We’ve been talking about taxes for years.
Pretty much since we opened this roadside attraction several years ago.
Addressing the “ordinary and necessary” expense of taxation on small businesses is how we got our start.
By addressing I mean to say attacking it like a crazed homeowner with a can of wasp and hornet spray in his hand.
Saving people thousands in excess unnecessary self-employment tax, as well as maximizing legitimate write-offs.
Nothing makes me happier than to surprise a taxpayer with a nice unexpected refund.
So…what is this melodrama of which we speak?
This passion play of exaggerated characters, innocent damsels in distress and dastardly villains?
We, the American people, forming a more semi-perfect union, should be viewing ourselves as the heroes of the piece.
Who then is the villain?
Lashing the helpless victim to the railroad tracks?
I know…your first thought is the IRS.
I can dig it. I even come up with little funny names.
The Infernal Retinue Disservice, for example.
(I suppose that would be the IRD, though…?)
They of the impossibly long hold periods and intractable phone manners, when you finally do get somebody on the line.
Not to mention the terrible #10 window envelope windows that come in the mail, tightening sphincters nation-wide on a daily basis.
Sound familiar?
I’m going to go out on a limb here, and attempt to shift your perspective a little.
Dr. Frankenstein had Igor, his trusty and vaguely creepy lab assistant.
I propose to you that the IRS is Igor.
Get it?
They get all the blame, as the forward-facing enforcement and collection arm of your federal government.
Their enablers, the engine that moves this bus down the road is your United States Congress.
There’s your villain of the piece.
Your Snidely Whiplash, if you will.
Nyah-ah-aahhhh!
What evil hath the legislature wrought upon us?
Besides the usual bullshit we’ve been putting up with the past 100 or so years, I mean…?
For starters, the IRS has been the functional conduit for stimulus and advance child tax credits this past year.
Here at headquarters we changed our standard operating procedure (SOP) late last year to required powers-of-attorney from every single client, and their spouses.
It’s just easier to have that on file if you need to respond to a nasty letter, but the real reason is needing to pull every single taxpayer’s IRS account to verify advanced payments.
Without this level of verification, we’re inviting a real horror show of potential bad outcomes.
So that’s one thing.
Here’s another: the mail. The bloody USPS “neither snow nor rain blah blah” friggity-frack postal mail.
The IRS is hopelessly behind on the mail. Multiple months behind.
I am directly involved in a case of prior year returns that were filed in August, eight of them in all.
As of this writing, seven months later, only TWO of them have been processed.
You can’t even clean up your act and do the right thing without going through a lot of incomprehensible pain.
Like that old phrase, “No good deed goes unpunished.”
They got the payment plan application – they’re just sitting on it for a half-year because the returns aren’t done!
Melodrama. A play with exaggerated characters and corny plots.
Welcome to the third decade of the 21st century, folks.
When I was a lad, and the Apollo missions were bringing back moon rocks, I believed we’d have flying cars and tourist excursions to Mars.
Now, we still have to postal mail tax returns if they’re more than 2 years old.
Even more annoying? I have to send every piece of mail certified, because even the tax pro line I get to call in on asks if my clients sent things with tracking!
They spend a bloody fortune on outgoing mail, not to mention the reams of excess paper they’re including in every envelope these days. You can get help in Spanish and Vietnamese! Yes!!! Oh joy!!!
Make no mistake, ladies and gentlemen of our audience: the US Congress is not your friend.
Taxes are complicated on purpose.
They rely on small conditions that ensure annoying small-to-medium-sized amounts, multiplied by millions of people, continue to pour in to the federal treasury.
The tax reform signed into law in 2017 reformed tax for the top 2 or 3% of taxpayers, folks.
Too many of us started paying MORE when we lost the ability to write off home mortgage interest.
The system is not on your side, but there ARE small things that small business people can do to win at the game a little more often.
I’m hell-bent for making my people more profitable, and one of the things we will always and continuously do is address one of the largest expenses of a small-to-medium business.
Taxes.
One of the larger expenses reducing gross profit to net income.
Lowering taxes drives higher profits by mathematical default, and…
…we will never stop getting you the best possible tax result, every year you’re in business.
I may not ride a horse backwards like Dudley Do-Right of the RMCP, but I will untie Snidely’s ropes off of you and rescue you from the railroad tracks, every chance I get.
The heroes always win in the end, in a good melodrama!