The No. 1 Mistake People Make When Dealing With the IRS

If you get a tax notice from the IRS, don’t put your head in the sand. Instead, call your tax advisor or a tax resolution specialist.
Click here for a FREE tax relief consultation
Check out our FREE tax resource library 

Dealing with the IRS is usually a scary subject for most people. If they receive a piece of mail from the IRS, they might look at it a while before opening the envelope...if they open the envelope at all. They don’t want to know what’s inside because it’s almost always bad news. They know they owe the IRS and think that if they just don’t open the envelope, the problem will go away! This is the No. 1 problem people have when dealing with the IRS: putting your head in the sand. This is no good, and it will only result in another piece of mail from the IRS in about a month, right about the time you forget about the first letter. Perhaps you finally open the second envelope and find that you owe the IRS a ton of money. You have no idea what to do, so you call the phone number on the tax notice and get put on hold for about an hour before you talk to someone. The IRS agent then talks to you about how you messed up and didn’t report some income, or how you’re getting audited and better pay up or be prepared to defend yourself. They tell you to pay now or you will have more penalties and interest or you could get your bank accounts and property levied. You might not know what “levied” means, but you know that it’s a very bad thing and understand that you could lose your property to the IRS. 

If you have a problem with the IRS, it won’t go away if you just stick your head in the sand.

We have all heard stories about the big bad IRS taking people’s bank accounts and homes. So what do most people do? They panic and hang up, of course. The problem will go away if they ignore it. Again, this is not good. What should you do instead? If you receive a tax notice from the IRS, open it immediately. If it’s not just a little amount for interest, call your tax advisor or a tax resolutions specialist. We are equipped to work with the IRS for you. By the way, if you ever receive a call from the IRS, whether it’s from a human or it’s a robocall, immediately hang up. This is a scam. The IRS never calls—they only send mail through the US post office. Additionally, you should sometimes beware of those mail items, because they can occasionally be scams too. It’s a scary world, so call your tax resolutions specialist if in doubt. If you have any type of tax problem, you should protect yourself by hiring a qualified tax problem specialist. We’re experienced in negotiating with the IRS to get you the lowest amount that you have to pay. If you have any other questions about this topic, you have a tax problem, or you know someone with a tax problem, don’t hesitate to reach out to me. I look forward to hearing from you.

You Should Know About These Serious Tax Problems

You don’t want to run into trouble with the IRS. Here’s what will happen if you do.
Click here for a FREE tax relief consultation
Check out our FREE tax resource library

There are a number of serious tax problems you can fall victim to out there, and each one has different solutions.The IRS takes these seriously and if you simply ignore them, the consequences get increasingly harsh over time. These consequences include:

• The IRS can take up to 80% of your paychecks until the debt is paid.
• Penalties can grow to 25% and beyond on the original tax.
• Interest will add up every day until paid.
• Tax liens filed against you can stop you from buying a house or borrowing money.
• Your bank accounts, retirement plan accounts can get levied by the IRS.
• Civil penalties can be levied if you are an owner or officer of a business that does not pay their payroll taxes.

“

If you don’t take action now, your problems will only get worse.

”

Once you get a notice of taxes due, they usually have some penalties and interest already calculated, but this is just the beginning. If you don’t take action now, your problems with the IRS will only get worse! In my next few posts, I will discuss each of the common tax problems and how to deal with them so stay tuned. If you know you have tax problems, you should protect yourself by hiring a qualified tax problem specialist. We have experience in strategies in negotiating with the IRS to get you the lowest amount that you have to pay. If you know someone with a tax problem, don’t hesitate to reach out. You can give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Let Us Help You With the Parts of Your Business You Don't Love

Many entrepreneurs find something they love and turn it into a business, but eventually wind up running a business instead of focusing on the thing they loved in the first place. Here's how we can help get you back to doing what you love.

We work closely with many small businesses and find that people have become entrepreneurs by circumstance. After all, not many children say that they want to be an entrepreneur when they grow up.

So how does one become an entrepreneur?

Most of us started working just to make a living. Many of us worked a lot of different jobs because we didn't enjoy what we were doing to make a living, but then we finally found something we really enjoyed—and it paid.

We weren't always the best at these things, but we stuck with them and got better. Before we knew it, we were pretty good at something. Then, we became recognized by the people we worked with as being pretty good. We made progress in pay grade and other areas, and really set out on a career.

Somewhere along the line, however, we found ourselves getting frustrated at the people we worked for. Maybe we didn't like the way they ran their business or how they treated their employees. At some point, we reached a point where we thought, "You know what? I can do this better than these bozos that I'm working for." That's when many of us entrepreneurs decided to go into business for ourselves.

Then, we scraped up a little bit of cash, a ton of courage and opened our own businesses. Sure enough, many of us found that we could do it better than the bozos we used to work for. We expanded our businesses to the point where we needed to hire employees, buy equipment, and do other things to stay on a successful path.

“

Running your business isn't always the same
as doing the thing you loved in the first place.

”

At that point, many of us realized that we were no longer doing what we liked—we were running a business.

Running a painting contractor business is not the same as being a painter. Running a plumbing business is not the same as being a plumber. Eventually, we found that the business forced us to get involved with things we didn't know very much about and weren't very good at, and we spent more and more time away from the things we really like doing.

That's where I can help.

Accounting is generally one of those things that entrepreneurs generally don't like to do. As a recovering accountant, I certainly know how that works. That's why we encourage entrepreneurs to hire people who actually enjoy the parts of the business that you don't like or don't have expertise in. It frees you up to go back to doing what you like best: taking care of your customers, making sure your crews do things right, and doing a good job for your business.

We perform all the services that help you grow to your full potential, and we can do that remotely with online technology and the cloud. We don't have to take up your time and space. We've even approached business on the basis of eliminating their offices completely!

If you have any questions at all about how we can help you grow and increase your business, don't hesitate to call or email us today. We'd love to help!

Where Is All Your Cash?

If you only study your profit and loss statement, you aren't getting
the full picture of your business finances.

“My financial statements show I’m making money, but I don’t have any cash.” We hear this statement all the time from entrepreneurs like yourself. Most assume they should just drastically cut expenses and they’ll be OK. Here’s what you should do instead.

If all you are looking at is the income and expense portions of your financial statement, you are only seeing part of the picture. Your financial statement consists of two parts, the profit and loss and a balance sheet of assets, liabilities, and equity.

The profit and loss portion reports your income and expenses, which all flows into the balance sheet. The balance sheet tracks the changes in the assets, liabilities, and equity. These two separate documents arithmetically prove each other by being in balance. Each is useless without the other. To see the entire picture of your business, you must be able to read and understand both.

Now, where does the cash go? The answer is revealed by the balance sheet. Let’s say that last month you made a profit of $49,000 but your cash went down by $35,000 and you’re feeling broke. What happened?

“

We want you to understand
your company’s full financial picture.

”

Well, the inventory went up by $18,000, you bought a piece of equipment for $13,000 in cash, your receivables went up by $26,000, and your payables went down by $27,000. This is where the cash went. The activity is revealed to you in the balance sheet if you read it or hidden in there if you don’t. That’s where the cash goes to hide.

We aim to teach you how to read the complete financial report on your business. We can also help prepare a simple supplementary piece called “The source and use of cash statement,” which highlights the cash activity for you.

This is just one of the reasons why you need much more than just bookkeeping from an accountant to protect and maximize your business’s performance. You need a qualified, experienced accountant on your team. You worked too hard to not hire the best, you deserve it.

If you have any questions for us at all, don’t hesitate to give us a call or send us an email. We look forward to hearing from you.

How Do You Know If Your Business Is Healthy?

As you will see today, measuring the health of your business is not much different
than measuring your own personal health.

Is your business healthy? How can you determine if it is or not?

The process mimics how you determine your own personal health. When you see your own personal physician for your annual checkup, they start with some basic information. In the medical field, these are called “vital signs.” Your blood pressure, body temperature, height, weight, etc., are captured before the doctor even sees you. The doctor then listens to your heart and lung palpitations and asks you how you feel. Based on this simple process, the doctor determines whether further tests are necessary.

Your business has vital signs that can be measured and monitored, as well. They aren’t physical signs, though—they’re accounting signs produced as a part of the accounting process. Naturally, you have to have accurate and up-to-date information to determine the relative health of your business.

“

Your business has vital signs
that can be measured, too.

”

If we were the ones screening your business through this process, we would then look at some basic measurements. If there are symptoms of underlying issues, we can initiate further tests to identify and treat them. We’d then quickly compare your business ratios to those of your industry and identify areas in need of improvement. We have years and years of experience to propose and implement strategies to make your business healthier.

Our goal is to put you in a position to maximize the potential of your business as well as your own personal development. You’ve worked relentlessly to get to where you are, but hard work can’t be the only strategy you employ to take your business to the next level and beyond. We will help you determine other strategies to reach and exceed your dreams.

If you have any questions about determining the health of your business, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me by phone or email. I’d be happy to help!