebox of receipts — whatever’s on your whiteboard, the first huddle is free, and it’s with Nick or Laura themselves.
Nick Meals CPA PLLC · 101 W Broadway Ave, Suite 220 · Maryville, TN 37801