Helpful Tax Saving Strategies
Keep More of What You Earn
Many business people spend a great deal of their valuable time developing strategies to generate more income. They mistakenly believe the secret to becoming wealthy is to simply make more money. Making more money is certainly important, but not the whole story. That’s because every year they unknowingly and unwillingly throw money away. The most common way for people to throw dollars away is through over-paid taxes.
“I don’t overpay my taxes”, you say, “I get a refund every year!”
Indeed, and that proves you are overpaying your taxes every year…If you weren’t overpaying your taxes each year you wouldn’t get that refund. The tax you pay each year is your largest expense. Taxes can eat up as much as 50% of every dollar you earn.
You can view this two different ways. One: A huge bummer. Hang your head and complain, or Two: A huge opportunity to put thousands of dollars back in your pocket each year by simply finding strategies that can offset that tax figure by 5 to 10 percent.
According to Drew Miles, Tax Attorney with Pathfinder Business Strategies these 5 tax saving tips can help reduce your taxes by 50% to 70%.
Tax Saving Strategy #1 – Start Your own Business
Decades ago, the Supreme Court issued a judgment that has a profound impact on your finances. They said that “there are two tax systems in this country. One for the educated and one for the uneducated.”
The uneducated tax system is what we call the W-2 system. Its goes like this. You make money. They take taxes and you must live on the rest. Here’s a diagram to better illustrate:
Earn -Taxes = Spend
Despite all the hype by income tax preparation specialists, there are only a handful of deductions available to you in this system. Even if they do a great job, in this system, they can have very little impact.
The educated system goes like this: You earn money, you expense it off, and you pay taxes on the balance. It looks like this:
Earn -Expenses = Pay Taxes on Differences
Knowing this one fact can have an ENOURMOUS impact on your tax bill and therefore on your financial wellbeing.
So, if you don’t have your own business, start one. You can increase your income AND put yourself into the educated tax system. The benefits are incredible.
This single step could save you $5,000 or more.
Tax Saving Strategy #2 – Convert Your Ten Largest Expenses
Most accountants I interview indicate that they utilize about 25 deductions for their clients. Things like their phone, fax, automobile, office supplies and some meals and entertainment. Now, that’s a step in the right direction because the uneducated system gives you only a handful.
Yet, we have identified over 300 individual business deductions and numerous other strategies that can slash your taxes dramatically. These are deductions that the government through Congress and the IRS has made available to you. Its like getting a government subsidy. Nothing shady, no red flags – these strategies are given to you and endorsed by Uncle Sam himself! Without fully using them, you are overpaying your taxes and ripping yourself off – unnecessarily.
You see, the Supreme Court also ruled that it is your Constitutional right to arrange your affairs so as to minimize the amount of taxes you pay. You should not pay one dollar more than what you legally have to; yet you almost certainly are.
Carefully review your personal check book, your personal credit cards and your personal cash receipts. Go line by line and identify those expenses that you can legally convert to business deductions. Shift them over to your business and reap the rewards!
This could save you over $15,000.
Tax Saving Strategy #3 – The 6 Column Strategy
The Six Column Strategy is actually an extension of strategy #2. It starts by converting your ten largest expenses. The next step is to properly document those expenses in order to audit-proof your records. By properly documenting your business expenses you shift the burden of proof from you as the tax payer – back to the IRS. This can completely change the outcome of any questions that might arise.
You must answer 5 questions for each deduction you take. They are Who, What, When Where and How Much? Make each question a column heading.
List each of your business deductions on a separate line. Along with your canceled checks, credit card statements and receipts, this forms the backbone of your documentation system.
Now, add a sixth column to your spreadsheet and label it “remimbursed expenses”. Go back through your personal expenses from this year and re-catagorize those that can be deducted as business expenses. Pay special attention to health care (premiums, deductibles, co-pays and uncovered items like chiropractic care, massage and dental), Travel and entertainment (business meals, entertainment followed by a business meeting and vice versa), equipment like computers, fax machines and business cell phones, supper money, clothing with a company logo, salaries for your kids and dependant care.
Total them up and write yourself a reimbursement check for the proper amount. (Many of our clients report uncovering $2,500 – $7,500 using this process.
Now, here’s the super special; bonus: You can amend your tax returns up to 4 years back. Imagine that you discover $5,000 in savings. If you go back 3 years, that’s $15,000 in cold cash coming to you – untaxed because it’s a reimbursement of a business expense. Not bad for a few hours work!
This could save you $15,000 or more. (Editor’s Note: Deductr does the 6 column strategy for you so you don’t have to mess with spreadsheets and charts.)
Tax Saving Strategy #4 – Obliterate the Self Employment Tax
If you are doing business as an unincorporated business, you are paying an additional tax – the self-employment tax. It amounts to approximately 13.5% of your income.
By setting yourself up in a proper business structure( corporation or limited Liability Company as an example) you can cut that down significantly.
Tax Saving Strategy #5 – Up-streaming Income
This is one of my favorite strategies because it is so simple, yet it has a HUGE impact on tax savings. It consists of shifting income from a high tax state or entity to a low tax state or entity. Here’s a simple illustration. Say you live in a state that has of maximum income tax of 9%. At year end, the income your generate in that state is subject to that tax. $100,000 in income = $9,000 in tax. Ouch!
Now, let’s say you shift that income to some other state; one that has a tax rate of 0% (Nevada and Wyoming are good examples). Now, instead of paying $9,000 in state taxes on that money, you pay $Zero.
Just make sure you do it properly by having the proper documentation including contracts, security agreements, invoices, etc. in place.
This could save you $30,000 or more.
Following these tax saving strategies should help you keep more of what you earn.
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