“The only things that are certain are death and taxes.” We’ve all heard that, right?
Though that oft-quoted line holds more truth than we may be willing to admit, it reinforces a fatalistic view of tax filings as a necessary evil. Reading a handful of blog posts may not make you feel giddy about doing your taxes, but with that said, we’d like to help you see taxes as an opportunity for business growth—one you might be missing out on.
Tax Returns as an Opportunity
No matter how much lipstick we put on the pig, bookkeeping and preparing tax returns can be tedious work. But that work, is a necessity because it produces information and insights that you can use to create more opportunities.
Finding such opportunities is fun for us. Once we have all this information in front of us, we can use it to deliver the real “value added” services, including planning, projections, and business consulting.
That’s why we don’t want clients to view tax returns as a long form that must be filed every year. No, that attitude causes many people to miss out on growth and development.
This is what we want you to understand: Smart tax preparation can put your business in a better financial position.
Better Financial Position
One of the best things that we have to offer as CPAs is knowledge of the tax code inside and out. We gain this knowledge over the course of many years, and this experience delivers more value than any software. Software can show you boxes to check, but software cannot help you find the best structure for your tax returns and improve your tax position.
Once we have all the needed information, we hunt for ways to decrease your tax burden:
- Write offs
- Tax credits
- Business costs, investments, or losses
- Paying student loan interest or mortgage interest
- Buying into retirement funds or HSAs
- Charitable giving and gifts in kind
- Health insurance premiums
If you aren’t maximizing on these opportunities, you’re keeping yourself at a disadvantage. You’re more taxes than you are required to. Knowing and using these opportunities would not only put you in a better tax position but also lead to more money in your accounts rather than Uncle Sam’s.
Better Tax position = More money
Photo Credit: Paloma Hennessy via Unsplash
What does all of this mean though for you?
It’s simple: more money.
The less money you pay in taxes, the more money you have to spend however you want.
By avoiding payment of unnecessary taxes you can free up potentially significant amounts of money to spend on yourself or on your business. (Remember: tax avoidance = wise financial stewardship; tax evasion = jail time.)
When you pay less money in taxes, more of your gross revenue or net income stays liquid. You can turn it into profit, use it for operating costs, or make capital investments. This is the high-level view we want to help clients achieve: Effective and efficient bookkeeping and tax preparation present opportunities.
Tax Professionals as Business Guides
We’ve talked before about the hidden costs of DIY tax preparation. One of the biggest hidden costs is not minimizing tax burdens and paying extra in taxes.
At Culpepper CPA we don’t want to just be the people who manage your books and prepare your taxes for you. Though we are happy to do that, we also want to be guides to help you navigate the complexities of the tax code. CPAs that are worth their salt will do more than just your taxes; they will make your success and business growth their main goal and help you utilize your tax filings to serve that end.
Culpepper CPA firm was not founded to just be another firm of tax preparers and bookkeepers. Rather, we sought to establish a firm that provides those services so that we would also have the tools and information at our disposal needed to give good advice. You can’t have one without the other, right?
Tax filings are an opportunity. Be sure you make the most of yours this year.
