subscribe

Is it equitable that while large conglomerates can afford to hire savvy planners to help them reduce their tax bill, smaller enterprises end up paying proportionally far more than they should? On one side of the coin is the belief that smaller entities already face formidable challenges even without large tax bills. As a counterpoint, it could be argued that the system is indeed just, since the tax laws are the same, no matter what size the corporate taxpayer. The functional difference is the ability of the larger enterprises to use legal technicalities and interpretations to their advantage, as opposed to the probability that the small business simply follows the black letter of the tax rules and regulations. At the heart of this situation is the reluctance of many accountants to be real tax advisers and to help small businesses arrange their operations to best take advantage of strategies that would result in a lower tax bill. Lots of accountants simply take the raw numbers from their clients and enter them into a tax preparation program. No real planning or review process – just in and out. Accounting and tax professionals hired by small business may argue that among their top priorities is providing their services at a rate that their clients can afford. They are of the belief that engaging in true strategic tax planning would produce a sizable bill that their customers did not intend to incur. There may be some truth to the notion that certain small businesses are interested in securing simple tax compliance at the lowest possible fee, it seems logical that increasing numbers of such entrepreneurs would realize that by paying slightly higher professional fees upfront, they may realize tax savings that would far outweigh the initial expenditure. Ultimately, it’s the responsibility of each small business to achieve the best bottom line results that they can. Paying a larger tax bill than is necessary is not conducive to achieving that goal. Just because your accountant has done your taxes for many years, knows you and your business, and charges less than is advertised elsewhere doesn’t mean that they are the best option for you. It is time to look for competent tax planning advice. This needs to be done as soon as possible, not after the year is over but at the beginning of the year, as that is when strategies can be implemented that can result in big tax savings. What you should do is to take a lesson from this big corporations that enjoy all those big tax breaks and invest in a professional tax planner. As a small business owner you work too hard and put in too many hours each year to end up giving a big percentage of your profits to the IRS. This is truly an investment that will pay for itself. Hiring a good tax adviser is not about stretching the code or risking an audit, it’s about using the code effectively to save money and pay less. It is important that you hire a qualified tax accountant that can help you to save as much money as possible on your taxes.

If you liked this, try : Tax Planning Sydney

I received an email from Andy Jenkins a little while ago (why do I stay up so late reading my emails? :o (   ) and I just had to read the blog post. It’s something I fully believe everybody should be doing; not necessarily in internet marketing and consulting for small businesses, but that everybody should have a second stream of income to supplement their day job and make their lives better. So I read the article and had to post a reply, which I felt was sooo good I had to share it with you guys. Here it is…..

====================

Hey Andy,

I like your style of writing: upfront, to the point, in your face, funny and so on. I didn’t want to say you’re an inspiration to us all because it always looks soooo cheesy and to me it borders on adulation by the masses… but this time I have to hand it to you… your message was pretty darned good and you’re so right. It did the job with me and got me to thinking about actually doing something along these lines.

You see, I work full time at the moment and I’ve got a bit of a thing about being a full time employee and then holding myself out to be a “consultant” to business people and entrepreneurs that have had the guts to break out of the J.O.B. mould and work on their own business. I haven’t done this yet (although I want to) as I’m not prepared to risk my families security for the sake of my dreams and ambitions. Why should they suffer IF it were to go horribly wrong? Those in the “guru business IM world” that espouse the ideology of “burning your boats and making it work”, i.e. give up your day job so that if you don’t succeed, you won’t be able to eat or keep a roof over your head or pay the bills etc which literally FORCES you to succeed, are plain wrong. Might work with some people, but not for most. Does that make us bad or poor entrepreneurs or business people. NO! We’re sensible. BUT, as you write so clearly, consult alongside your day job UNTIL the consulting work is more than the day job, THEN give up the day job (if you want to that is!).

So please keep writing posts about this topic and give your readers practical hints and tips on the best way to do it or the best resources from which to learn how to break into this market. Remember here in the UK we are in a deep recession so there is a barrier from the start in terms of winning over small businesses and hiring us for such work.

I would be very interested in knowing how to charge for such work. What’s it worth? How do you strike a deal that’s win-win for both me as a consultant and the business as the client?

Please continue Andy……

====================

The URL you should follow if you want to read more about Andy’s original post and follow the comments is below:

http://www.andyjenkinsblog.com/2009/10/22/rant-consulting-is-a-bad-business/#comment-1667

  • Blogroll

Autoresponder is powered by Plugin Great