Every week I do FREE! tax reviews of past tax returns. In many cases, I find easy solutions that would have saved the taxpayer tens of thousands of dollars in taxes each and every year. In a few cases, I can’t find anything and I’m the first one to say that. I never want to have someone get involved in a tax strategy that doesn’t have a good return on the time and money.
Sometimes the taxpayer is astounded, “How come no one ever told me this before?” Or maybe they say something like, “This can’t be true. There must be something wrong.”
The strategies we use are nothing unusual or even in the ‘grey’ area of tax law. It’s simply applying ALL of the hundred or so strategies we’ve used for 25 years. Do you have the right business structure? Can you change the character of your income from active to passive? Do you have unused losses? Are your tax returns properly prepared, taking all the elections you should? Those are the kinds of questions we investigate for you. Save a thousand here, a thousand there and pretty soon we’re saving our clients significant money. It’s not magic and it’s not a secret. It’s a system.
This past week, some Ernst & Young CPAs received jail sentences of 2 years and more for promoting an illegal tax scheme. They (and their clients) face huge penalties, and in the case of the guilty CPAs, even jail terms.
How do you know if your tax plan is going to put money in your pocket or if it’s going to put you in jail? Obviously, going with a ‘big’ tax firm isn’t going to save you. Neither is getting involved in an overly complicated, shady tax shelter that’s a secret no one else can do. (That’s what happened with Ernst & Young and their ill-fated tax dodge.)
In fact, I’ve heard reports back from our happy clients, after we’ve saved them tens of thousands of dollars, that occassionally they asked their old advisors why this worked and why they’d paid so much in taxes before. And they hear back, “There isn’t anything special in what Diane and her CPAs do. In fact, I was thinking about that for you too.”
Of course, thinking and doing are two different things. There’s nothing magic in how we save our clients money, it’s using a system to get every legal tax break available that makes all the difference.
June 6th, 2010 at 6:47 pm
I have an accountant who prepares my returns but they no NOTHING about the work of a tax strategist. I’m looking to speak with you about how your system works, whether it is a fit for me, and what the fees for Tax Strategy services are.
Thank you.
Joel
June 26th, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Thanks Joel! You can get hold of Richard at Richard@USTaxAid.com. You may want to start off with a free CPA review of your past returns to see if you’ve left money on the table.
July 13th, 2010 at 8:22 am
The past few years I’ve made the huge mistake of doing our own personal/business taxes because we couldn’t afford an accountant. We own a real estate business and have lost almost everything in the past few years (bankruptcy, foreclosures, etc.). The past few years have been an absolute nightmare and I’m so happy to be rebuilding and moving forward with our lives. Well, recently I decided to hire an accountant to create a system for us and prepare for the next tax year and have interviewed two highly recommended accountants. The problem is they all want to go back to 2005 - 2009 and redo our taxes because they say our current tax liability (around $30,000) isn’t correct and we owe less or may even get a refund. I am so nervous and depressed about going back and reopening this nightmare and sadly would prefer to leave it as it is and move forward. I don’t have all the records they need and having to go through 5 years of bank statements might send me to the hospital. I have expressed my desire to NOT deal with the past, because it reminds me of such a dark place and I just can’t handle going back, but the accountants suggest it’s necessary to go back and repair the mistakes before moving forward. My husband swears the accountants want to help, but more than anything they want to make money off us by charging the high hourly fees trying to figure out our errors. I don’t know what to do and don’t know where else to go for help….I feel like I’m on the verge of a breakdown. I guess my question to you is, what do you think I should do. Any help would be appreciated.
July 18th, 2010 at 11:25 am
The problem with having wrong tax returns is that the IRS and your home state can come back on you. Without knowing more details, my advice is to do what you have to do to get it done.
There’s a book called “Eat That Frog!” that Richard & I refer to often. The premise is do what you are dreading first thing in the morning, as soon as possible. Dreading it takes you to that dark place and in the end, either voluntarily or when you get a nasty notice from the IRS, you’re going to have to do it anyway. So it do it first thing and know YOU are in control. The dread is what creates the depression. Doing an unpleasant thing first gets it over with.
Get your current accts to give you a flat rate quote to do the work. Then you know what the cost will be and don’t need to worry about how many hours they are spending. If they won’t give you a flat rate, consider going to a CPA firm that will. (We quote all of our work in flat rate so our clients know exactly what it will cost and they can budget. We don’t want ANY bad surprises)