It's a Team's Life

Tax Time

Tax Time

It’s that time of year again. A time that many people dread or stress over. It is tax time. As business owners we have so many opportunities to legally dedicate expenses that the average W2 employee does not have. Yet there are still business owners that try to cheat the system to avoid paying anything in taxes.

Our current president is also a business owner. Love him or despise him, he understands business and how to use the tax laws in a business owner’s favor. This year is the beginning of new tax laws going into effect. If you enjoy learning, you might want to read the new tax laws that will allow all business owners more tax deductions than in previous years. If that type of reading would put you to sleep, hire a certified public accountant (CPA) to help you with figuring out what deductions might be available to your business situation.

Personally, we are too busy managing and working in our business to take the time to learn tax law. For this reason, we hire a CPA to do our taxes. Our CPA also gives us legal suggestions as to what we can do to avoid paying more taxes than is required by law. 

With each new administration comes different laws regarding our tax responsibilities. This year more deductions might be available to business owners. This year might be a golden opportunity to find a CPA if you don’t have one. This year might also be a great time to plan ahead. For what should we plan? Every business owner should plan how they will spend business income in such a way as to have the most legal deductions possible. Ask your accountant what new things have been put into law that will allow business owners to find legal deductions. Once we know the laws we can use them to our advantage. 

After having said all of this, there still is another way to look at taxes. It is every business and person’s obligation to pay the amount of taxes that is required by law. In some cases, it might actually make more sense to pay the taxes required rather than spend unnecessarily to try to avoid taxes. Does it make sense to go into debt to spend extra on things that a business does not need? A business might decide to spend on equipment that might cost more than the taxes paid at tax time. Why spend more on that piece of equipment which might cost more than the required tax amount? That makes no sense. If it makes sense to invest in your business by spending, then do it. If you are only spending to avoid taxes, you might want to rethink your strategy. Why put your business at risk by going into debt for an unnecessary expense? Think. Plan. Execute. Prosper.

Here’s to millions of safe, profitable and TAX FREE miles.

Kelly Plumb