Engineered Tax Services pairs professional grant infrastructure with street-level outreach, using ETS Cares and second-chance leadership to identify, file, and deploy capital where it has not reached
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Julio Gonzalez, Founder and CEO of Engineered Tax Services (ETS), and Charles “Duke” Tanner, Vice President of Community Affairs & Outreach and National Ambassador, today advanced a national grant access mission designed to do what the funding system has failed to do on its own: get grant money to the businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, churches, and families that were never given a translator.
The announcement brings two capabilities into one operating model. Gonzalez built the grant and incentive architecture. Tanner carries that architecture into rooms the system does not enter. Together they are positioning Engineered Tax Services as more than a specialty tax firm. They are positioning it as a national access engine — identify the funding, qualify the applicant, file the work, and put the dollars where they can hold a business, a household, or a second chance together.
“Capital without a guide is a closed door,” Gonzalez said. “The grants already exist. The incentives already exist. What most people never get is someone who can read the system and walk them through it. That is the work. Duke Tanner makes sure the work does not stay in a boardroom. ETS Cares makes sure we show up while the applications are moving.”
GRANT SYSTEMS BUILT FOR OPERATORS, NOT ONLY INSTITUTIONS
Gonzalez founded Engineered Tax Services in 2001 after watching Fortune 500 companies use credits, incentives, and grant pathways that smaller businesses, nonprofits, and municipalities could barely reach. Headquartered in West Palm Beach and now operating through 26 offices nationally, ETS has generated more than $2 billion in client tax savings and built a specialty practice around cost segregation, research and development tax credits, energy incentives, and grant advisory.
The grant thesis is direct. Federal and state programs already allocate funding for workforce, infrastructure, energy, entrepreneurship, community development, and organizational growth. The failure is access. Large institutions have compliance departments. Most churches, returning citizens, women-led ventures, and neighborhood nonprofits do not. ETS was built to stand in that gap and convert complexity into filed work.
Tanner is the field operator inside that system. A former professional boxer with an undefeated 19–0 record and author of Duke Got Life, he served more than sixteen years after a first non-violent case brought two life sentences. After commutation and a full presidential pardon in May 2025, he turned the second chance into national advocacy around reentry, fatherhood, prison reform, public policy, and economic access. He works with organizations including the Jack Brewer Foundation, REFORM Alliance, and the Aleph Institute, and is Co-Founder of Legacy Impact Technologies and the Legacy Impact Foundation.
His assignment at ETS is not ceremonial. It is to walk grant opportunity into communities that have been leaving money on the table because nobody brought the map.
“One opportunity can change a life,” Tanner said. “One life can change countless others. That is why I believe in second chances. When you invest in redemption, you invest in the future. Grants are not paperwork to me. They are a way to keep a father working, a nonprofit open, and a community from getting written off.”
ETS CARES AND THE GRANT MANDATE
Gonzalez has now attached that mandate to ETS Cares, the company-wide service initiative built on a public standard: if we have been blessed, we have a responsibility to give back. ETS Cares is not a substitute for grant work. It is the presence layer around it — employee service days, nonprofit support, second-chance partnerships, and community work that happens while the funding strategy is being built.
“When we talk about ETS Cares, we are talking about more than just giving money,” Gonzalez said. “We are talking about getting in the community, putting our hands to the work, and helping the people and organizations that are already out there doing the work every single day.”
The combined model is designed to move in one direction: from closed knowledge to deployed capital.
Their work is focused on:
- Federal and state grants for businesses, nonprofits, municipalities, churches, and community organizations
- Pairing grant funding with tax incentives, workforce pathways, and second-chance economic access
HOW THE MODEL WORKS
Gonzalez and Tanner are running the grant mission as a four-stage system:
- Identify. Business owners, nonprofits, municipalities, and community leaders are assessed against federal, state, local, and private grant pathways that already exist inside the code.
- Qualify and file. ETS specialists prepare the work with professional grant infrastructure rather than volunteer guesswork, reducing the errors that quietly disqualify first-time applicants.
- Deploy. Awards and incentive strategies move into operations, community projects, workforce pathways, and second-chance economic access.
- Stay present. ETS Cares and Tanner’s outreach keep the firm in the community after the application leaves the desk — through service, partnerships, reentry work, and fatherhood advocacy.
“I’ve always believed that people should be given the opportunity to show who they can become — not simply judged by where they’ve been,” Gonzalez said. “Duke Tanner is a perfect example. He was given a second chance, and he turned that opportunity into a life of purpose, service, and impact. When you invest in redemption, you do not just change one life. You change countless others.”
A NATIONAL INVITATION
Engineered Tax Services is now directing three audiences into the grant pathway: business owners and entrepreneurs who have never been told what they qualify for; nonprofits, churches, and municipalities ready to professionalize their funding strategy; and second-chance leaders, returning citizens, and community groups that need capital attached to real work rather than another speech.
The standard Gonzalez and Tanner are putting on the record is narrow on purpose. Show up. File the work. Open the door. Measure the outcome by who actually receives the grant, which organization stays open, and which returning citizen gets a path instead of another dead end.
Two leaders. Two histories. One standard. If grant opportunity only works for people who already know how to apply, the system is unfinished. Gonzalez and Tanner are trying to finish it.
ABOUT JULIO GONZALEZ
Julio Gonzalez is Founder, CEO, and Chairman of Engineered Tax Services and the force behind ETS Cares. A national tax reform expert, he founded ETS in 2001 to bring engineering-based tax strategies and grant access to mainstream America.
ABOUT CHARLES “DUKE” TANNER
Charles “Duke” Tanner is Vice President of Community Affairs & Outreach and National Ambassador for Engineered Tax Services. A former professional boxer with an undefeated 19–0 record and author of Duke Got Life, he is a national advocate for second chances, economic empowerment, prison reform, public policy, reentry, and fatherhood. He works with organizations such as the Jack Brewer Foundation, REFORM Alliance, and the Aleph Institute, and is Co-Founder of Legacy Impact Technologies and the Legacy Impact Foundation.
ABOUT ENGINEERED TAX SERVICES
Engineered Tax Services is a national specialty tax and grant advisory firm headquartered in West Palm Beach, Florida. ETS provides grant funding support, cost segregation, research and development tax credits, energy incentives, and related solutions for businesses, accounting firms, nonprofits, and municipalities. Through ETS Cares, the company is formalizing its commitment to service, second chances, and stronger communities
Credits: The KR Media Group.
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Company: Engineered Tax Services
(E) mail: info@engineeredtaxservices.com
Website: https://engineeredtaxservices.com
City: West Palm Beach
State: Florida
Country: USA
