One of the things my Las Vegas clients ask me often is, "How can you help me more with my tax planning?", and I think the best answer to that is "I need to talk to you". Whoever your Las Vegas CPA is, if you let them know what you're doing before March of the next year, they can often do a lot of things with entity structure, or just planning the deal to make it more tax efficient. Communication is the key with Las Vegas tax planning, but if you only talk to your CPA once a year, in March, you're missing the boat, and he or she isn't able to help you as much as they could.
For example: I had a client come to me once that was doing a land deal; they owned some land and they were going to build a building on it. And by talking with us, and letting us understand their particular tax situation, we were able to structure another entity, take the advantages between a partnership and a corporation, and capture most of that gain as long-term capital gain, instead of all as ordinary income. But it's one of those things that we couldn't have done if they had started construction and talked to us after the fact.
Make sure that your CPA understands your business and tax situation as early as possible. Give them any information that they might be able to use during the tax planning process, and make sure your Las Vegas accountant really gets to know your and your business.
Quite often, while doing tax preparation in Las Vegas, I get asked the question by small business owners, "How can I reduce my taxes?". Almost always, the most important thing that they forget is that they don't keep their receipts so that they can deduct all the expenses that they pay. It's important, for tax preparation, that the Las Vegas business owner keeps track, even if you just take an envelope and put the receipts that you paid for (whether cash, or by credit card) in that envelope every single day, and at the end of the year, or at the end of the month you just add those up and put those on the expense sheet - that's a huge way you can save, and quite often, small business owners will just throw away the receipts (or they can't find them when it comes time to do their tax return)
Some of the most common areas where people forget their expenses are in the materials or the supplies that they might pay for. If they're a contractor for instance - they may run to a local hardware store and pick up some small supplies they need for a job, but they forget to keep the receipt, or forget to put it in that box or envelope at the end of the day. As well, there are office expenses, or meal and entertainment expenses. If they take employees out to lunch, or pay for a dinner with current clients or customers, and then they forget that, "Oh, that was something that I need to go ahead and deduct on my tax return".
Therefore, if you want to save on taxes, one of the key tax preparation methods in Las Vegas is to keep track of the expenses that you pay.
One of the things that I love about talking with my business audit clients in Las Vegas is helping them to find their story. Everybody has a reason to do what they do. You didn't start off one day and decide to start a Las Vegas grocery store. It was in your blood; your dad did it, your uncle did it, your mom did it, or you were a stock clerk and loved the business. Whatever it was, you're passionate about whatever it is you chose to do, and I love find the root of that passion for my clients, and helping them re-discover what is was that made them love their job when they started before we help them with their business audit.
Often times, as businesses grow, they become harder to run. You have employees and levels of management and it's a long way from you in the CEO suite down to the person, the little old lady that used to come by and buy produce from you (in my grocery example). So by helping clients identify what they're passionate about, we can try to structure their business back to the activities that give them the most happiness. That's an exciting thing that any business owner should keep in mind: "What are you passionate about?". Try to find a way to do that in what you do every day. Your Las Vegas business should be more than finances, taxes, an audits - find your passion.
For example: I had a client come to me once that was doing a land deal; they owned some land and they were going to build a building on it. And by talking with us, and letting us understand their particular tax situation, we were able to structure another entity, take the advantages between a partnership and a corporation, and capture most of that gain as long-term capital gain, instead of all as ordinary income. But it's one of those things that we couldn't have done if they had started construction and talked to us after the fact.
Make sure that your CPA understands your business and tax situation as early as possible. Give them any information that they might be able to use during the tax planning process, and make sure your Las Vegas accountant really gets to know your and your business.
Quite often, while doing tax preparation in Las Vegas, I get asked the question by small business owners, "How can I reduce my taxes?". Almost always, the most important thing that they forget is that they don't keep their receipts so that they can deduct all the expenses that they pay. It's important, for tax preparation, that the Las Vegas business owner keeps track, even if you just take an envelope and put the receipts that you paid for (whether cash, or by credit card) in that envelope every single day, and at the end of the year, or at the end of the month you just add those up and put those on the expense sheet - that's a huge way you can save, and quite often, small business owners will just throw away the receipts (or they can't find them when it comes time to do their tax return)
Some of the most common areas where people forget their expenses are in the materials or the supplies that they might pay for. If they're a contractor for instance - they may run to a local hardware store and pick up some small supplies they need for a job, but they forget to keep the receipt, or forget to put it in that box or envelope at the end of the day. As well, there are office expenses, or meal and entertainment expenses. If they take employees out to lunch, or pay for a dinner with current clients or customers, and then they forget that, "Oh, that was something that I need to go ahead and deduct on my tax return".
Therefore, if you want to save on taxes, one of the key tax preparation methods in Las Vegas is to keep track of the expenses that you pay.
One of the things that I love about talking with my business audit clients in Las Vegas is helping them to find their story. Everybody has a reason to do what they do. You didn't start off one day and decide to start a Las Vegas grocery store. It was in your blood; your dad did it, your uncle did it, your mom did it, or you were a stock clerk and loved the business. Whatever it was, you're passionate about whatever it is you chose to do, and I love find the root of that passion for my clients, and helping them re-discover what is was that made them love their job when they started before we help them with their business audit.
Often times, as businesses grow, they become harder to run. You have employees and levels of management and it's a long way from you in the CEO suite down to the person, the little old lady that used to come by and buy produce from you (in my grocery example). So by helping clients identify what they're passionate about, we can try to structure their business back to the activities that give them the most happiness. That's an exciting thing that any business owner should keep in mind: "What are you passionate about?". Try to find a way to do that in what you do every day. Your Las Vegas business should be more than finances, taxes, an audits - find your passion.