Asking Accountants Their Favorite Tax Write Offs

what was the experience like of you getting your CPA license what is a vice president of an auditing department for a big company mate so how did you climb the ranks to become a senior tax director what are some of your favorite tech strategies or tax write-offs for people to take advantage of what big mistakes do you see small business owners making with their finances do you have any advice on how small business owners can get Grant do you think the rich and wealthy should pay more in taxes what's going on guys Sean here and today I made a holiday party for accountants here in Atlanta Georgia and I have the privilege to be able to interview some accountants to ask them questions like how they got started in their career their favorite tax write-offs if they think the rich should pay more in taxes and any tips they have for small business owners let's get into it so what's your name and what do you do my name is Peter Hicks I'm a CPA I'm a senior tax analyst how much money does a senior tax analyst typically make it depends on the years of experience right now I'm I'm I've been doing it for about five years public in about three years with industry so I'm in the low six figures what would you say is the best thing about being a tax accountant people always ask me tax questions when you say you're an auditor people will say you know you can say oh I'm a corporate auditor and people say I don't want to get out of it all here is artists when you say you're a tax counter I do corporate taxes but people say well I heard that I can deduct this you know can you still do that so it always leads to interesting conversations people always want to ask me about Tax Strategies new tax laws it's it's it's pretty Progressive in that you know every few years you have major changes to the tax code and so keep showing your toes what would you say are some of your favorite tax write-offs or maybe your favorite Tax Strategies it depends on the industry but I'm working on the manufacturing space and the bonus depreciation 2022 is the final year for 100 and then it's going to start to phase next year will be 80 60 20 so unless that or 40 20. what about going forward with bonus depreciation do you still think it's going to be worth it even at 80 oh definitely I think anytime you have an opportunity where you're able to take a significant write-off early even though for a book you're keeping a different amount if you sell it you might have a recoup I think there's definitely benefits to it especially for small business owners starting out it gives them the extra deductions and even if they take a loss they can use that loss against future income do you think the rich should pay more in taxes I don't necessarily think that they should pay more I feel like everyone should pay their share you know and I don't think think that someone should be penalized for their success and I think that the tax laws are built with loopholes and if you're able to take advantage of the loopholes then as long as you're avoiding the tax and not trying to you know tax to do the tax scheme I don't see anything wrong with it yeah as long as you're avoiding tax fraud or evasion or anything like that then you know take advantage of the tax code a tax code can be your friend especially as a small business owner and just look at the things that are available to us and not feel like that's something for somebody else you know do the research if you can't do the research sometimes it's beneficial to pay somebody that can do the research for you because it may give you a tax benefit it may give you an income stream that you may not have known about and so you have to stop being afraid to to pursue it so many people on our channel are like what's the best strategy what's the best entity and stuff like that and I always tell them like hey focus on growing your business first making income having profits and then worried about taxes but typically when you're a new business you should be reinvesting your income anyway and so that gives you some time to build a bigger asset and then later on pay yourself what's your name and what do you do Taisha Lewis and I'm an accounting manager and how long have you been an accounting manager I've been an accounting manager almost two years but I've been doing accounting for over almost 10 years what made you get started in accounting I was good at it in college and it was right around the time we were having a recession and a lot of jobs weren't hiring and I realized all the accounting firms were hiring so I I decided that would be my major and it made sense for me to follow through and you know since I was good at it why not have my career in accounting that's right yeah one thing about accounting and taxes is that is always going to be needed and so yeah it's a great career field to pursue are you licensed do you have a CPA or anything like that yes I'm a licensed CPA what was the experience like of you getting your CPA license it definitely was a lot of hard work I did it while I was in grad school so before I started working full time so the year in between graduating undergrad and starting full-time in public accounting I studied and I passed all four parts of the CPA exams and then after yes on the first try I was happy about that and then after a year of experience I was able to apply for my license what's your favorite thing about accounting okay favorite thing about accounting um the order of it like some areas of it are like black and white so if I know there's a variance in an account I know if I continue looking at it I'll find it sooner or later so just if there's a problem I can solve it I like Problem Solver and I like clear-cut outcomes no matter what the situation is you know what the answer is do you think the rich and wealthy should pay more in taxes yeah they should until I'm rich and wealthy wait a minute then my answer might change but yes I do yeah help us out a little bit rich and wealthy we'll take some income as someone who's in financial accounting what advice would you get for a small business owner about their finances don't do it yourself hire a professional profession they're not they're not informational the full picture so I think the best bet is to hire professional if you want your finances to be accurate good advice hey while you're at it click the first link down in the description below learn more about how we can help all right so what's your name and what do you do Brian Pauling I am a consultant for power companies primarily in the compliance realm and do you have any certifications a number of certifications so I'm a certified public accountant a certified compliance and ethics professional a chartered Global Management accountant a certified diversity professional and a certified fraud examiner I'm just imagining your home office has plats everywhere with you in the background there are a few on the wall what would you say is the value of having these certifications and what steps did you take to get each one sure so I think part of the value of having the certifications is that it helps individuals know that you have a level of expertise and a level of knowledge about what you do and so so each step of my career I needed to be able to demonstrate that I had a level of knowledge above just what I'll term your average Joe and so that's what created me going after the different certifications how much time and effort have you put into getting all of these different certifications for your career it takes a lot of time a lot of commitment the I for me the hardest one was the CPA you know you've got business law you've got accounting you've got all these different components to to the exactly audit tax Etc that you need to know but after that the others kind of build on that being able to demonstrate your knowledge is of course great but a lot of people watching are going to want to know like how much money has getting these certifications actually benefited you getting the certifications puts you that next level up above the person who may also be going for either that same Precision that same job the same client Etc you know I've been at a at a point where I have charged three thousand dollars for a day of service and I've been at a point where I've charged two three hundred dollars an hour for you know just uh doing something what some people may consider very difficult but for me it's just another day in the park all right so what I'm hearing from you is that these certifications help you to level up in your career get more promotions hints make more money guys and as well as you yourself as an individual being so experienced and qualified you can demand higher rates for what you do absolutely do you have any favorite tech strategies or write-offs that you like to tell small business owners about or maybe do personally tax write-offs I think the the biggest component for your tax write-offs particularly if you're a small business is making sure that you are accounting for all of your expenses so whether that's travel whether it's mileage ensuring that if it's a meal that you're having with a client you know all of those making sure you're tracking all of those expenses because quite frankly a lot of people you know they do the work but they don't document it and if you're a small business a lot of trips can be business trips as long as you make sure that you have some conversations about business and that you're you know working during that trip part of that trip can be a write-off and that's why I'm always encouraged Persian people to start a business start a side hustle because with that you can write off almost anything but even more importantly able to build your income and maybe live a better life all right so what's your name and what do you do I am taizelle I am the senior tax director can you share with everybody what an average salary might be for that type of role yeah so you can expect to make over a quarter million dollars of a year so how did you climb the ranks to become a senior tax director being very deliberate about what I wanted to do in my career and asking for those experiences and opportunities and I got those opportunities by delivering every time and I was thankful to be in a culture in a space where I was able to do that and have the opportunities are you a licensed as a CPA or EA or anything like that yes I'm a licensed CPA in the state of Georgia fantastic what are some of your favorite tax write-offs and strategies I would say real estate depreciation related it is definitely one of the top so if you could invest in real estate as a passive investor or even if you're non-passive but you have your real estate license that's something you can easily do within a year not trying to minimize that but definitely you could do that and then you can take that as a passive loss and that depreciation is always available to reduce your tax liability so that's one of the things that I definitely encourage have you heard that bonus depreciation at 100 is going to be ending at 2022 and then in 203 is going to decline to 80 percent if so do you think 80 is still worth it so yes I've heard that so to answer that and yes I think there's a tax play there there's a black snap tax opportunity planning opportunity whereby your first cost may look a little different your valuation especially if you're doing an internet company so where you're selling a Mustang or company um and then you can ensure that the valuation is at the place where you can depreciate where that's favorable to you considering the rule change absolutely so it's a really good place to revalue your assets so do you think the rich and wealthy should pay more in taxes of course Biden has been proposing a wealthy tax what do you think about that so from a personal standpoint I feel like you are a you're blessed to be a blessing right and so that means I contributed at a greater dollar amount than others so that I can provide for health care or just Necessities as in you know police coming out or an ambulance or the firefighters I think that's I'm all for that and it doesn't hurt me and all to contribute to my community the more safe we are the better we all are and so I absolutely believe in we contribute to a greater good and it should not be based on dollars it should be based on percentage and that benefits everyone in our community and we're safer and we're better when everybody has an equitable share and opportunity absolutely yeah that makes a lot of sense do you have any tips for small business owners around their business finances absolutely I would say State diligence stay accurate stay professional and ensure that you're up on latest legislation and any litigations that are favorable to your position now really quick before I move on I just want to share that if you do need help with tax planning or tax preparation then my company may be able to help you out make sure you click the first link down in the description below to learn a little bit more about how we can help you also so I want you to keep in mind that I'm approaching complete strangers okay these people don't know who I am they don't know what I do all they know is a stranger is approaching them asking them very specific business questions and putting them on the spot and so I asked you to keep that in mind and have a little bit of Grace and a little bit of patience with some of the responses because I'm just super appreciative that people are willing to do the interview in the first place I mean you guys don't see it but behind the scenes I'm getting rejected a lot of people saying no I'm camera shy or no I don't want to put my business on YouTube and so when I do get someone I'm super thankful for it so if you appreciate the energy and effort I put into trying to find people to interview please do me a favor and like this video for the YouTube algorithm and with that let's go ahead and find our next person to interview what's your name and what do you do so my name is Joshua Akins I'm a auditor and how long have you been an auditor so I've been an auditor for going on five years now on average how much does a corporate auditor make I work in public accounting and so for a public accounting auditor I would say without the CPA 85 to 95 with the CPA easily 105 to 115 depending on your experience from a senior level manager level easily six figure senior manager level easy High six figure partner level it goes up from there and are you a CPA I'm not a CPA I'm currently pursuing gotcha I'm sitting right now yeah I know that's a journey Vanessa struggle that's quite the journey and a sacrifice and everything Associated you should be able to pass the auditing part pretty easily yeah okay so what's your favorite thing about being an auditor so my favorite thing about being an auditor is I specifically work with non-profits and Healthcare entities and so it's important to me with my gift to honor the communities and so there are a lot of non-profits out here that cater to minorities and cater to the just the betterment of the community I think for my my experience I look at well how do you get that 250 000 or million dollar Grant and that is a conversation around compliance sounds like you're doing some meaningful work and making an impact are you seeing a lot of grant funding go out do you have any advice on how small business owners can get great small for-profit business owners don't really qualify for the types of grants that I audit but from a strategy perspective it is possible for a for-profit business to have a non-profit arm that is technically a 501c3 that can then take grants and be funded by The for-profit Entity as a tax write-off that's a really Advanced and amazing tax strategy you just quickly glanced over what's the craziest thing you've seen in the audit I would say if you look at it strategically there is a commitment to donate strategically to decrease your tax liability right and so from my end from the non-profit and what I see is there is not a sensitivity to putting on a non-profit hat good advice and I think a lot of people should know that like non-profits are tax exempt they don't pay any taxes so the IRS is always looking to get their fair share and so they put a extra eye or more scrutinizing eye on a non-profit organizations to make sure everything is balanced correctly yeah so okay have you heard the news about the IRS hiring 87 000 new agents and if so how do you think that's going to impact small business owners a lot of business owners got ppep loans and a lot of loans that maybe were not acquired in the most ethical Manner and so there were essentially billions of dollars that are misallocated and so if I were a business owner now there's there should be a very intentional conversation around the commitment to compliance I had a business that was actually trying to get the PPP loan and at the time the government was running out of funding at the first round went by really quick and it was frustrating for myself and many other entrepreneurs who actually needed the money because they couldn't get it due to other people who didn't have real entities kind of hacking and scamming the system so what you said is very very important that's a big reason why the IRS is hiring that's unfortunate so what's your name and what do you do okay my name is Twan Leonard and I'm an accountant and I do contract work for local governments very cool how long have you been doing that well about 30 years what made you make this switch from public accounting to the private firm public account in my background was local governments and so when I left to take care of my son I stayed home probably for about two and a half years and then I was offered an opportunity to go do contract work for one of the local governments that was one of my clients so wait you're self-employed yes yes I'm self-employed yes okay okay that changes the whole dynamic okay very cool so you do accounting for governments is that right yes I do accounting for local government so I do their daily um accounting work Geo work I prepare the um work for the audits when the external Auditors come in and then I do the financial statements we get asked a lot of time on this channel how do you get government contracts can you share any advice or tips on that and I guess my situation was a little unique it was just a blessing that kind of just fell into my lap because it was a lady that I used to work for at the accounting firm and her situation was similar she had a daughter that was getting ready to go to school and so she stayed at home with her did the contract work for about four and a half years until she got ready for school age and I said like if you ever you know want to stop doing this job please call me because this is perfect whether it is your network is sometimes your network so that's what happened to your case definitely yeah yeah do you think they're rich in the wealthies should pay more in taxes of course Biden has his wealthy tax going on what do you think I think everybody should pay their fair share yeah so so whatever that is you don't like it but everybody has to do it so yeah people complain all day at the end of the day we all have to pay our taxes so and the rich and wealthy pushed back a lot because of course like you know they're spending a lot of money in taxes and of course they can afford that hire the best accountants who find all the legal loopholes but at the same time there's a lack of trust with the government so they want to make sure they're investing in the right things and they prefer to you know just pay their fair share being the same progressive tax system as everyone else what advice or money tips would you give for small business owners I would say hire an accountant at the beginning because people come to me after they've kind of already kind of messed stuff up and they're coming can you help me can you help me I'm working with a client right now I can help you yes I can help you but if you start out if you're a small business owner may not have the budget to hire somebody right off but it's almost it's cheaper in the end if you just have an accountant hired at the beginning to kind of help you get it straight I think a lot of people they just ducking their head in the sand they're not trying to like pay attention to their accounting and their finances until they get that IRS letter or until they get that tax bill and they're like oh my gosh this is a lot more than I expected and so it's not only important to have an accountant but have the right accountant because there are some people that will do some shady things as well and then one other thing too just what's the last tip tip when they say you have an extension a lot of people get that confused so April 15 is the deadline if you have an extension for six months that's not giving an extension to pay so let's say you owed 450 at April 15 and you're like oh I'm gonna pay it I'll put up and pay it okay like when it's October November that turns into a thousand dollars easily because there are crew in the interest in the penalties on that so just pay the 400 in April and be done with it what's your name and what do you do my name is Benjamin Shaw I'm currently vice president of audit holy smokes I did not expect you to say that at all okay uh how long have you been an auditor pretty much all of my career I spent the first five years not being an auditor but the rest of it is pretty much been consistently an auditor how did you advance all the way up to becoming a vice president of a big Corporation I will tell you hard work has always been something I live by being one of those people who got a gold and grind and accounting is a place where you go to work but I'll also tell you learning how to network and meeting great people being a part of Navajo just something I've been a part of pretty much my entire adult life it's kind of always been the way to get it but I always have always have other networks former co-workers fraternity stuff I always have people to network with which makes the difference in that process the ballpark what is the vice president of the auditing department for a big company mate what I would tell you is if you're trying to get to a plus 120 plus 150 plus 175 type salary it takes time it takes time and you got it you gotta you got to put in your time to get there what is your favorite part about being an auditor when I was young I would say it was it was seeing the world like I got an opportunity to go to so many places and spend time everywhere and gain a lot of experience and exposure now it's the managing of people I'm assisting young people with their careers helping young people get opportunities within my company also exposing them to ways to be successful outside of my company mentoring people is always something I try to do every every time I get a chance have you heard about the IRS hiring 87 000 new agents how do you think that's going to impact small business and audits going forward I think people have to be more aware of what's going on but I also tell you that probably more llc's now than ever I would better say that there is going to be some crack now but again they're going to start people with the most money small businesses with little money that they're going to get to them eventually can clarify what is a little bit amount of money what is a big amount of money I would say anybody with net income of 250. I wouldn't think they would even worry about anything less than that I think it wouldn't be worth it for them so I think that's kind of the focal point but even then I would say it's in this kind of inflationary time there may even be a million before they you know even look at anybody below a million they're going to start off at those higher levels they got I was thinking the same thing and then I read a headline of a lot of people on my channel have seen this too that the IRS wants to start monitoring some third-party apps like vimo and PayPal and cash app so what's your reaction to the IRS getting that involved so the threshold had to be over 600 in transactions I believe even in the IRS wanted to you to report that his income now yeah but I also think they're really focused on the business the business side of those they're not they're not really focused on the individuals unless the individuals are are transferring a lot of money and they may not always be about business and maybe about an anti-money laundering and types of events like that can you share with us the craziest thing you may have seen in an audit it was years ago but I was out in the bank and they weren't calculating interest correctly uh and they turned into a huge ordeal when I was able to calculate the effective interest right and they didn't it didn't exactly hurt my career I'll tell you that I know you're an auditor but do you have any favorite Tax Strategies or tax write-offs that you think more people should take advantage of yeah I think people should should always look for opportunities or I don't want to I don't want to use the term Hobbies but things they can do well the things they enjoy to create businesses I think they should leverage the tax laws I mean the tax rules are built for real estate and Investments and so we should always try to consider those um we should we should make sure we leverage and opportunities where we can our short-term capital losses if we want to reduce our tax income and if we're trying to pull in more money you know continue to invest and do things like that and uh use trust and LLCs to create wealth and set aside money in a different type of way yeah he threw a whole gamut out there man I love it a lot of stuff a lot of stuff going on you have to be very smart this day and age so what's your name and what do you do my name is Tamika Jackson I'm an accountant I specialize in entertainment and construction and Manufacturing accounting and how long have you been doing that I've been in business since 2006. it sounds like since you're in an entertainment space you may be working with celebrities a really high net worth individuals is that the case I do if you're willing to share how much do you charge your clients on the low end I may have someone for bookkeeping for 750 anywhere to twenty five thousand dollars a month what are some of your favorite tech strategies or tax write-offs for people to take advantage of my favorite Tax Strategies is holding income into the upcoming year so tax shelter accounts is really really big especially with my high net worth clients and I always like to tell my audience the golden rule of saving money on taxes the further income and accelerate your losses so you're spot on with that do you think the rich and wealthy should pay more in taxes and this is special for you since you probably have some wealthy clients you know Biden's trying to do like this whole wealth tax what do you think about this I definitely think they should play more taxes but depending on what type of accounting they have tax accountant they have they may write their hair off their earrings off a lot of the clients that I deal with are in the entertainment industry and I've seen them do the Donald Trump of taxes writing haircuts off and earrings and clothes and wardrobes so a lot of the stuff that they do they're able to write it off a lot of them use States like Delaware Montana where they don't have where they can reduce their tax liability and for a lot of my clients they are foreign domestic businesses in Atlanta so they avoiding taxes all all day so what's your name and what do you do my name is Rick sonordo I'm a cpaf so I own my own firm it's called Model CPA very cool how long have you owned your own firm uh so I'm almost from now for about three years the price of that I have worked in public accounting for over 10 years what made you leave public accounting to start your own firm uh honestly just more time Freedom right so only your own time is the best thing in the world that's good I think sometimes that's to go sometimes that's the dream and sometimes small business owners find themselves in a position where they've created a new job within their business so how's that experience been for you have you actually been able to get more time back yeah definitely definitely and you're right about that when you first start out you know you're doing it a lot you're wearing a lot of hats and so I have been able to do that by implementing you know processes losing tools and things like that automating things just so I can create that but you're right at the very beginning you know you kind of step away you're just like oh yeah I'm gonna do my own thing but then you end up working more than 40 hours right so yeah but I've definitely been able to get to that point some people say I'm tired of nine to five and they go to the the eight to ten yeah so what are your favorite tech strategies or tax write-offs for small businesses so um my favorite you know right now is bonus depreciation you're right that's the big one right especially these last couple of years I know it's kind of teetering off after this year but that's a big one um home office deduction of course I think I like Eddie tax deduction that you could either one that you're not really spending cash on so that's what you know depreciation or those personal expenses that you can really make business expenses right and so those are kind of like my biggest types of write-offs or tax write-offs yeah I always tell people you know when you have a business as long as it's ordinary and necessary you can almost write off anything so going back to bonus depreciation we know that 100 depreciations ending after 2022 and 2023 is going to be 80 percent do you think it's still going to be worth it to small business owners to take advantage of 80 bonus depreciation yeah definitely definitely I mean you can't get 100 but I mean you get 80. that's still going to be you know that's still going to be a lot so I think there's definitely still you know a purpose or Reason to still do it yeah so you just get a little bit less but that just means you got to strategize a little differently but still get the 80 yeah we're getting emails right now about people saying Hey I want to take bonus depreciation the year is about to end I'm scared should I do this right now we're saying hey hold on slow down do you need it there's still going to be a benefit next year so hold your horses a little bit Switching gears do you think they're rich in the wealthy should pay more in taxes I would say not necessarily right because even for myself right although I'm not in that in that category yet I'll say yet um you know I do understand like you know whether it's Capital bill AIDS or whether you know appreciating property that you know it's money you didn't work for after tax dollars that you did invested it now you you know have some gains now you're getting tax loaded again uh so I don't think it's necessarily uh easy to say like well you have more money you should get taxed on it when you invested wisely and you did certain decisions so I would say no okay so what's your name and what do you do I'm Shanika Hurley and I'm an accountant and what kind of accounting do you practice text accounting how long have you been doing tax accounting I've been doing tax accounting for two years now and why did you get into tax accountant specifically being that there are so many areas of accounting okay funny story that I'm trying to make sure real quick um so I had an X he needed to um Story start what I had it so my ass needed to get into school but his financial aid form was not completed due to his taxes so I taught myself how to do taxes and in the midst of it I enjoyed it and so I started that path I was actually on a path of criminal law being an attorney wow and I think that's a need for a lot of people when it comes to hiring an accountant is that they're in some financial trouble or they're trying to get qualified for some money some Capital whether it's a small business loan or Grant they need past tax returns in order to do that so that makes sense okay so do you have any favorite tech strategies or write-offs for small businesses that you enjoy that you like to tell people about sure depreciation that's that's my favorite thing depreciation most definitely reduce the income bedtime so you take bonus depreciation or Section 179 you'll see a significant decrease in your taxable income your liability yes I love the appreciation too I invest in real estate a lot of times just for the depreciation in the cash flow so that's awesome um so have you heard that bonus depreciation taking 100 is this year yes now do you believe that 80 is still something special that business owners should take advantage of yes of course and another one the qbi the qualified business income that's another great deduction as well um it was funny we were just actually talking about um the bonus going away but we're hoping that it's going to stick around yeah it just may stick around we're helping too and some people might get reelected if they help with that decision right yes yes I totally agree okay um so do you think the rich and wealthy should pay more in taxes Biden's trying to do a wealth tax what do you think yeah totally great I really do think that they should pay more in taxes the thing about sex is you got a great accountant CPA they know the loopholes yeah yeah and so that's why it's been benefited for them big time and the rich and the wealthy they can afford to hire the best accountants the most high-end that'll look at every line of the tax code and so even if they do have this wealth tax they still may be able to figure out a way to get around it and in the defense of wealthy people a lot of times they're saying hey we pay a lot of taxes and we want our money to go to investing into the economy and there's a lack of trust with the government and what they spend money on we see inflation out of control and so stimulus checks PPP loans handing out free money and some rich people don't like their money going to those things so there's that do you have any money tips or advice for small businesses yes please please please keep track of your expenses and your Revenue especially your expenses because you could be leaving money on the table there's a lot of deductions out there in a lot of small business owners they don't keep up with their expenses it's very important and it makes our life easier as a tax accountants if you have your stuff in order the tax process and tax season should be very easy for you so there you have it guys we met some amazing accountants they told us about their favorite tax write-offs they told us about some of their favorite strategies they reacted to some news with us some more so I hope you guys enjoyed it I put a lot of energy and effort into finding these people to interview so if you do don't forget to like And subscribe to my channel coming up next I have two more videos where I'm interviewing and asking people different questions so check that out if you haven't already and I'll see you over there

Channel: LYFE Accounting

Views: 142,134

Keywords: lyfe accounting, tax write offs, tax write offs for small business, small business tax write offs, tax write offs in 2023, small business tax deductions, tax deductions for 2023, business tax write offs, tax deductions, tax deductions for self employed, sean standberry

Id: LWQeg79Ivls

Length: 33min 6sec (1986 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 26 2022