The year is almost over! And so is your opportunity to save THOUSANDS each year on taxes! Most Americans, especially business owners and investors, will overpay…AGAIN. How would you like to save at least $5,000, OR MORE each year in taxes alone
In this episode, your host, Chris Miles, will teach you a few strategies that have helped him and his clients save at least $5,000 – $10,000 EACH YEAR!
Tune in to find out how!
Disclaimer: As mentioned in the episode, the host is not a CPA. The strategies mentioned are always case by case and may not apply to you. Consult your tax professional.
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Best Ways To Save Over $5,000 In Taxes THIS Year (And Every Year)
It is this time of year again. We’re going to be talking about taxes and how to save that money. Before we do, just a reminder. Be sure to check out our website, www.MoneyRipples.com. If you want to get the Beyond Rice & Beans: 7 Secrets to Free Up Cash Today! eBook, go ahead and get that for free on that website. Also, be looking for events. We’re going to be starting live events here again next spring. If you ever have questions, whether you have topics you want on this show or if you’re saying, “Chris, I want to know what you can do in my situation,” email me at Chris@MoneyRipples.com.
Today, I want to get into a topic that I know is so timely and urgent. If you’re reading this, hopefully, you’re reading this soon. This is recorded in mid-November 2016. Let’s say you read this mid-year in some years, this still applies. It still works because one of the biggest money leaks I find that people make, especially if they’re business owners or they have a side business or are investors, are with taxes. That’s some of the biggest areas. People say, “I don’t know if I can cut back anywhere else,” but then they forget that the money is leaking right out with taxes out of every paycheck and out of every year when they have to go and pay it.
It’s not fun. The clients I’ve worked with, on average, find at least $5,000 to $10,000 a year minimum. That’s typical. If cashflow creates freedom, think about that. $5,000 to $10,000 a year, that’s anywhere from $400 to $800 a month. For some people, I’ve seen some situations where we’ve saved taxes that have been into the six figures. We had a lady that thought she had the greatest accountant in the world. He was the accountant to the star, so to speak. This accountant, after we reviewed it, we found out that she had overpaid in the last three years when we had our CPAs do a tax review, over $120,000 in taxes.
She had the accountant that some of the Hollywood actors had, but she still was overpaying. I’ve had some people in network marketing companies or direct sales companies come to me and say, “There’s this accountant that they all recommend for our company.” There are certain companies that I’m like, “Good,” because I know that we’ll find probably at least $5,000 to $10,000 or maybe even $10,000-plus because they miss it every time.
It’s not because people are bad. It’s because most accountants are passive accountants. Just like the guy I talked to yesterday when I referred him to our CPA. He said, “I had an accountant and I know he was a good guy, but he pretty much has this set of numbers and then he gives me a bill. That was it.” I said, “Yep.” It’s funny because I told him about two strategies in his situation that would save him tens of thousands of dollars in the next few years, especially. He’s like, “I could do that.” I’m like, “Yes, you could.”
The funny thing is that I told him. I looked at him and I said, “Let me guess. I’ve taught you more now in the last few minutes than you learned from your accountant over the last few years.” He said, “Yeah, definitely.” I said, “There you go.” That’s my goal with you guys here now. I want you to learn quite a bit in the next few minutes because I want you to be able to save that tax.
Here’s the thing. As a disclaimer, I am not an accountant. I’m not a CPA, nor do I ever aspire to become one. I’m so grateful that there are people that love to do taxes and love to do this kind of thing. What I’m sharing with you are examples of typically what’s worked in my situation as well as some of my clients. Typical things that people miss the taxes that can save them thousands of dollars more each year.
Depending on when you read this, some of these tax rules, even these strategies might change. It might be different. I remember there are things I was teaching strategy-wise that had changed that now the IRS doesn’t like anymore. Things like doing a home office lease. It is something that has been targeted as a red flag for the IRS because now they’re very much more stringent on what you can do at the home office lease.
The good news is there’s another solution that I’ll mention here briefly today that can replace that. Things like that do change over time. Tax laws are changing each year. This is why you can’t just take this advice. That is why you do need professional advice. My whole goal is to help you guys find money and to do it before the end of the year or whatever that is for you. When you’re listening to this, do this before the end of the year. Not doing this after the fact, especially for those of you who are reading this sooner than later, towards the end of the year, you don’t have any time because once you hit December, accountants are busy. They have a hard time scheduling you, and you might miss out on some of the biggest tax breaks that will save your tax bill huge amounts.
Passive Accountants
By the way, even if you say, “Chris, I don’t really make money in my business,” or “Chris, I don’t pay taxes.” It is possible to get a tax return even if you don’t pay taxes. This still applies. Here we go. Number one, I mentioned, passive accountants. I do not want you guys to go into passive accountants. Also, accountants who are telling you to buy IRAs or 401(k)s and things like that so you can save on tax are not the accountant for you because they’re usually telling you that because it saves you tax today, but you still have to pay tax tomorrow.
You do not want passive accountants. You want active accountants. You want people who are actually proactive and who will teach you throughout the year. Click To TweetThe thing is if tax rates are going up, why would you want to pay when taxes are worse in the future? If they say, “You might be in a lower tax bracket.” Maybe if you’re retiring tomorrow, but if you were retiring at least ten-plus years from now, the likelihood is you’re going to be paying more in tax because of inflation since you’re going to need a pull out more money to live.
Even if you don’t need that much money today to live on compared to what you’re making, you might need more tomorrow because of inflation and for years to come. You do not want passive accountants. You want active accountants. You want people that are proactive in teaching you throughout the year and preferably before the end of this year like I’m helping you do today even though I’m not even an accountant.
The perspective they also need to come from is very important. If you can find an accountant that comes from a business owner standpoint, especially if you’re a business owner or an investor, you want them to come from a different standpoint than only being an accountant. That was another problem with the guy I spoke to yesterday is that I could tell that his accountant just runs numbers, but doesn’t get proactive. He doesn’t look at the business, and that’s what the business owner said. He said, “I felt like he didn’t understand my business. They were spitting out numbers. They’re putting things in categories I don’t think it applied. They didn’t understand how the business worked. They showed me that it’s making a huge profit when that wasn’t a profit because money was going here and here, but they weren’t categorizing it correctly.”
Granted, you have a partnership. You’re supposed to be the one that helps teach them this but at the same time, I can understand that because many accountants don’t come from a perspective of a business owner. Whereas you’ve probably heard me teach before. If you’ve listened to enough of these podcasts, I’m coming from more of a steward perspective, rather than a saver perspective.
You won’t find accountants who come from a spender perspective, which is also in scarcity but the scarcity paradigm of being a saver, we’re supposed to hoard money, pay off debt and save up everything we have. It’s very much that traditional financial standpoint. You do not want that account in that way. You want them to come from a steward, more of a business owner/investor perspective, which means they see the numbers. They don’t tell you just go buy something in your business only because you want to get a write-off. They’re saying no. If this makes you more money, then do it. If not, don’t buy it.
I’ve had accountants tell some of my clients previously to work with me. They’ll say, “You should go buy that pickup truck over a certain weight. You’ll get a write-off of that truck. They spent $20,000 on something didn’t even need in the business and that’s ridiculous. Don’t spend money only because they say you should.
Let’s talk about that. Let’s get into some of these tips here. The biggest way that people lose money or lose opportunities to save on taxes is one and I mentioned this with all the cashflow stuff tracking your money. Are you tracking it? Also, knowing the category. The thing is, especially with business write-offs, if you can justify it as a business write-off and if you’re an investor and it’s helping you as an investor, it should be a write-off. Are you writing off the mileage and travel that you’re doing? Many people don’t realize that they can do some sort of business, even if they’re working a job.
If you can do business along the way, from point A to point B, that can help. For example, do you stop off somewhere along your way to work? Did you put up an advertisement or a business card out of a corkboard at a grocery store or something like that on your way to your job so you can write off the mileage? Currently, mileage is at least $0.55, give or take, depending on the year when you read this. It’s about $0.55 a mile right now.
For every mile you drive, you’re writing off $0.55 on your taxes. If you drive 10,000 business miles, you’re able to write off $5,500 on your taxes. That could be huge and that’s going to be a lot more than what it costs you in gasoline unless you drive a gas guzzler that gets five miles to the gallon, that’s awesome. That’s good. Find ways that when you’re going to use your car when you’re traveling to write off. In fact, with travel, you’ll get more of a write-off.
A lot of times, I call them bizcations when I go on vacation. Can I find a way to do it? For example, my family and I went to Yellowstone last summer. Along that way, I’ve reached out on Facebook either to friends who I knew were out there or just in general, “Who lives out in this area?” I’d meet up with people along the way. The kids are like, “Why are we stopping?” I’m like, “I want to say hi to some friends,” and it was cool. There’s one of my friends I hadn’t talked to in years, but it was cool to be able to talk to them.
They’re a business owner and we talked about some of the things that we do in our businesses and things like that. I met with another guy that was a more recent friend. We have a post on Facebook. We got proof of it. We posted a picture of ourselves. The thing is as long as your travel has at least more than half of those days having some sort of business activity during those days. It doesn’t have to be the entire day but at some point, you can write that off.
The whole thing, the travel and the transportation, you can write off. Also, the lodging, the food and all those kind of things you can be writing off. That can be a very significant difference, especially because if you’re doing it right, one, hopefully, you are making some money while you’re out and about. If you’re more virtual, great. If you’re a real estate investor, you can make money almost anywhere because there are properties everywhere. Are you looking at properties and you’re taking the flyers as proof and things like that and seeing showings? If anything it’s fun, but at the same time, can you be using that as a potential business? There are lots of ways that you can get advantages from that travel and as I mentioned, other things.
Besides travel, tracking things you do. Can you go do things? There’s a category called meals and entertainment or M&E, as they call it. Are you going out to lunches or dinners with people that are potential clients or our clients? The great thing is if you have clients or customers that are your friends, “Why don’t you go out and make it a great fun evening?” Just last week, I have to use my company reimbursement, but I was going to go out to a movie. I didn’t realize I’d be talking to someone about my business and talking about some of that stuff.
I should know better. If you go to a movie, a dinner and a movie or whatever it might be, you can write that off. Look for ways to do it. If you put on events, look for ways to do that. Write that off. Personal development is the things that you do. A lot of times, the things that I teach are business-related or help you in business. That’s why I tell people that either buy products from me or even do services with me because we talk so much about business. “That’s personal development. That’s a write-off you can use or consult or whatever it might be.”
Those are the right ways to get some great things. What I try to do in addition to that is I tell people, “Now, you get a write-off when you’re working with me but on top of that, I’m helping you try to make that money back within a year anyways.” How do we get that rate of return? Make that a good investment and not just spend money. If you’re going to spend money, you might as well get a write-off for it. There are lots of ways you can do expenses that way, but be looking for ways of, “How can I do it? “
This is an important note when you’re trying to write off things. Personal clothing won’t work. Even if you say you use it for business or even if you do use it for business, you cannot write off clothing as of currently. You can’t write off your underwear. You can’t do that kind of stuff. I had somebody say, “I buy a suit when I go and speak.” I speak too and that still doesn’t count. Now, if it has your company logo on it, then yes, you can write it off, but that’s pretty much it. Unless you’re going to stencil your logo into your underwear and you’re somehow showing it off, you’re probably not going to be able to write that off.
Corporation Makes A Big Difference
Number two, and this applies to many of you, whether you have a side business or you’re an investor or whatever, but a corporation makes a big difference. What kind of corporation do you have? One has a corporation, but two, what kind of corporation makes all the difference? Some accountants will say, “Unless you’re not making at least $100,000 a year, you shouldn’t have a corporation.”
First and foremost, that is a risky piece of advice they gave you because if you’re ever sued, you would like something that separates your business from your personal assets. From a liability standpoint alone, you should probably have a business. Whether you’re a business owner or investor, you should have some sort of corporate entity to protect you, and keep your personal and business assets separate. Two, on top of that, I have seen situations where someone doesn’t have to make that much money to justify it. Even if you’re only making money, we’ve had our accountant run the numbers, you’re making at least $10,000 a year in a corporation. You probably could have to save having like an S-corporation.
There are different ones like LLCs, S-corporation C-corps and all kinds of things. PCs in different states. Here’s the thing is that one thing that is a big difference is that sometimes people have LLCs and sometimes they’re taxed as an S-corporation. One problem with that is first and foremost if you’re doing that, your accountant tells you to do that. Hopefully, you’re doing the requirements that an S-corporation requires such as annual meetings and things like that.
If you’re not doing these things, if the IRS finds out and you’re being taxed like an S-corporation, but you’re not doing the typical things a few times a year with meeting minutes and such, you’re going to get busted because an S-corporation does save you more money than an LLC. I’ll give you an example. Let’s say you make $100,000 a year in your business. For most people, if you do an LLC, the problem is because you’re a business owner, you pay your FICA tax, your Social Security and Medicare tax.
Even if you don't need that much money today to live on compared to what you're making, you might need more tomorrow because of inflation and for years to come. Click To TweetTypically, if you work for a company you’re paying about 7.65% into that department. What you may not know is that your company, if you work for a company, they also pay the other 7.65% in total for Social Security and Medicare. You’re paying 15.3% as the business owner to that on top of your income tax, both state and federal. What happens is that when businesses are started making six figures, they are like, “It seems like half of my money is going to taxes.” That’s because it probably is because you’re not taking advantage of the real tax breaks yet.
If, anything, as a business owner, I think you should be paying less than 20% of the taxes, no matter how much you’re making. It’s very possible you could be doing that. Instead, if you want to help to reduce some of that Social Security tax, that t 15.3% if you have an S-corporation, you’re paid in two different ways. You’re paid as the owner and you’re paid as the employee of the business. For example, you have a set salary as the employee of your business and working in your business of 50,000 a year and then working on your business as the owner of $50,000 a year in owner draws or dividends.
If you’re doing that, it will save you about $7,600 plus a year. I’ve had people that it’s crazy, but just by cheating the corporation, I did a webinar on this very subject. He listened to that and became a client of mine right about the end of November or the beginning of December.
We rushed him and got him in just by changing. Just by changing the way he got paid and the structure, we found over $10,000 a year before I had my first meeting. I was like, “You’ve already had all your services paid for. Congratulations. It’s pretty cool. That was awesome.” Those kinds of things would make a big difference. I’ve seen people save tens of thousands a year just by changing their corporations. Several clients have done that, especially where I had chiropractors and dentists and doctors. We lost tens of thousands a year with that.
Other people might be thousands, but either way, it could be a big difference. Even if you’re not profitable in your business, if you’ve got a side job or you have a spouse who has a side job, you can use your business to offset the taxes. I’ve had several clients do this year where we say, “Even though your business isn’t that profitable, not a problem.” You’re offsetting their taxes, therefore they can increase their exemptions. Wherever they claim dependence, increase that and then they’re taking home money every single paycheck.
You’re getting money, cashflow back, every couple of weeks or every month because you’re doing that. That can equate not only to annual savings of tax returns, but monthly cashflow. That can help you speed up paying off credit cards. It can help you build savings, security and peace of mind, start investing it or whatever. That can be huge.
You Can Hire Your Kids
Here’s another idea. Number three, you can hire your kids. We had a lady out in California who was able to hire her children. The thing is you can pay your kids roughly $6,000 a year tax-free. If you go over that, their tax rate might still be less than yours. It might still make sense, but if you’ve got kids, you can have them hired through the business.
It doesn’t need to be a reasonable wage for whatever you have them hired for, but even if you’ve got toddlers or infants, they could still be hired. For example, they could be baby models. They can help with things with your marketing, whether it be through photographs or videos or whatever. My kids got paid a couple of years ago for playing in a park with a bunch of bubbles. They’re in a bubble commercial. They said, “Play in this park for a couple of hours. We’ll film you and then you’re done.” They got paid $10 an hour. I know they were drastically underpaid at $10 an hour for actor-type fees.
You can look up in your area and see what typical models or actors are paid, and then you can pay your kids that for that kind of work. One of my clients has four boys, and they are hired. They have their own cleaning service. They get paid to do that. The cool thing is we funnel it through his wife that pays them as an independent contractor, and we get some additional tax breaks.
There’s a whole cool thing that happens there where he has sheltered tons of taxes. That one strategy alone saves him over $10,000 a year. One of my clients in California is in network marketing at a direct sales company. Her six kids, she’s like, “Chris, are you saying I could pay my kids about $36,000 a year and it’s tax-free?” I said, “Yes.” She did that strategy. That alone saves her $13,000 a year. It works. I’m going to throw out a bonus here.
Another one that you can consider, and I rarely ever find anybody who’s ever done this. There’s only one person I found that did this outside of my clients, and that’s a thing called corporate rent. You could be paid, you can have your corporation pay you personally for the use of your home just for one day, just like you do for a hotel. This hotel has got paid for Wi-Fi wireless. You get paid for the space and you pay for catering because you’ve got to have food. You have all the same kinds of amenities in your own home. If you use your space one day a month, that’s twelve days a year. If you stay under fourteen days a year, you don’t pay passive real estate income tax.
What ends up happening is that you can save yourself beaucoup bucks. For example, in a typical Marriott, you might know Marriott being charged $1,250 a day. If you can find that and whatever it is in your area, find that typical fee. Let’s say it is $1,250. Let’s use that number, and you do that one day a month. That’s $15,000 a year you could pay yourself tax-free, and it still counts as income on your taxes, but it’s not taxable income. That alone will save you between $3,000 and $6,000 a year.
I remember all my own taxes. We had adjusted it, and it did change the tax bill because we forgot. We’re like, “Sorry. We forgot the category of this.” We changed it. It was about $5,500 a year of savings right there. Again, you’ve got to consult a professional. Get a consultant accountant, and they’ve got to be the right person. There are so few of those guys out there, but there are. That’s why I made sure I connect my clients to the right ones and stuff.
If you’ve got questions about that, you’re wondering if you’re overpaying on taxes, and maybe that could be you and you want to save that now and you want to see if you could have that looked at, email me personally at Chris@MoneyRipples.com. We can do that little review to see because you’ve got to have not just the right accountant. You’ve got to have the right team and the right strategies behind this. Every scenario is different.
I have not found anyone who’s profitable in their life or business that hasn’t saved at least $3,500 a year doing only some of the strategies I taught you today. The key is, will you take action? Will you do it or will you watch yourself overpay year-after-year like I’ve watched some people do? I hope that you’re the type of person who says, “I want to get it done now, and I’m going to be saving thousands of dollars year-after-year because that can lead to more freedom and peace of mind today.” Everybody, make it a great and prosperous week. We’ll talk to you later.