There’s one thing that some people fear more than anything else – a trip to the dentist. It’s the fear of what you could find out and the awful feeling of having your teeth scraped or worse learning you might need a tooth pulled or a dreaded root canal. At the same time we’re all conditioned to believe that seeing your dentist is a twice a year ordeal as proper dental care requires two yearly cleanings. We also dread having our dentist ask us “do you brush twice a day?” or my favorite “do you floss?”. Most of us know the answer to both is “No” but we lie hoping the dentist won’t find out.

Now I know what you’re thinking – what does this have to do with taxes? The answer: everything!

Unlike your dentist most people are conditioned to see their tax professional just once a year. Some will even go years without seeing us with the hope that they won’t need that major tax procedure. I liken it to those who avoid the dentist for years because they still have all of their teeth. The difference between us and your dentist though is there’s no physical pain and our job is to do quite the opposite: make you feel as little pain as possible. At the same time if we are doing our job right we make sure you keep more of your hard earned money. The dentist on the other hand needs to make sure you keep your teeth and sometimes doing this requires you paying a lot more money for their services, not once will a dentist tell you “hey I know a way you can keep more of your hard earned money.”

With that said you still pay us for what we do and sometimes you pay us more than what you would pay your dentist for even the most extreme procedure(think full set of Hollywood quality veneers). The difference being that those celebrity quality veneers will only make you FEEL like a million bucks while a comprehensive “Hollywood quality” tax planning strategy could actually NET you a million bucks in money that would have otherwise been wasted on taxes. Extreme example, I know, but you get the point. Even a basic cleaning costs over $100 and most employer sponsored dental insurance plans will cover this, however, if you look at your premiums you usually pay more than that over the course of the year for the hope that you are covered for the major procedure that could inevitably come up. I once looked at that and saw that the maximum amount covered was about $1500, hardly enough for a big procedure such as a crown, bridge or root canal, all of which cost in the $3000+ range depending on the dentist you see.

Some of the pain of going to the dentist can be seen in reasons you avoid coming to us, your tax professional- here’s 2 examples similar to dental pain(cavities and root canals):

Cavities- those things you can see but don’t decide to do anything about.

This could be something as simple as running a business and not knowing how it is set up or having a retirement plan and not knowing if you have an IRA or 401(k).

Root canal – the deeper issues that don’t manifest itself until there is pain and you need a costly procedure.

This would be the business setup as an improper structure and costing you more in taxes than it saves or a retirement account that is infested with hidden taxes you were unaware of when you opened it.

In conclusion, I hope that you realize that we’re out to help you and at the very least you need to treat us like your dentist and plan for twice a year checkups if not once a quarter. Just like the dentist those checkups are necessary and usually come with a small upfront cost, but unlike the dentist our goal is to give you tax savings or just piece of mind that you’re protected from the dreaded IRS. So don’t wait until the equivalent of a cavity or root canal, get ahead of the game, keep your tax situation pearly white and feel like a million bucks.

Who knows, we might even save you that amount of money so you can spend it on what you really want even if it’s not a Hollywood set of veneers maybe it is a dream family vacation, that hot new sports car you’ve been eying or just a sizable donation to your favorite charitable cause(which would also be a nice tax deduction as well). Bottom line, please plan to see us more than once a year and you won’t regret it.

There’s never a perfect time to start your own business. One of our biggest obstacles is knowing all the legal red tape in actually starting one. In my professional experience I see this as the #1 reason that prevents 1000’s of would be entrepreneurs from taking the leap.

I’d like to start this discussion with a quote by Michael Corleone from The Godfather, Part II: “Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer”. Now I don’t necessarily consider the IRS the enemy, however, remaining compliant with their strict guidelines is a daily challenge that I deal with in my business.

Add to that all the free resources they provide, I feelt they make it easier for people to do MY business themselves. That business would be saving you money on your taxes and doing it legally.

As a business owner the most important question you need to ask is “What is MY business?” and you need to find the answer to that before you can succeed.

With that said, much like this website itself, I know through the power of Google I can learn everything I need to design my own website. I also know other facets of web design such as updates, maintenance and optimization for search engine traffic. In fact, I even did that when I started. Why do I mention this? Because that is not MY business. I took time and effort to do something that an expert should have been doing which also took time away from my business, saving people money on their taxes and doing it legally.

Now don’t get me wrong, without a website marketing my services and people knowing who I am I would not be able to do my business. I also learned something valuable from going to countless business networking events. There I heard people go on and on about how to network and build relationships. This is also vital to building a successful business. I tried to do it myself. This again took time away from my business, saving people money on their taxes and doing it legally.

Do you see a common theme here?

In addition to the fear of the legal unknowns you’ve probably had other reservations. Common ones are “it’s too expensive to start a business”, “what if nobody wants to buy what I’m selling”, “will people try to take advantage of me”, etc, etc.

Bottom line: you WANT to start a business. You HAVE the resources out there to do everything yourself(and can probably save money in the process), however, does this take away from your business’ key objective? To serve a need!

Now this need can come in many shapes and sizes from the most noble “I want to start a non-profit to help the most dire in need” to the most vain “I want to use the vices/insecurities of others as a means to get the money I need to buy a fancy house/car/boat/airplane”.

Whatever that need is unless YOUR business IS saving people money on taxes and doing it legally then having an expert whose success or failure depends on “saving YOU money on taxes and doing it LEGALLY” is worth the minimal investment in their services.

If you’re worried about the cost of a good income tax professional here is a free resource to get you started: Starting A Business This Summer? Here’s Five Tax Tips. After checking it out and you’re ready to start a business or even grow an existing one come talk to us so we can make sure you save money on taxes and do it legally:

Also, here’s a great video from the IRS regarding their free resources:

Now in closing, back to why I used that quote above: Professional Ethics!

The code of ethics I adhere to as someone who saves people money on taxes and does it legally requires: “Enrolled agents, enrolled retirement plan agents, or registered tax return preparers, in describing their professional designation, may not utilize the term “certified” or imply an employer/employee relationship with the Internal Revenue Service.”

This means that even though my work depends on the IRS and complying with their rules and regulations, I am in no way in an “employer/employee relationship” with them. As such I need to see them as Michael Corleone saw the rival families. He was good at his business(organized crime), however, I can assure you while I can take a valuable lesson in his business strategy I would go out of business very quickly if I tried to do HIS business especially since it’s the antithesis of mine.

So I ask one last time, what is YOUR business?

When you’re ready to get the answers please call us at 623-240-9545 or shoot us an email through our Contact page(please note I have a service that filters any spam and I know a solicitation when I see it so it goes straight to the delete box. If this is your intention in contacting us please don’t waste your time or mine).

Newsflash “we are available YEAR-ROUND to help with your taxes”. Please don’t limit yourself to thinking we are only here from January through April to assist with your tax pain. In the past we have focused on compliance and we have done an exceptional job given our year over year growth. That said, we feel that compliance and complacency is not enough. The tax laws are always changing and as part of our commitment to you, our loyal clients, we will be reaching out to you in the coming weeks.

What’s the plan?

Did you owe or get a refund last year?

If you owed, it might be as simple as adjusting your with-holdings(a little more from your checks means a lot less come tax time). If you’re used to getting a refund we can also adjust with-holdings so you have more of your money to spend or save throughout the year. Did you know your tax refund is essentially an interest-free loan to the US government?

Do you own a business or are you planning to start one?

This is where we can really flex our “tax muscles” and lift you above your tax pain! With a full-on tax plan we can assure you that you will keep more of your hard earned money to spend as you please(hopefully to reinvest in the growth of your business though) versus again giving the US government more of your hard earned money than they need.

Are you satisfied with our services?

If so, the best way to say thanks is to let your friends know. You can be THEIR hero! What better way to help your friends and family than sharing your greatest resource, your tax pro who helps you keep more of your hard-earned money so you can do the things you love with the people that matter. Wouldn’t it be great if everyone you cared about could do the same?

Was there something we did not provide?

We know nobody’s perfect and the best of us succeed in our adjustments to adversity. We thank you for the opportunity to have served you in the past and want to do what we can to make things right. At the same time our service is not for everyone and if you decide for any reason that we’re not a good fit we can help you to find the right tax professional for your particular needs.

So like the song goes “Get ready, ’cause here we come!” Looking forward to knocking out your tax problems and helping you to move forward in your success and prosperity!