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The Biggest Tax Mistake You Can Ever Make
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Wayne M. Davies
WayneYouSaveOnTaxes.com
YouSaveOnTaxes
http://www.YouSaveOnTaxes.com/toolkit.html
Ah, April 15 has come and gone. And American taxpayers
everywhere breathe a collective sigh of relief.
Whew, aren't you glad another Tax Season is over? What
a relief -- unless you filed an extension, you've got
your tax return done and now you can forget about taxes
for another year.
Yep, that has a nice ring to it, doesn't it?
It sounds so good, I think I'll say it again:
"Now you can forget about taxes for another year."
If you found yourself agreeing with me there, guess what?
I gotcha!
I just caught you making the biggest tax mistake you can
possibly make -- the incredibly short-sighted attitude that
taxes is a "once-a-year" thing, something you do only
because you are forced to deal with it every spring,
and then you are so fed up with the whole mess that you
gladly forget about it until next spring, and then, only
because you are forced to deal with it again!
If this is the way you approach taxes, you are doomed
to overpay your taxes forever!
(Oh, pardon me for just a second while I climb up on my
soapbox, turn up the volume, and let it rip. I'm goin'
to preach this message till the cows come home!)
And what message is that, you ask?
My message today is a simple one, but unfortunately,
one that often falls on deaf ears. So please, I really
do hope you are listening (I mean, reading) with
your ears (and eyes) wide open.
Here it is, my Post-Tax Season Message:
If you only pay attention to your tax bill during
Tax Season, then I guarantee you are paying
too much tax.
Our tax system is unbelievably confusing, incredibly
convoluted, and increasingly chaotic. In a word, it's
crazy. And it's only going to get worse.
Even as I write this, Congress and the President are
going round and round about the next round of tax
law changes. So what else is new?
But even with all its mind-numbing complexity, our tax
code has many legal loopholes you can drive a
truck through.
Here's a startling statistic to drive home the point:
It is conservatively estimated that small business
owners and self-employed people are overpaying
their taxes by 160 billion dollars every year.
And the biggest cause of this situation is the
simple fact that small biz owners and the self-employed
are not using all the tax loopholes they are
entitled to.
But you'll never figure out what those loopholes are
by only spending a few hours, once a year, to the
task of filling out the forms.
It's gotta be a year-round task. And you need to realize
that some of the best tax-reduction strategies
require some research on your part. You've got to do
your homework, check things out, maybe even consult
with a professional to make sure you're not missing
something and that all your ducks are in a row.
Like any worthwhile goal, it takes time and energy.
In my experience, there is one small biz tax-reduction
strategy that stands head and shoulders above all
the rest: Choice of Entity.
Bear with me here, as I explain what I mean.
By "Choice of Entity", I'm referring to what type
of business you own, from a legal standpoint.
Here are your choices:
Sole Proprietorship
Partnership
Corporation
Limited Liability Company
(Note: If you are self-employed and don't view yourself
as owning a business, guess what: from a tax standpoint,
as a self-employed person, you do own a business. It's
called a Sole Proprietorship.)
The purpose of this article is not to tell you which
entity is best for you and exactly how much money you can
save in taxes by picking one of these entity choices.
I can't do that in a thousand words.
But what I can tell you right now is this:
Your Choice of Entity is the single-most important
factor in determining your annual tax bill.
I can also tell you this: every year, thousands of small
biz owners and self-employed people save literally
thousands of dollars in taxes because they made a
simple one-time change in their Choice of Entity.
Obviously, there are many factors that determine
how much tax you pay: the accuracy of your
record-keeping, how organized you are, your knowledge
of all the many available tax deductions, etc.
But the most important factor of all is this:
What entity type are you?
So, as another Tax Season ends and your mind turns
to other, supposedly more important matters, my
question to you is this:
How do you know that your current Choice of Entity
is the best one for you?
Have you done an analysis of the pros and cons
of each entity? Do you know what the tax consequences
would be if your changed your Choice of Entity? Do you
know what it takes to make a change from one entity
type to another?
These are not the kinds of questions you have time
to address while frantically looking for lost receipts
and filling out the tax forms on April 14th.
Now that Tax Season is over, you can now turn your
attention to the most important tax issue of all.
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Wayne M. Davies is author of the new eBook, "The Tax
Reduction Toolkit: 29 Little-Known Legal Loopholes That Will
Reduce Your Taxes By Thousands (For Small Business Owners
and Self-Employed People Only!) Don't file another tax
return until you visit:
http://www.YouSaveOnTaxes.com/toolkit.html
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