0:04

Hello and

0:04

welcome to a another exciting

0:07

episode of Bridge the Gap where

0:07

we're balancing life through

0:11

health, wealth, business and

0:11

relationships.

0:16

Alright, hello everyone and

0:16

welcome to the show. My name is

0:18

Colton Cockerell. And with me, I

0:18

have Miss Trisha Stetzel, my co

0:23

host Trisha good day

0:26

today. until

0:26

early for you, I know it's okay.

0:31

You just keep eating your

0:31

breakfast. It's all good. Hey

0:33

guys, welcome back. As you might

0:33

remember, we are talking about

0:40

financial wellness this month.

0:40

And so today we're going to talk

0:43

about tax preparation and who

0:43

better to talk about taxes than

0:47

Ryan Beals? With Ryan Beals, CPA

0:51

Ryan Beals,

0:51

CPA. Yes. And before we

0:53

introduce Ryan Ryan says hello

0:53

needed to hear his lovely voice.

0:57

I do want to give a shout out to

0:57

our sponsor today, which is

0:59

Results Xtreme Business

0:59

Solutions for all your business

1:03

needs. All right, we think she

1:03

liked it a little addition.

1:06

Ryan.

1:07

Hey, how's it going?

1:07

Appreciate you having me on?

1:10

Oh my gosh, of

1:10

course, of course. Hey, so we're

1:12

gonna jump right in because we

1:12

only have 16 minutes. So Ryan, I

1:16

know is the month of March and

1:16

tax season is like less than a

1:20

month away at this point, as

1:20

we're airing this podcast, and

1:24

so I'm sure a lot of questions

1:24

on people's mind, especially

1:27

those who are putting in their

1:27

last minute taxes. So let's go

1:30

ahead and dive on in. Whenever

1:30

you're hiring a CPA tax

1:33

professional. Why why do you

1:33

necessarily need that you hear

1:37

everyone? Oh, TurboTax or, you

1:37

know, all these other self?

1:42

These other self softwares? What

1:42

you know, what is the importance

1:45

of working with a tax preparer

1:45

or a CPA?

1:48

You know, the

1:48

biggest thing for hiring a CPA

1:50

is that when you go to your DIY

1:50

spaces like a TurboTax and h&r

1:55

block, a lot of times it's just

1:55

a service, it's a means to an

1:57

end, all's it is is filing your

1:57

taxes. But when you work with a

2:01

tax professional like myself,

2:01

we're really digging in seeing

2:04

where you are helping you and be

2:04

more of a strategy to help you

2:07

save on taxes and less just

2:07

prepare the taxes, which at this

2:10

point is more of a commodity. So

2:10

helping you be the most

2:13

efficient you can with your

2:13

taxes and helping you run your

2:15

business in that way.

2:17

Oh, for sure. That probably was the first time he's got that question. Ready?

2:19

Yes. There it is.

2:24

Ready? There it

2:24

is. So, Ryan, you know, small

2:28

business owners, probably I'm

2:28

just guessing are reluctant to

2:34

work with a CPA throughout the

2:34

year. And a lot of times,

2:38

they're really just looking into

2:38

tax season. So when is the right

2:41

time to bring a CPA in and

2:41

partner in your business?

2:45

The right time is right now, even if you're listening to this six months

2:47

from now, nine months from now

2:49

could be August, the 26th,

2:49

you're listening to this

2:52

podcast, probably all freaked

2:52

out. If that's the case, it's

2:55

time to call your CPA, the best

2:55

time to hire a CPA is throughout

3:00

the year, because then is that's

3:00

the best time to get the most

3:04

value and to have the strategy

3:04

because the best tax savings in

3:08

the best tax planning is done

3:08

throughout the year. And after

3:11

your end, it's honestly all too

3:11

late. You get to a point when

3:15

you're filing your taxes, and

3:15

there's only a few things you

3:18

can do it that point. So the big

3:18

money happens during the year.

3:21

So let's talk about that. I mean, that's a really good point. I think a lot

3:22

of people, they start thinking

3:26

about tax season either when the

3:26

new year starts. So when they

3:28

start getting their 1099 or W2s.

3:28

So what what So to explain a

3:33

little bit more, what are things

3:33

that CPAs can do and tax

3:36

preparers for the individual

3:36

throughout the year even past

3:39

the April and October deadline.

3:42

Sure. So throughout

3:42

the year, one thing that

3:45

business owners don't realize

3:45

they need to do, especially when

3:47

they're in those beginning

3:47

stages, is calculating estimated

3:50

taxes. I can't tell you how many

3:50

times I'll get to the end of the

3:54

year and in May or in April,

3:54

we're calculating their taxes

3:58

and they've hit it out of the

3:58

ballpark. They've had a great

4:00

year, but they haven't filed

4:00

they haven't paid their

4:03

estimated taxes throughout the

4:03

year. So they have this really

4:06

big number. So it is scary. You

4:06

know, it's they're not used to

4:10

if they're coming from a W2 they

4:10

they're used to withholdings,

4:13

that's one thing we help with.

4:13

So that's a piece and then also

4:16

the strategy doing having advice

4:16

on how to run your business to

4:22

be more efficient, tax wise, is

4:22

done throughout the years. Well,

4:26

especially when you get to your

4:26

end when you're talking about do

4:29

I do I buy this or not having

4:29

those conversations is really

4:33

important as well. So that's

4:33

something that happens beyond

4:35

the typical policies.

4:37

So, you're telling me that you're not retroactive, you're telling me

4:39

you're actually trying to be proactive.

4:42

Proactive is the

4:42

best way save tax on that

4:44

retroactive. You know, it's I

4:44

mean, there are some things you

4:48

can do but like said the big

4:48

money happens throughout the

4:50

year being proactive is going to

4:50

be the best strategy to actually

4:53

save on taxes and get the most out of it.

4:56

Good word

4:57

I said. So,

4:57

Ryan, what are you Some of the

5:00

most common mistakes you see

5:00

from small business owners.

5:04

So I gotta say, the

5:04

biggest mistakes that I see is

5:08

probably just not understanding

5:08

that they need to file this may

5:11

taxes throughout the year. It

5:11

could be I mean, if you really

5:14

hit the park, it's not uncommon

5:14

for them to owe a really big

5:17

number and it to be five plus

5:17

digits in taxes because they

5:20

didn't understand and you do

5:20

that. One of the thing, and, you

5:25

know, mistakes happen between

5:25

just not knowing that they can

5:28

take these expenses, or putting

5:28

the TurboTax and TurboTax doing

5:33

its magic throughout the same,

5:33

you know, behind the scenes, and

5:35

then giving them a form that

5:35

they think is right, but may not

5:38

be, but they just not

5:38

understanding that it might be

5:42

so not putting in information

5:42

from their forms correctly,

5:47

putting stuff in twice, not

5:47

being able, not knowing what

5:50

expenses they can take

5:50

throughout the year. And so

5:55

those would be the biggest

5:55

things, not maybe, I don't want

6:00

to say not being aggressive

6:00

enough. But a lot of business

6:02

owners just don't realize that

6:02

there's some expenses like home

6:06

office and milage that they can

6:06

take that they they're leaving

6:09

on the table a lot of times.

6:11

And so and with that mean, isn't there a penalty to at the end of the

6:13

year if you do not withhold, you

6:16

know, the right amount of taxes every quarter.

6:18

There is there is

6:18

underpayment, penalties,

6:21

especially if you owe more tax

6:21

than you did in the previous

6:25

year, and you didn't withhold

6:25

enough, it could be a big one,

6:28

and then not filing as well. And

6:28

the longer that you go without

6:31

paying there's there's interest

6:31

accruing behind the scenes as

6:34

well.

6:35

Oh, goodness. All right. So then with that, you know, for someone who let's

6:37

say they are just paying a lump

6:41

sum, I didn't withhold anything

6:41

this year 1099, or even w2 w2

6:45

also is that also affected by w2

6:45

employees.

6:50

So if you're you

6:50

could have some withholding if

6:53

you also are working a side job,

6:53

and withholding on the side with

6:56

another business. But one

6:56

strategy, you can have to make

7:00

sure that if you're listening to

7:00

this, and you're like, Oh man, I

7:03

haven't withheld anything. One

7:03

strategy you can take just to

7:06

see how it goes in these first

7:06

couple months is, as you're

7:09

bringing in money, 15% of

7:09

revenue, take that to the side

7:13

and pay that the the IRS every

7:13

quarter. And that can be a good

7:17

point to start, and then adjust

7:17

that as you go gets a little too

7:21

much, you can withhold a little

7:21

bit less. And then when once you

7:24

hire a CPA, you can have a

7:24

little bit more precise number

7:27

and the end goal, the chef's

7:27

kiss, if you will get that

7:31

number to where it's within a

7:31

couple $100. Hopefully, it's

7:34

overpaid. And you're good to go

7:34

in taxes on a on a problem. It's

7:37

just a matter of filing.

7:39

You got those

7:39

people though, who are like, You

7:41

know what, I love a refund, I

7:41

want to make sure that I get

7:43

money back and get the people

7:43

like I've given the IRS dime

7:46

more than they need. I don't

7:46

want them using my money for

7:48

interest. You know, they just

7:51

yeah, see the one of

7:51

the other? You know, yes, I see

7:54

that a lot too. And, you know,

7:54

having that conversation with

7:57

them, it's like, just because

7:57

you had a refund doesn't mean

7:59

that you paid less or more

7:59

taxes. It just means you gave

8:03

the IRS a bigger loan this year.

8:03

A lot of

8:07

So, Ryan, I

8:07

think in this small business

8:10

space, one of the things that I

8:10

hear a lot is holy cow, it cost

8:14

me 1000s of dollars to get my

8:14

taxes done every year. Is there

8:18

is there a different ideal out

8:18

there? I know you and I have

8:21

talked about you know, maybe

8:21

this subscription ideal of

8:25

letting people pay a smaller

8:25

amount or letting the small

8:29

business owners pay a smaller

8:29

amount over the year versus just

8:34

tossing out two or $3,000 to get

8:34

their taxes filed. Can we talk a

8:37

little bit about that?

8:38

Yeah, absolutely.

8:38

And this is something that I've

8:40

thought a lot about. And I

8:40

understand that point of having

8:47

to spend a large lump sum to

8:47

file your taxes in April might

8:52

not be the best strategy. And it

8:52

can be really hard for that

8:55

point. So so really figure out a

8:55

way to stretch out the cost

9:00

throughout the year and provide

9:00

more value than you might get.

9:02

So one thing that I do is I have

9:02

a subscription model, and that

9:06

is the tax preparation that

9:06

planning questions throughout

9:09

the year. I don't charge any

9:09

more for that if you get letters

9:11

from the IRS taking care of that

9:11

quarterly estimated payments for

9:15

calculating down the side. So

9:15

really trying to find a holistic

9:18

approach to to provide as much

9:18

value as possible to the small

9:22

business owners because we're

9:22

being squeezed in ways they

9:24

don't understand.

9:26

I really like

9:26

that Ryan is it seems more like

9:29

a personal service, right?

9:29

Instead of me bringing you a

9:31

shoe box or receipts and saying

9:31

hey, can you figure this out,

9:34

and I'll drop you a few $1,000

9:34

Right. So it's more

9:37

personalized,

9:38

trying to figure out

9:38

a way to take as much off the

9:40

business owners plate as they

9:40

can to make it as easy as

9:44

possible for them. If I can get

9:44

to the point to where they just

9:47

hand in the documents and even

9:47

better to where they just say

9:50

hey, taxes done. Here's a you

9:50

know, trying to really try to

9:54

take as much off their plate as

9:54

possible and thinking about ways

9:58

to take that to the next level.

9:58

Every point.

10:02

Yeah, that's really interesting. And I feel like that's a, that's a model

10:03

that we're probably gonna be

10:05

getting into, you know, years

10:05

from now is the subscription

10:08

styling people prefer to just

10:08

pay a flat fee every month

10:11

versus, you know, a large sum

10:11

at, you know, one period of

10:15

time. So that's actually a very

10:15

interesting way to look at it.

10:18

What about this? And that's, and

10:18

we, we have to probably have you

10:22

back just to speak solely on

10:22

that type of model. But I'm

10:25

curious because we do have

10:25

listeners too. Again, they

10:27

haven't filed their taxes. What

10:27

do you have any tips for anyone?

10:31

If they are filing right now?

10:31

Maybe they're not using a CPA?

10:34

What are some little things that

10:34

nuggets that they probably don't

10:36

know, because they're not

10:36

working with CPA and hopefully

10:38

those nuggets will make them realize, hey, I need to work with a CPA. Do you have any

10:40

golden nuggets?

10:43

Yes, absolutely. So

10:43

one of the first things, if you

10:46

aren't already, you should really consider hiring a bookkeeper. That is one of the

10:48

you know, you hear the thing,

10:51

the bill saying garbage in

10:51

garbage out, having a bookkeeper

10:54

could be one of the easiest, or

10:54

one of the biggest returns on

10:58

value, is having those numbers

10:58

this side can help you if you

11:03

already had the financials, it

11:03

should be able to plug in the

11:05

return, especially if you're in

11:05

those first couple years. Having

11:09

those financials is will make

11:09

filing the return easier. And

11:13

when you're talking to your CPA

11:13

having those numbers and they

11:15

clean numbers in something

11:15

that's easy to look at. And

11:19

comparable. It's I can take

11:19

those numbers and run with it

11:23

and help you to vote in the best

11:23

way possible, instead of trying

11:27

to figure out based on you know,

11:27

just talking to you what you got

11:29

going on having those numbers.

11:29

That's That's my language. So

11:33

having the Rosetta Stone, if you

11:33

will, the financials is probably

11:37

the best step.

11:39

So Ryan, oh, we

11:39

do have some startups or people

11:43

who are, you know, leaving

11:43

corporate jobs that are opening

11:46

businesses to some startups out

11:46

there listening to the show? Can

11:50

you give us a once over the

11:50

difference between a bookkeeper

11:54

and a CPA?

11:56

Absolutely. So a

11:56

bookkeeper is going to be more

11:58

in your day to day tracking your

11:58

expenses on a like said everyday

12:03

kind of level, as you spend, you

12:03

go to Starbucks, you buy

12:06

equipment, you'd have all the

12:06

revenue that's coming in there,

12:08

categorizing it into the correct

12:08

place, and putting it into a

12:12

format that's actually usable to

12:12

where people like the business

12:16

owner can have something

12:16

comparable as either to month to

12:18

month. That is what a bookkeeper

12:18

does, that's their job is really

12:22

the organizer in the CPA is more

12:22

of a strategist taking that

12:28

information and running with it.

12:28

So you're doing this, we really

12:31

need to do this instead, let's

12:31

let's organize the business this

12:35

way. If we did it this way, as

12:35

opposed to that way you can save

12:38

X amount on taxes. So taking

12:38

that information and applying it

12:42

strategically.

12:45

And so and that is interesting, because I think even with you know,

12:47

speaking with her the CFO a few

12:50

weeks ago, Trisha, you know, she

12:50

also was very focused on the

12:53

accounting, the CPA, the

12:53

bookkeeper, the CFO. That's very

12:58

interesting given there, I like that they all kind of work together, they all are kind of

13:00

over they entwined. Let me ask

13:04

you this, what is it like? And

13:04

I've actually never asked any

13:06

CPA to surprisingly, but what is

13:06

it like to work with such a

13:09

dysfunctional organization like

13:09

the IRS?

13:13

You know, it's one

13:13

of those things where the IRS

13:15

gives laws. And it's, a lot of

13:15

times it's up for

13:20

interpretation, because their

13:20

interpretation is so loose, and

13:25

they the IRS is stuck between a

13:25

rock and a hard place between

13:28

being accessible and being

13:28

precise. And I could imagine

13:33

that if you're a lawyer, you're

13:33

thought of precise and

13:37

accessibility is different from

13:37

the average person. But on top

13:41

of that, the IRS, they, they're

13:41

dealing with the same problems.

13:45

We are there working from home,

13:45

they're trying to figure out

13:49

this paper thing. And there's

13:49

stories of papers being stored

13:54

in the parking lot of storage

13:54

containers and trying to get to

13:58

all this information. And there

13:58

they have a very large backlog

14:01

and it's hard to get ahold of

14:01

them sometimes. So the I saw a

14:05

recent recent survey that only

14:05

20% of the calls the IRS, we're

14:12

actually being answered by a

14:12

person. And that was the last

14:15

couple months. So it if your tax

14:15

preparer is trying to get ahold

14:20

of the IRS just know they're

14:20

trying, but it's hard sometimes

14:23

with what we're given.

14:24

I read an

14:24

article called I was sharing

14:27

this with Ryan a little bit

14:27

earlier before the show, I read

14:30

an article that the IRS is being

14:30

audited

14:32

than they

14:32

should be no i I've done this a

14:38

few times with clients. Just

14:38

kind of like as an added

14:41

service. I helped them you know,

14:41

get an EIN number from from IRS.

14:46

Usually a pretty quick process,

14:46

but there are times on

14:50

processing EINs now where

14:50

depending on you know how long

14:53

ago you're trying to get number.

14:53

It is Unbeliev like It's like

14:56

months, like two months before

14:56

you get it. I mean Depending

15:00

again, if you go online versus

15:00

doing a paper depending on the

15:02

circumstance, but it is insane.

15:02

And yes, you're on hold for over

15:07

an hour just to get a hold some

15:07

It's so frustrating. I'm sorry.

15:09

We want to keep talking about

15:09

the IRS. And that's what people

15:11

don't talk about. But, man,

15:11

Ryan, that that was good

15:14

information. Again, we, we

15:14

talked about the financial

15:18

wellness three times out of the

15:18

year, three months out of the

15:20

year. So we definitely want to

15:20

have you back. So I kind of want

15:22

to focus solely on the idea of a

15:22

subscription model, because I

15:25

think that's fascinating. I

15:25

think our listeners will be more

15:28

intrigued to hear what that's

15:28

about. Trisha, you want to wrap

15:30

us up?

15:32

Yeah,

15:32

absolutely. I would love to do

15:34

that. And by the way, we need to

15:34

talk about the next time Ryan

15:37

comes back about cryptocurrency

15:37

and taxes too, because I know

15:39

that's your favorite topic.

15:41

I was trying to leave, trying to leave it alone to take leave it alone

15:45

today.

15:48

Anything. Yeah.

15:48

Ryan, thank

15:51

you so much for being on the show today. We really enjoyed chatting with

15:52

you. And for our listeners Tune

15:57

in next week for another

15:57

exciting episode of Bridge the

16:00

Gap will be focused on financial

16:00

independence, right, because

16:04

we've got five shows in March,

16:06

who's our guests next week.

16:07

Oh, gosh. I

16:07

think it just might be Colton

16:10

Cockerell. I know. Could you

16:10

guys imagine? Alright, thanks

16:16

again guys, and we'll see you

16:16

next week.

16:19

Thanks again for tuning into this week's podcast. Don't forget to

16:21

subscribe and share this podcast

16:24

with the most important people

16:24

in your life. Colton Cockerell

16:27

with Sharer McKinley Group, LLC

16:27

is located at 820 South

16:29

Friendswood Drive Suite 207

16:29

Friendswood, Texas 77546 phone

16:33

number to 281-992-5698.

16:33

Securities and investment

16:35

advisory services offered

16:35

through NEXT Financial Group,

16:37

Inc. member FINRA/SIPC Sharer McKinley Group is not an affiliate of NEXT Financial

16:39

Group, Inc.