Are You Being Clear?

I don't like the term "full-service." I have used it to describe my firm in the past, but I don't use it anymore.  Why?

I think describing your business as "full-service" is a cop-out these days. The age in which we live now allows for specialization like never before. Being all things to all people is exhausting and not nearly as profitable as being focused on the ideal client and serving them like the expert you are.  
Being full-service used to mean "I'll pump your gas, change your oil, check your tire pressure, and clean your windshield." What happened to those guys?  
Digital, self-serve pumps happened. That little knob you push in your car that cleans your windshield happened. Quick Lube happened. Those businesses specialized and made more money being "special" to their ideal customer.

The point is this....as an entrepreneur of a successful company that's been around the block a few times, you have the ability to make a product/provide a service that is specific to your ideal client/customer and CHANGE THEIR LIVES. Do you take advantage of that power? Most don't, because saying no to someone is scary.  
And let's face it....to specialize, you have to say no to others in order to say yes to the right type of work. 

When you're starting out, you can't afford to be niche-focused because you need to eat and pay the bills. But what happens when you've been around and you've experienced success? Do you even realize when you became "successful"?  (Sometimes the creep of success manifests itself in the problems you are having, not the money you are making... but this is another conversation.)  

Full-service implies you'll work for anyone with a pulse and a checkbook. Full-service doesn't make you stand out. You now should know who your ideal clients are, and you should be able to focus on providing profitable, life-changing work for them.  

Explore the freedom of specializing, and re-learn why you started your business in the first place.



Jason Fried talks about his decision to do less in order to do more.  We really enjoyed this video.  If you have 3 1/2 minutes, you probably will to!  Check it out:

http://www.inc.com/jason-fried/inc-live-why-you-should-power-pivot-your-mission.html

No One Understands AMT

Have you ever been asked to explain any of these things?

•  The Holy Trinity
•  The Tooth Fairy
•  Why you only ever see one shoe on the side of the road, and never two?
•  How your Aunt Dottie is always drunk, no matter what time of day it is, and you never see her drink anything?

If you've ever been asked to explain the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) to someone, you see what I’m getting at. I would have an easier time explaining the benefits of waxing to a bear.

When a client is all of a sudden subject to the AMT for the first time, their eyebrows go up and their mouth begins to form the words “What the hell…”. I can see it coming…that incredulous tone bordering on defensive that signals I have some explaining to do and quick. As though I handed them a tax return prepared in Latin and have asked them to recite it an audience.  And I don’t blame them. AMT is difficult to understand, and difficult to explain.

So, what is the AMT?

The present AMT was enacted in 1982 (thanks, President Reagan).  Like all magical alternate universes, it wasn’t necessarily created for evil.  But, in order to understand AMT, you must visit the alternate universe much like an alien.  This universe requires you to suspend what you know about regular income taxes and calculate a different tax, an alternative tax, one where some deductions are allowed and some aren't; where you make money and pay taxes, but like the portkey in Harry Potter, a seeming ordinary and innocuous event transports you to a magical and alternate universe, where you could owe more tax. In the regular universe, there are deductions that one can take.  In the AMT universe, where Voldemort and IRS live, some of those deductions vanish.  POOF!

The two common disallowed deductions that impact our clients when assessing taxes in the land of AMT are:

•  state income taxes paid

•  miscellaneous itemized deductions.  

For regular universe income taxes, these are great deductions. In the land of AMT, they don’t exist. So, when you add those deductions back to your taxable income, along with other required calculations (remember that portkey), turn your head to the left and spit in the air, then assess the flat tax rate of 26% or 28%, if your tax under AMT is higher you must pay it. If not, then you pay your regular income tax. 

But, how did I get to the land of AMT?
Most people are under the assumption that if they make a lot of money, they will be subject to AMT. Not true. It’s funny that AMT was created to level the playing field between the higher income earners and average income earners, but it only succeeded (in my opinion) in subjecting more average income earners to a higher level of tax. As with every road that Congress paves, hell was involved, as were good intentions. So, income is only a small part of how you end up in the land of AMT. 
You don't find AMT. You don't plan a vacation to AMT. You end up there, like that bar you end up visiting at 1am. A series of situations occurred that lead to AMT. 

The AMT form instructions are 14 pages long. FOURTEEN PAGES OF IRS-SPEAK. Harry Potter is 7 books, and it is far easier to explain. This blog post wasn't intended to tell you how to avoid AMT. It's tricky, it is everywhere and nowhere at the same time. It wasn't even a good attempt at explaining AMT.
This blog post was written to increase your awareness of AMT, and also let you know that we can meet to discuss if and how AMT impacts you.

So, bring your abacus, your Latin-to-English dictionary, and a shot glass and we’ll discuss it further. Try to avoid portkeys on your way.

Is Tax Avoidance Really a Strategy?

I know…I know. Some of you are already raising your eyebrows. Let me be clear about something. I didn’t reference “tax evasion.” I referenced tax avoidance. There is a difference, and it’s not 10-25 years.

Every business owner wants to avoid taxes, but maximize profit at the same time. Sounds easy enough, right? Sure. And we will meet on my private yacht to discuss how to do this.

I recently worked with a client who was interested in selling an expensive business vehicle to a family member who was NOT involved in the business. When we met to discuss the decision, I casually mentioned that the sale was going to result in income to him. 

“But why should I have any income on the sale?  I am planning to pretty much give this truck to him.” (Client, annoyed)

“I think that’s honorable, but you can’t do that.  You can’t just sell this truck that would appraise for $25k to your family member for $10 and avoid the gain.  You’ll record the sale at FMV.  And remember when we fully depreciated the truck a few years ago to avoid taxes?  Yeah, all of that depreciation comes back and guess what?  It’s not capital gain.  It’s ordinary income.”

“But I still owe $20k on the loan.  I won’t have any money after I pay those taxes and the loan balance.” (Client, more annoyed)

“That is absolutely correct.” (Me, hesitant)

“I want my money back.”

He didn’t actually say that last line, but I know he was thinking it.  

The fact is that most clients looked at the accelerated depreciation rules we had in place over the last 13 years as license to buy assets, finance them to the hilt, avoid taxes, and disregard the tax implications of selling them. It’s a pretty good gig, until you realize the idea only works until you sell the assets.

It’s hard to advise a client to pay some tax to avoid more pain later, but I think we are not doing our job if we don’t at least raise the issue. The fact is that while you can certainly avoid taxes in a perfectly legal manner by rapidly depreciating qualifying asset purchases, that decision comes home to roost when you consider selling them. We take for granted that clients can see the future as well as we can, and while we work for some of the smartest clients around, it’s our job to analyze the transaction as it stands now and as it may stand later. As an IRS agent told me the other day, these difficult conversations are why we get paid the big bucks.

Raise your hands if you think your tax rates will be less in 5 years than they are right now. Exactly as I thought…there’s only one of you.  So, those generous depreciation rules we had in place from 2000-2014 were just that. They were generous, for a time. Yes, we used the rules to reduce taxes in the short-term, only to potentially expose the client to a gain they didn't expect on the back-end. Legal tax-avoidance at its best, but swallowing the tax on the gain when those assets are sold is a difficult task.

Don’t let depreciation cause you heartburn. The most powerful antacid can’t cut that pain.

Who Doesn’t Like a Refund?

Imagine that you’re walking down the street, and you see a hat on the ground.  You are curious and you pick up the hat, to find a stack of cash underneath it.  There’s no penalty for keeping it, it’s just free money.  You keep it, and you’re happy.

Imagine instead that you went to that hat every day for a year and placed a dollar underneath it.  No one but you knew the location of the hat, so there was no danger of someone stealing the money.  But every day, you stopped and placed $1 underneath the hat as opposed to taking the money home with you, or buying groceries.  On April 15, you stop at the hat each year and take your $365. 

Are you still happy? Or do you feel as though the money was yours all along, but you just let the hat guard it for a year at 0% interest and 100% opportunity cost?

Yeah, that’s how tax refunds work for most people.

I know that there are circumstances that create refunds for taxpayers, and those little added bonuses are nice and unexpected. Your child is in college, and you are due a refund because of the American Opportunity Tax Credit, for instance.  Or you make about $75k as a family and you receive the tax credit for participating in a pension plan at your work.  You didn’t expect them, but they happened.  Those are refunds granted to you by the IRS not because you paid those taxes up front, but because you made other decisions.

If you’re the kind of person who gets those “hat refunds” and you want to begin holding onto your own money, this is your invitation to do something different.  Our clients who work with us throughout the year often ask us to help them forecast their tax liabilities so they can make changes to their exemptions and take more of their paycheck home each pay period.  I love doing that.  I worked with a client last year who always received about $18k each year in refunds.  This year, he owed about $1k in taxes, but guess what?  He was able to utilize the $18k throughout the year rather than waiting for a large chunk in April.  I was proud of him.

If this appeals to you, what are you waiting for?  Get in here.