March 12, 2025 • 16 mins
Are your tax deductions putting your business at risk? Meet Toni, a wedding photographer who nearly lost everything over $12,000 in questionable deductions that triggered an IRS audit.
In this episode, we unpack the most common tax mistakes small business owners make and how to avoid them. You'll discover:
- Three legitimate deductions many business owners miss completely
- The dangerous deductions that put Toni in the IRS crosshairs
- Why "but my friend's accountant lets them do it" isn't a defense
- Simple systems to keep your business audit-resistant
Key Quote: "The most expensive tax mistakes aren't usually from missing the big obvious deductions. They come from either missing lots of small legitimate deductions because they seem too simple to count, or from claiming questionable deductions because 'everyone does it.'"
Listen now to learn how to claim what you're entitled to while keeping your business safe from costly audit troubles.
Get your free "Small Business Deduction Checker" in the Wealth Wisdom Financial Community at wealthwisdomfp.com/community.
00:00 Introduction: Avoiding a $12,000 Tax Mistake
00:47 Welcome to Wealth Wisdom Financial Podcast
01:25 Tony's Tax Troubles: A Cautionary Tale
03:08 Commonly Missed Deductions
05:51 Deductions That Can Get You in Trouble
09:51 The Importance of Proper Tax Planning
13:50 Conclusion and Resources
Watch on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/kCpv4boE5zI
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:01):
Could you be making a $12,000
tax mistake
like Toni, a wedding photographer who
nearly lost her business over a $12,000
tax mistake?Today
we're diving into the deductions that
could save your business thousands and
the ones that could put you in the IRS's
crosshairs and stay tuned to the end
(00:23):
cause we got a surprising statistic
straight from the Internal Revenue
Service Data Service. Think
in a world where chaos seems to reign
supreme, where uncertainty lurks around
every corner and financial markets are
now more unpredictable than ever. There's
(00:43):
one place you can turn to to find clarity
and control. Welcome to the Wealth Wisdom
Financial Podcast. Hey, I'm Brandon.
And I'm Amanda. Join us as we dive deep
in the world of personal and business
finance to assist you in navigating
through the chaos and building the
financial future you deserve. We believe
(01:04):
when conventional financial thinking
doesn't get you where you want to go, you
need wealth wisdom. So if you're ready to
take control of your financial destiny.
Tune into the Wealth Wisdom Financial
Podcast because in a chaotic world,
your money shouldn't be. Subscribe
now and never miss an episode.
(01:25):
So before we dive in, let me tell you
about Toni. They run a
successful wedding photography business
making around 80,000 a year.
They thought they were doing everything
right with their taxes, claiming their
cameras, gear, their editing
software, and their home office.
(01:45):
Yet they got a
audit letter from the IRS. Dun,
dun, dun. With this audit
letter, the IRS said they were going to
question three years of tax returns.
Why?Because Tony had claimed
100% business use of their home
office. the same office where their
(02:07):
kids do their homework, and where they
did their personal photo editing as well.
They also deducted their clothing
because, quote, they were only worn at
weddings, and every meal they ate
while editing photos. The result?$12,000
in back taxes plus penalties and
interest. Tony nearly lost their business
paying it all back. So here's what most
(02:29):
business owners don't realize. The most
expensive tax mistakes aren't usually
from missing the big, obvious deductions.
They come from either missing lots of
small, legitimate deductions or something
along those lines. Yeah, because those
small, legitimate deductions seem too
simple to count. Or maybe it's
(02:50):
because people claim all these
questionable deductions because everyone
does it. Yeah. Tony's story isn't unique.
We hear similar ones all the time. Let's
make sure your business doesn't become
one of them. Yeah. Again, we're recording
this episode because we hear this all the
time. So we're going to start with some
commonly missed deductions, ones that
(03:11):
could have helped Tony actually offset
their tax bill. Then we're going to jump
into some deductions that got Tony in
trouble and could get you in trouble too.
Now before we jump in, a quick reminder,
we are not tax professionals. I mean,
we've filed taxes, we've done all of our
stuff. We are financial professionals. So
we see a lot of things. And so I do think
(03:31):
the interconnection of finance,
making money in the business and and
keeping it and taxes really matters. And
so that's why we want to talk about it
because you don't want to just have your
tax guy say, how do I run my business?or
how do I grow this, you know, but
understanding both sides. This episode's
going to empower you with knowledge and
(03:53):
ideas to bring to your tax professional.
And again, we're not giving individual
tax advice, so don't try and put
me in that box, but we want to
give you some really good
benefits in what I think could
really impact you. Okay, so let's start
with some legitimate deductions. May be
(04:14):
an obvious one, but we're stating any
kind of bank fees, merchant processing
fees, credit card processing fee from
client payments, monthly maintenance
fees, wire transfer fees, even ATM
fees for business withdrawals. The key.
is you have to have a separate
account, something Tony learned the hard
way. If you're mixing and mingling
(04:34):
personal and business, a lot of those
fees you don't get to deduct anymore. So,
if you have separate accounts, keep
everything separate, you're doing that
right, then you can make sure you're
maximizing these fees and getting
deductions for them. Makes it also
challenging when you're doing uh
financial audit to figure out what's
who's where makes it a lot more
difficult. Yeah. Another deduction a lot
(04:56):
of people use is car expenses.
But don't forget beyond the mileage. Most
people know about mileage deductions, but
you can also deduct parking fees for
client meetings, tolls on business trips,
car washes if you use your vehicle for
client meetings. Perfect for those
wedding photographers like Tony or the
real estate agents, right?Keep those
(05:16):
receipts separate from your personal car
expenses, of course. Now there's also the
getting started cost, cost from before
you officially opened market
research expenses, training and
certificates, business plan consulting.
These are often forgotten because they
came from personal accounts before
(05:37):
the business actually existed. So while
you got everything separate now, think
about before you had it separate, what
might you need to make sure you're
accounting for and make sure you got all
the documentation for that and everything
too. So those are legitimate things.
Now let's talk about some deductions that
got Tony in trouble, often because people
claimed them but shouldn't. Yeah. Again,
(05:58):
we see these often. Yeah. There's
the the home office myth. How many times
have we watched videos on this?Right, I
mean, I see it a lot. So
there's the home office myth. Tell us
about that, I mean. The big thing is you
need a space that's used
exclusively for business.
This means no guest bed in the corner, no
(06:20):
personal desk items, no kids doing their
homework after hours. This is one of
Tony's biggest mistakes, mixing business
and personal use. Now,
that being said, if an IRS agent does
show up at your house looking to expect
your home office,I hope you'll do what my
tax pro told me to do. Unless they have a
search warrant, which IRS agents don't
(06:40):
really get search warrants, you can say
no. Give them your tax pro's contact
information and that's it. Don't say
anything more. Don't offer them a cup of
tea on your living room and tell them
your life story. Just say no and give
them your tax pro's professionals. This
is why tax professionals are worth some
of their cost. With the right
credentials, they are able to represent
(07:01):
you in front of the IRS. So that
you only need to talk to the IRS agent
with your tax pro present and only as
needed. So follow all the rules for the
home office myth. Don't fall into the
home office myth. Follow the rules
exclusively for business, nothing else
there. But also don't let an IRS agent
inspect it unless they've got a warrant
(07:21):
in your tax presence and all those
things. And watch Young Sheldon. I think
he had some episodes on being audited
himself, right?Oh, that was a great
episode from Young Sheldon. The second
one that I got Tony into trouble is the
business clothing trap. You can't have
the business pay for your clothes unless
it's a required uniform or protective
(07:44):
gear. Looking professional isn't
enough. So I can't do that with these?No,
noEven if you only wear it for work, it
doesn't count. If you could wear it
elsewhere, it's probably not deductible.
Just like you can't put a logo on your
car and then deduct every single car
expense,You can't simply put a logo and a
polo to get a tax deduction.
(08:05):
So for Tony, those wedding-only outfits,
not deductible, as Tony discovered. Yeah,
that's again, one of those things that
I've seen. And then there's the
business meal mistake. I mean, this
is, again, another one thatI'm gonna just
put it on the the account and deduct it.
Eating alone at your desk
(08:26):
isn't a business meal. I know you're
thinking, Why is he saying that?Because
people have done it. Eating alone at
your desk isn't a business
meal. Working through lunch doesn't make
it deductible. You need documented
business purpose and who you
met with. which must include some kind
(08:47):
of business discussion, not just
networking. Now, I looked into
some of the really nerdy case law and
case notes about people getting in
trouble with Internal Revenue Service
specifically for this meal mistake, and
the Irs has thisBusiness
expense substantiation requirement,
which is a fancy way of saying you need
(09:09):
documentation of the meeting purpose at
the time of the meeting and what was
discussed, who was there, all the things
doesn't mean you need formal meeting
minutes. But you know how people keep
like a journal in their car to write down
their mileage and different car expenses,
put their receipts in there, or they have
an app that tracks it?You could have
something like that for your meetings
too. When you have a meeting, you keep a
(09:30):
meeting log. What was the purpose of the
meeting?What was discussed there?Who was
there?That's a great idea to make sure
any business meals have this business
expense substantiation tied to them.
Tony learned that editing photos while
eating doesn't make a lunch deductible.
Now you might be thinking, but everybody
else is doing these things. We're going
(09:51):
to address that when we get after the
break.
Ready to take the next step towards
securing your financial future, whether
you're planning for retirement, saving
for your dream home, or you just want to
make your money work harder for you. The
(10:12):
team at Wealth Wisdom Financial are ready
to assist you, and now it's easier than
ever to see how we might give you a boost
on your financial journey. Schedule a 15
minute discovery call with one of us
today and let's discuss your questions
and your financial goals together. Don't
wait any longer. Your financial freedom
awaits. Schedule your discovery call at
(10:33):
www.wealthwisdomfp.com/call.
So I get to hear this from Amanda all the
time. Uh also whenever I'm thinking about
it um she is very to the book
right?Um and and I'm like well
(10:53):
other people are doing it and she's like
yeah but we need to follow um the
rules and so this is where
um having that on your team is really
important because otherwise I don't want
to go to jail and neither should you. Um
so if you're thinking butFriend's
accountant lets them deduct all those
things. That's exactly what Tony thought
too. Their friend's accountant was more
(11:15):
aggressive with deductions, but when the
audit came, the friend's accountant
wasn't the one on the hook for the
penalties. So while your tax pro can
represent you before the IRS, we talked
about earlier, you're still the one
that's accountable for signing your tax
return and all the numbers listed there.
In other words, you're the one that pays
the fees and the penalties and could
potentially go to jail, not your tax pro
(11:36):
in most cases. And make sure you have an
Amanda on your team that can help make
sure you do all those things. Now,
at the risk of sounding like a nagging
parent and somebody that's way too risk
averse, we want you to remember one
thing. Just because someone else does it
doesn't mean you should do it, right?Just
because they've done it and haven't
(11:57):
gotten caught doesn't make it legal.
In fact, I found this chart. We're going
to put it on the screen, on the video.
I'll try to put a link to it in the show
notes if you're listening to the podcast
version. This chart of cases closed by
the Internal Revenue Service in fiscal
year 2023. This comes
from the Internal Revenue Service Data
(12:19):
Book, the 2023 version. It's the latest I
could find. A huge portion
of the cases that they brought and
closed were against small
businesses and self-employed. It's
actually about 45,000
cases they brought in 2023 against small
businesses and the self-employed. Compare
that with. Only
(12:40):
2495
cases that were closed against large
businesses and international.
So huge difference there. So they can
make a lot more money from the big guys.
But the big guys have like, we're purely
speculating now, but the big guys also
can pay attorneys way more than the
Internal Revenue Service agent is being
(13:01):
paid or their legal representation. And
so like, yeah, they're they're definitely
going after small businesses and the
self-employed way more and to bring in
more cases and maybe because we make more
mistakes too. Yeah, I mean, I would say
we don't have the tools or we make
more mistakes. We watch some video on
YouTube on how to deduct all of our
(13:22):
meals. And then we end up in trouble,
right?Yeah. So the goal here is not to
make you afraid, although maybe a little
fear is good because it gives you bravery
to do some things that you probably
should be doing. But the goal here is 2
parts. One, don't get in the IRS
crosshairs. No one wants to be on the
wrong side of the Internal Revenue
Service. And two, not to claim every
possible deduction, but to only claim the
(13:44):
legitimate deductions you're entitled to,
which there are plenty of them. You're
going to be OK. Now, Tony's business
survived. It took about two years to
recover from that audit, and today
they're thriving with proper bookkeeping
and legitimate, you know, deductions.
Smart tax planning is all about building
sustainable, audit-resistant businesses,
(14:05):
not about pushing the envelope until it
tears. And another side note
is when you owe the IRS money, if it's
back taxes or anything,
they are not very lenient.
typically, and the interests are really
high. So that's another reason
that's where people, when they get into
(14:26):
those challenges, it puts them back even
further because of those challenges.
Yeah, and they charge all the fees and
interest up front, so even paying off
more quickly is not going to help you. So
do you want to make sure you're not
missing any legitimate deductions while
avoiding Tony's mistakes?You're in good
hands here. We've created a small
(14:46):
business deduction checker. It's a simple
tool to help you identify deductions you
might be missing while avoiding the risky
ones. And it's something you could have
fun with, get some knowledge about, and
then bring to your tax professional to
help make sure you're taking those
deductions. Talk to your bookkeeper, make
sure all everything is being coordinated,
all those kind of things. You can get it
in the Wealth Wisdom Financial Community
(15:08):
at wealthwisdomfp.com/community
and join today. We've got an entire.
library of resources. Again, that's
wealthwisdomfp.com/community.
Yeah. It sounds like, Amanda, you love
checklists and and little cheat sheets
and all that stuff. I do. Not cheating on
your taxes. Nope. But But other ways to-
(15:29):
Simplifying the process, which actually,
so hit subscribe. I'm going to give you a
super simple, easy way to make all this
happen in next week's episode. OhhSo
there we go. So don't forget, go to that
website and download those
special tools. There's a bunch of them
there at our community,
wealthwisdomfp.com/community.
(15:51):
Thanks for joining. Don't. I always say
this. Don't forget. Hit that subscribe
button and live long and profit
and leave us a review. We'd love that.
Love to hear your comments. Love to hear
what you have to say if you think we're
crazy or whatever. Well, don't
tell us that. But we are a little crazy.
Yeah, we're talking about taxes. Who
(16:14):
is, I don't know, not crazy if you are.
Yeah. And thanks for listening all the
way here to the end. The topic to present
in this podcast for general information
only and not for the purpose of providing
legal, accounting, tax or
investment advice on such matters. Please
consult a professional who knows your
specific situation and make sure they
help you not go to jail or
(16:37):
pay a bunch of fees or pay a bunch of
fees.
Could you be making a $12,000
tax mistake
like Toni, a wedding photographer who
nearly lost her business over a $12,000
tax mistake?Today
we're diving into the deductions that
could save your business thousands and
the ones that could put you in the IRS's
crosshairs and stay tuned to the end
(00:23):
cause we got a surprising statistic
straight from the Internal Revenue
Service Data Service. Think
in a world where chaos seems to reign
supreme, where uncertainty lurks around
every corner and financial markets are
now more unpredictable than ever. There's
(00:43):
one place you can turn to to find clarity
and control. Welcome to the Wealth Wisdom
Financial Podcast. Hey, I'm Brandon.
And I'm Amanda. Join us as we dive deep
in the world of personal and business
finance to assist you in navigating
through the chaos and building the
financial future you deserve. We believe
(01:04):
when conventional financial thinking
doesn't get you where you want to go, you
need wealth wisdom. So if you're ready to
take control of your financial destiny.
Tune into the Wealth Wisdom Financial
Podcast because in a chaotic world,
your money shouldn't be. Subscribe
now and never miss an episode.
(01:25):
So before we dive in, let me tell you
about Toni. They run a
successful wedding photography business
making around 80,000 a year.
They thought they were doing everything
right with their taxes, claiming their
cameras, gear, their editing
software, and their home office.
(01:45):
Yet they got a
audit letter from the IRS. Dun,
dun, dun. With this audit
letter, the IRS said they were going to
question three years of tax returns.
Why?Because Tony had claimed
100% business use of their home
office. the same office where their
(02:07):
kids do their homework, and where they
did their personal photo editing as well.
They also deducted their clothing
because, quote, they were only worn at
weddings, and every meal they ate
while editing photos. The result?$12,000
in back taxes plus penalties and
interest. Tony nearly lost their business
paying it all back. So here's what most
(02:29):
business owners don't realize. The most
expensive tax mistakes aren't usually
from missing the big, obvious deductions.
They come from either missing lots of
small, legitimate deductions or something
along those lines. Yeah, because those
small, legitimate deductions seem too
simple to count. Or maybe it's
(02:50):
because people claim all these
questionable deductions because everyone
does it. Yeah. Tony's story isn't unique.
We hear similar ones all the time. Let's
make sure your business doesn't become
one of them. Yeah. Again, we're recording
this episode because we hear this all the
time. So we're going to start with some
commonly missed deductions, ones that
(03:11):
could have helped Tony actually offset
their tax bill. Then we're going to jump
into some deductions that got Tony in
trouble and could get you in trouble too.
Now before we jump in, a quick reminder,
we are not tax professionals. I mean,
we've filed taxes, we've done all of our
stuff. We are financial professionals. So
we see a lot of things. And so I do think
(03:31):
the interconnection of finance,
making money in the business and and
keeping it and taxes really matters. And
so that's why we want to talk about it
because you don't want to just have your
tax guy say, how do I run my business?or
how do I grow this, you know, but
understanding both sides. This episode's
going to empower you with knowledge and
(03:53):
ideas to bring to your tax professional.
And again, we're not giving individual
tax advice, so don't try and put
me in that box, but we want to
give you some really good
benefits in what I think could
really impact you. Okay, so let's start
with some legitimate deductions. May be
(04:14):
an obvious one, but we're stating any
kind of bank fees, merchant processing
fees, credit card processing fee from
client payments, monthly maintenance
fees, wire transfer fees, even ATM
fees for business withdrawals. The key.
is you have to have a separate
account, something Tony learned the hard
way. If you're mixing and mingling
(04:34):
personal and business, a lot of those
fees you don't get to deduct anymore. So,
if you have separate accounts, keep
everything separate, you're doing that
right, then you can make sure you're
maximizing these fees and getting
deductions for them. Makes it also
challenging when you're doing uh
financial audit to figure out what's
who's where makes it a lot more
difficult. Yeah. Another deduction a lot
(04:56):
of people use is car expenses.
But don't forget beyond the mileage. Most
people know about mileage deductions, but
you can also deduct parking fees for
client meetings, tolls on business trips,
car washes if you use your vehicle for
client meetings. Perfect for those
wedding photographers like Tony or the
real estate agents, right?Keep those
(05:16):
receipts separate from your personal car
expenses, of course. Now there's also the
getting started cost, cost from before
you officially opened market
research expenses, training and
certificates, business plan consulting.
These are often forgotten because they
came from personal accounts before
(05:37):
the business actually existed. So while
you got everything separate now, think
about before you had it separate, what
might you need to make sure you're
accounting for and make sure you got all
the documentation for that and everything
too. So those are legitimate things.
Now let's talk about some deductions that
got Tony in trouble, often because people
claimed them but shouldn't. Yeah. Again,
(05:58):
we see these often. Yeah. There's
the the home office myth. How many times
have we watched videos on this?Right, I
mean, I see it a lot. So
there's the home office myth. Tell us
about that, I mean. The big thing is you
need a space that's used
exclusively for business.
This means no guest bed in the corner, no
(06:20):
personal desk items, no kids doing their
homework after hours. This is one of
Tony's biggest mistakes, mixing business
and personal use. Now,
that being said, if an IRS agent does
show up at your house looking to expect
your home office,I hope you'll do what my
tax pro told me to do. Unless they have a
search warrant, which IRS agents don't
(06:40):
really get search warrants, you can say
no. Give them your tax pro's contact
information and that's it. Don't say
anything more. Don't offer them a cup of
tea on your living room and tell them
your life story. Just say no and give
them your tax pro's professionals. This
is why tax professionals are worth some
of their cost. With the right
credentials, they are able to represent
(07:01):
you in front of the IRS. So that
you only need to talk to the IRS agent
with your tax pro present and only as
needed. So follow all the rules for the
home office myth. Don't fall into the
home office myth. Follow the rules
exclusively for business, nothing else
there. But also don't let an IRS agent
inspect it unless they've got a warrant
(07:21):
in your tax presence and all those
things. And watch Young Sheldon. I think
he had some episodes on being audited
himself, right?Oh, that was a great
episode from Young Sheldon. The second
one that I got Tony into trouble is the
business clothing trap. You can't have
the business pay for your clothes unless
it's a required uniform or protective
(07:44):
gear. Looking professional isn't
enough. So I can't do that with these?No,
noEven if you only wear it for work, it
doesn't count. If you could wear it
elsewhere, it's probably not deductible.
Just like you can't put a logo on your
car and then deduct every single car
expense,You can't simply put a logo and a
polo to get a tax deduction.
(08:05):
So for Tony, those wedding-only outfits,
not deductible, as Tony discovered. Yeah,
that's again, one of those things that
I've seen. And then there's the
business meal mistake. I mean, this
is, again, another one thatI'm gonna just
put it on the the account and deduct it.
Eating alone at your desk
(08:26):
isn't a business meal. I know you're
thinking, Why is he saying that?Because
people have done it. Eating alone at
your desk isn't a business
meal. Working through lunch doesn't make
it deductible. You need documented
business purpose and who you
met with. which must include some kind
(08:47):
of business discussion, not just
networking. Now, I looked into
some of the really nerdy case law and
case notes about people getting in
trouble with Internal Revenue Service
specifically for this meal mistake, and
the Irs has thisBusiness
expense substantiation requirement,
which is a fancy way of saying you need
(09:09):
documentation of the meeting purpose at
the time of the meeting and what was
discussed, who was there, all the things
doesn't mean you need formal meeting
minutes. But you know how people keep
like a journal in their car to write down
their mileage and different car expenses,
put their receipts in there, or they have
an app that tracks it?You could have
something like that for your meetings
too. When you have a meeting, you keep a
(09:30):
meeting log. What was the purpose of the
meeting?What was discussed there?Who was
there?That's a great idea to make sure
any business meals have this business
expense substantiation tied to them.
Tony learned that editing photos while
eating doesn't make a lunch deductible.
Now you might be thinking, but everybody
else is doing these things. We're going
(09:51):
to address that when we get after the
break.
Ready to take the next step towards
securing your financial future, whether
you're planning for retirement, saving
for your dream home, or you just want to
make your money work harder for you. The
(10:12):
team at Wealth Wisdom Financial are ready
to assist you, and now it's easier than
ever to see how we might give you a boost
on your financial journey. Schedule a 15
minute discovery call with one of us
today and let's discuss your questions
and your financial goals together. Don't
wait any longer. Your financial freedom
awaits. Schedule your discovery call at
(10:33):
www.wealthwisdomfp.com/call.
So I get to hear this from Amanda all the
time. Uh also whenever I'm thinking about
it um she is very to the book
right?Um and and I'm like well
(10:53):
other people are doing it and she's like
yeah but we need to follow um the
rules and so this is where
um having that on your team is really
important because otherwise I don't want
to go to jail and neither should you. Um
so if you're thinking butFriend's
accountant lets them deduct all those
things. That's exactly what Tony thought
too. Their friend's accountant was more
(11:15):
aggressive with deductions, but when the
audit came, the friend's accountant
wasn't the one on the hook for the
penalties. So while your tax pro can
represent you before the IRS, we talked
about earlier, you're still the one
that's accountable for signing your tax
return and all the numbers listed there.
In other words, you're the one that pays
the fees and the penalties and could
potentially go to jail, not your tax pro
(11:36):
in most cases. And make sure you have an
Amanda on your team that can help make
sure you do all those things. Now,
at the risk of sounding like a nagging
parent and somebody that's way too risk
averse, we want you to remember one
thing. Just because someone else does it
doesn't mean you should do it, right?Just
because they've done it and haven't
(11:57):
gotten caught doesn't make it legal.
In fact, I found this chart. We're going
to put it on the screen, on the video.
I'll try to put a link to it in the show
notes if you're listening to the podcast
version. This chart of cases closed by
the Internal Revenue Service in fiscal
year 2023. This comes
from the Internal Revenue Service Data
(12:19):
Book, the 2023 version. It's the latest I
could find. A huge portion
of the cases that they brought and
closed were against small
businesses and self-employed. It's
actually about 45,000
cases they brought in 2023 against small
businesses and the self-employed. Compare
that with. Only
(12:40):
2495
cases that were closed against large
businesses and international.
So huge difference there. So they can
make a lot more money from the big guys.
But the big guys have like, we're purely
speculating now, but the big guys also
can pay attorneys way more than the
Internal Revenue Service agent is being
(13:01):
paid or their legal representation. And
so like, yeah, they're they're definitely
going after small businesses and the
self-employed way more and to bring in
more cases and maybe because we make more
mistakes too. Yeah, I mean, I would say
we don't have the tools or we make
more mistakes. We watch some video on
YouTube on how to deduct all of our
(13:22):
meals. And then we end up in trouble,
right?Yeah. So the goal here is not to
make you afraid, although maybe a little
fear is good because it gives you bravery
to do some things that you probably
should be doing. But the goal here is 2
parts. One, don't get in the IRS
crosshairs. No one wants to be on the
wrong side of the Internal Revenue
Service. And two, not to claim every
possible deduction, but to only claim the
(13:44):
legitimate deductions you're entitled to,
which there are plenty of them. You're
going to be OK. Now, Tony's business
survived. It took about two years to
recover from that audit, and today
they're thriving with proper bookkeeping
and legitimate, you know, deductions.
Smart tax planning is all about building
sustainable, audit-resistant businesses,
(14:05):
not about pushing the envelope until it
tears. And another side note
is when you owe the IRS money, if it's
back taxes or anything,
they are not very lenient.
typically, and the interests are really
high. So that's another reason
that's where people, when they get into
(14:26):
those challenges, it puts them back even
further because of those challenges.
Yeah, and they charge all the fees and
interest up front, so even paying off
more quickly is not going to help you. So
do you want to make sure you're not
missing any legitimate deductions while
avoiding Tony's mistakes?You're in good
hands here. We've created a small
(14:46):
business deduction checker. It's a simple
tool to help you identify deductions you
might be missing while avoiding the risky
ones. And it's something you could have
fun with, get some knowledge about, and
then bring to your tax professional to
help make sure you're taking those
deductions. Talk to your bookkeeper, make
sure all everything is being coordinated,
all those kind of things. You can get it
in the Wealth Wisdom Financial Community
(15:08):
at wealthwisdomfp.com/community
and join today. We've got an entire.
library of resources. Again, that's
wealthwisdomfp.com/community.
Yeah. It sounds like, Amanda, you love
checklists and and little cheat sheets
and all that stuff. I do. Not cheating on
your taxes. Nope. But But other ways to-
(15:29):
Simplifying the process, which actually,
so hit subscribe. I'm going to give you a
super simple, easy way to make all this
happen in next week's episode. OhhSo
there we go. So don't forget, go to that
website and download those
special tools. There's a bunch of them
there at our community,
wealthwisdomfp.com/community.
(15:51):
Thanks for joining. Don't. I always say
this. Don't forget. Hit that subscribe
button and live long and profit
and leave us a review. We'd love that.
Love to hear your comments. Love to hear
what you have to say if you think we're
crazy or whatever. Well, don't
tell us that. But we are a little crazy.
Yeah, we're talking about taxes. Who
(16:14):
is, I don't know, not crazy if you are.
Yeah. And thanks for listening all the
way here to the end. The topic to present
in this podcast for general information
only and not for the purpose of providing
legal, accounting, tax or
investment advice on such matters. Please
consult a professional who knows your
specific situation and make sure they
help you not go to jail or
(16:37):
pay a bunch of fees or pay a bunch of
fees.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Las Culturistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang
Ding dong! Join your culture consultants, Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang, on an unforgettable journey into the beating heart of CULTURE. Alongside sizzling special guests, they GET INTO the hottest pop-culture moments of the day and the formative cultural experiences that turned them into Culturistas. Produced by the Big Money Players Network and iHeartRadio.