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Black-owned business spotlight: Rapid Tax

Markeeyah Lowery of Rapid Tax Markeeyah Lowery of Rapid Tax

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Owner and CEO of Rapid Tax Markeeyah Lowery took over the family business after her father retired in 2011, but she said the real story is her degrees have nothing to do with taxes.

“It’s funny. The deal was I would come do taxes with him [her father] while I worked on my master’s degree in health care administration,” Lowery said. "So I was working on my master’s and next thing you know, I own a tax company. I am doing taxes full-time.”

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Lowery’s father, Marshall Lowery, started the business in 1989 after spending nights doing their neighbors’ taxes at the kitchen table.

After graduating from college in 2007, Lowery started working for Rapid Tax. Four years later, she took over the business as its new owner and CEO.

She thinks her father always knew she would take over the business, but he allowed her to find her own way and make her own decisions.

“We always tease each other about how he kinda set me up for this, he tricked me into the job, but I love it. It’s a family business,” Lowery said.

As a local, family, black-owned business, Lowery said the idea of “we keep it like family” is an ongoing theme in the office.

She calls her clients and co-workers, her “Rapid Tax family.”

“We like to give you a homey feel because there is a stigma with taxes,” Lowery said. "People are scared, they’re nervous, they don’t know if they are going to owe or get money back. We try to make it comfortable, so they’re not nervous when they come in.”

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In addition to treating her clients like family, she stressed the importance of being active in the community.

Rapid Tax holds a customer appreciation event every summer and makes donations to different organizations, such as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Fund and the Firefighters Association.

“We try to keep our imprint in the community beyond taxes. We’re not just here for taxes but we’re here

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She said another important piece to being a part of the Charlotte community is being a local, black business owner and the impact that has on the younger generations.

Lowery said growing up, she looked up to her hard-working parents and grandparents and aspired to be like them. She said local, black-owned businesses give youth something to aspire to and something to strive for.

“It’s important because people like to see people who look like them,” she said. “They like to be relatable to people of African-American descent. They want to be relatable and say, ‘If she can do it, I can, too.’”

Currently, Rapid Tax has three locations in Charlotte and one in Cornelius.

For more information, visit myrapidtax.com.

Cox Media Group

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