March 26, 2020
The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a massive toll on the economy and the way that we conduct business. As many are reeling from the shock of the disease’s immediate impact on small businesses — both owners and their employees — the U.S. Government has put together legislation to attempt to alleviate some of the economic strain. As is the case with most legislation, there is a lot to unpack in the Senate CARES act. I’ve taken the time to comb through some of the language and provisions included in the bill and have identified some of the key points that may impact you, the business owner. Join me as I explain the bill in Financially Simple terms.
June 25, 2019
If you drive a personal vehicle for business use, you can choose to take the standard mileage rate deduction or you can deduct your actual vehicle expenses. Yet, which one is better? As with most things related to taxes, it’s going to depend. Therefore, let’s do an analysis. Which should a business owner choose? Standard mileage vs. actual expenses.
June 21, 2019
For many people, especially business owners, taxes are the primary erosion of your wealth. Taxes are a significant expense you pay from your income. However, the IRS has written an unbelievable book that gives you thousands of ways to reduce your tax liabilities. In fact, Chris Mahan, one of the principals at Mahan and Associates Tax Firm, says that “the Internal Revenue Code is the greatest wealth creation tool currently in the United States.” Sure, the Internal Revenue Code outlines what taxes you must pay. Yet, most of its content shows you ways to avoid paying taxes. So today, I want to dive into the IRC. I want to give you 49 surprising and possible tax write offs for small business owners.
June 18, 2019
In my last article, I talked about ways to reduce your taxable income. Income taxes are one of the costliest expenses business owners must pay, so obviously, you want to reduce them. Well, another tax that affects business owners (or anyone else for that matter) is capital gains tax. This tax is levied on the net gains you make when you sell capital assets like stocks, businesses, land, works of art, etc. However, there are ways to minimize capital gains taxes to get a 0% tax rate.
June 13, 2019
There’s perhaps no expense more frustrating to business owners than income taxes – the amount of money you pay to the IRS. I receive more calls from business owners asking me how to minimize their tax bill than anything else. Therefore, I want to go over 19 different strategies, or ways, to reduce taxable income for the business owner.
June 11, 2019
Not surprisingly, people want to make sure they have the income to last throughout their lifetimes. If you plan well, you could theoretically retire at age 55, 50, 45 or sooner. Maybe you’ve sold your business for profit, you’ve maximized your retirement account contributions for years, you’ve invested in non-qualified accounts, and you own multiple rental properties. At that point, you could take a blended distribution from various accounts and investments so that your money continues to grow tax-sensitive to you. However, if you take distributions from your retirement accounts before age 59 ½, many times, you will owe the IRS a 10% early distribution penalty. Sometimes, though, the government will waive that 10% early retirement penalty if certain conditions are met.