Our tax office is of course in the same business as H&R Block; but then again we are not, and when someone in our industry really does something well, there isn’t a Golden Globe awards show to give them a trophy or congratulations.  So, here is one from us….good message H&R!

The message is simple but effective:  There are many ways a tax return can be done that are all OK with the IRS, but one of those ways nets the largest refund!  People need to understand this across America, and we talk about tax planning constantly.  We blog, tweet, post, e-mail and on and on, yet we aren’t even getting half of our clients to take us up on a planning session!  The clients who do are often thrilled at the outcomes, and yet it’s just hard to get people to want to spend half the time that they spend planning their vacations on planning their own tax outcomes! (larger refunds would pay for those vacations?!?!)

Why did we say that we aren’t really in H&R`s business? They spend a great deal of time and effort on locations of convenience, fast or same day service and focus on people expecting refunds. They do all taxes, as far as we know, but the focus of their services is obvious.

We, on the other hand, take a few days to do returns, have CPA and EA`s doing the work in ALL cases, and have a second set of eyes review process. We don’t loan our clients the IRS refund to them.  In fact, we are most often working with tax payers whom are not necessarily getting a refund. Complex returns, business owners, landlords, corporations with complex considerations can’t be done in one “walk in the door and walk out with a return” process. We are also likely less expensive, as that “instant service in a high traffic area model” can’t then also be cheaper!

In summary, great message H&R! If you want a same day return, fast service and are willing to take a short term loan to get some of your refund right away, then go to them, as we can’t help you! However, if you want only CPAs or EAs doing your work, and then have it double checked by a second qualified set of eyes and you want it cheaper than most national walk in services for a more complex type return, we are ready for your call or email!

Call us at ________________ or E Mail us at ________________

Now is the time to get these kinds of messages out to prospects!

As Always, You are Welcome!

The Tax “What if” Doctor;-)

Get this message out to your tax prospects and clients and turn them into financial prospects and clients in your lobby!   Happy New year!

Depends on whom you ask, but not for the people that were in the lower brackets already. Don’t get us wrong, this listing of facts is not a political article and won’t bash or elevate Trump. This is just a listing of the facts and with an action plan from our tax office for you to act on!

If last year you were in the lowest Tax Bracket (10%) then you could earn up to $9,275 and pay 10% tax.

Under the plan discussed pre-election, that group loses ground as the new lowest Bracket is 12%.

ACTION….if you were in the 10% bracket last year and were considering an IRA to Roth conversion, do it soon as it will cost you 2% more if the plan goes through.

From $9,275 to $37,500 dollars of taxable income, you win, as that rate is now also 12%, when before from $9,275 to $37,650 the rate was 15%.

ACTION… no action, you may want to wait to see if the deal goes as planned, and you could save 3% tax by holding off on that Roth IRA conversation to see what takes shape.

From $37,650 to $91,150 people would pay 25% and would be very close to what was the $37,500 starting line before, so only $150 income difference on the starting line, but after $91,150 people currently pay 28%. Under the proposed plan they would continue to only pay 25% on an additional $21,350, paying 25% up to $112,500.

ACTION…if you earn less than $112,500 of taxable income, then enjoy the extra 3% on the additional 21K if the plan goes through.

If your income was above $112,500 but below $190,150. You are the biggest loser, as you will pay 5% more, the largest proposed tax increase of all, for persons making under $413,350.

ACTION if the income doesn’t vary (pension driven or settlements) than ROTH NOW if you were planning to, as 5% of the extra $77,650 is $3,882, just for the federal, and more for most states.

The point is, simplification and lowering the corporate burdens to stimulate business doesn’t mean good things for all people. If the proposed framework does pass as planned, then you need to carefully consider where you fall now, what your tax planning goals are and have someone whom does tax planning help you navigate, double check and then take action!

We are just those Tax Sherpa’s!  Call us now and GET IN HERE!

Call us at ______________ or E-Mail us at ________________

As always, You are Welcome!

The Tax “What if” Dr;_)

Below is a Blog that wraps the holiday season and tax planning together, post it to your Blog and get a gift of opportunity!

Every year in December on top of the holiday rush many people have that aha moment, “I’m going to be filing my taxes due and I might have a problem!” There are many things you can do that will help that can have an effect, but often a small tax change at best and then there are other things that can be done that can have a very large affect. With little time left to act you should focus on the things that can really move the needle and not the minor items, here are some examples.

Because people are shopping and giving charity comes to mind. Dropping items at a Goodwill, or Salvation Army and stuffing the kettle every time you walk by one are excellent ways to help your fellow man, but have very little effect on the average tax payer’s bill. If a client when filing a tax return adds up charitable donations, healthcare expenses, mortgage interest on a Schedule A and doesn’t get above 10% of taxable income than they don’t count at all.

WE AREN’T SAYING DON`T  DO THOSE THINGS……YOU SHOULD!

We are saving that you should not count on those items to make any real savings for you in 2016 and there is only 3 weeks left to make something great happen, so drop off the clothes on Jan 2nd instead and if you are over 70 use the time you would have used getting the clothes together and boxing them and driving in the holiday traffic to instead have your investment advisor set up a direct gift from your IRA to the same Charity. It still satisfies “RMD” (minimum IRA withdrawal requirements) but takes that income completely off your taxable income! If you’re a small business owner that files as a schedule C set up your kids to receive payroll from your company and get checks issued and then cashed from your company account before Dec 31st. (If they help any at all in your company) They don’t pay FICA, FUTA or SUTA and neither do you on the match so its cash out of the company pretax. Then as long as it’s less than 6500. For the year than they also don’t pay federal tax on that income.

The list goes on and on so the moral of this Holiday Story is Call us your Tax Planners and squeeze in a 30 min phone call, skype or any other kind of meeting and let’s go through our check list of items often overlooked! We want the New Year to be great for you, not paying as much Federal Tax is a good way to start. 🙂

Call us at ______________ or e-mail us at _______________ and let’s talk it through!

This message will catch a few people in the right frame of mind!  Make it happen!

Happy Holidays and Happy Hunting from the Tax “What-if” Dr;-)

Many advisors came up through the industry starting as a salesperson simply trying to sell products and make a living.  Either you started as a stock broker, insurance agent, or other type of salesperson, but everyone gets into this business knowing one or two simple approaches to client’s needs and have one or two products or services that they feel comfortable deploying.  We all start where we start.  Then over time the professionals learn to add additional education, new skills, new subjects. The last piece of the puzzle is do they ever truly learn to become a business owner in the purest sense.  Black Friday is not a social movement.  It’s the day that most Fortune 500 companies estimate that they go into “the black” from being in the red.  Think about that.  That means JC Penney, Macy’s, Best Buy, and Target operated January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, and October in the red.  They haven’t made money yet.  They’ve spent more than they’ve made and now with two months to go to the end of the year they are cash flow positive.  2/12^th`s of their total time, they’re now at a point where they’re making positive cash flow for their company’s bottom line.  Of course it’s actually monthly, quarterly and managed differently, but the concept of Black Friday is important.

If you compare that to the way most financial advisors think of their practices, most financial advisors earn what they earn, pay all their bills, take vacations, shop, provide for their families, and then with what’s left they go out and market and try to repeat the process.  That’s backwards.  If you’re really going to run a business like a business, then you have to reinvest in the business first!  Why do the major corporations not actually turn a real profit until black Friday?  They understand that what they need to spend on advertising and promotion is a very large portion of their budget.  The idea of return on investment, I put in $1, I don’t take $5 out.  I put in $1, I take out $1.20.  I put $1,000 and I take out $1,200, so I put in $100,000 and I take out $120,000, I put in 1M and I take out 1.2M.  The $200,000 that I need to live a lifestyle that I want means that I should have $1.25M running through my company.  Why don’t most financial advisors work like that?  Because they run their companies backwards.  They don’t invest in the cost of acquisition of the client.  They don’t know their numbers.  What does it cost me to acquire new clients?  What are my new clients’ profiles?  Very few know.  Most simply say “Well, I need to sell something to cover my bills next  month,” and the bills get paid first without thought of client acquisition.  They don’t consider advertising fuel that runs the machine, they consider it a nuisance.

This is a fundamental change that needs to happen with every financial advisor if they truly want to retire well.  Corporations like ours, United Cloud Partners Services, put in processes, enforce accountability for financial advisors, turn their office from a successful selling operation to a successful business.

Make 2017 the year you take the final step with us and you’ll never not know your black Friday dates, times, costs, and expenses if you’re working with us and our professionals whom know how to help you.

Paul A Dyer, CEO

Tip #1

For those people with capital gains from sales of stock or from mutual fund distributions, many know that they can offset those gains with a loss, but few actually sit down and do the annual exercise. It is a good idea to meet with a Tax Planner to look at your losses or winnings. By selling those losing assets, you can offset your other investment gains and end up with an equivalent of no capital gains. Many people would rather not sell their under performing assets, because they believe they’re about to “come back” and wouldn’t dare wait the 31-day waiting period to repurchase the same asset as an allowable purchase but there are many legal “work a rounds” to that rule. The Market has been and is foretasted to continue to be volatile , you should be meeting and discussing a plan that can be executed on a set number during a Dip or Peak.

Tip #2

De-characterization of Roth rollovers pre market corrections. Many people have converted monies from an IRA to a Roth IRA on a high up to a few months ago, or have also inherited taxable IRAs from a relative who has passed away. This leaves them exposed to an unintentional tax bill. If you rolled money to a Roth during the year and now that stock account is worth much less, the IRS will allow you to “unroll” that Roth back to regular IRA under certain circumstances. Don’t feel that because you’ve converted money to a Roth IRA, and then had another tax anomaly take place, that you’re stuck with that conversion. Once a year, you can “Un-Roth” money back to an IRA to undo a taxable event.

Tip #3

One thing that almost everyone you speak to agrees on is the fact that in the future, 2016 and beyond, Tax Brackets and Tax Rules and Laws are going to be changing and becoming more and more of an issue. If your financial planner, insurance planner or other trusted advice giver is not giving you advise from a Tax Perspective than you may want to reconsider your choices. Also IRS “letter audits” are on the rise and the US is still in financial trouble. If your current Advisor says, “Don’t let the Tax tail wag the dog” as a response to tax planning questions …fire them! They are side stepping a major factor on your future financial security!

Call and Make a Tax Planning Appointment before Thanksgiving and lets pay more attention to controlling your outcome!

We will send a complementary copy of our Booklet “9 Easy Ways to reduce your Taxes” as a thank you and a starting line!

As Always,

If president Trump is able to accomplish even half of his agenda for the tax code, the business community will be celebrating, expanding, hiring, and this creates a gigantic opportunity for tax office owners to dive in to the “tax planning for business owners” field.

Tax planning for 1040 filers has always been a necessary and lucrative way for financial advisors to meet new financial planning prospects. Solve the tax problems, win the trust, and then become the financial advisor; but many advisors have not put the same effort into understanding the issues of business owners and understanding the opportunities that they create for a financial advisor. We’ll separate this discussion into two categories. There are large businesses.  Any company with 50 employees or more, as an example, has a CFO, CMO, internal accounting processes and the opportunity there usually comes from the top down.  Meaning, you don’t just get your foot in the door in that size business.  It’s usually who you know that gets you in to see CEO`s in that size company.  But the small market, ten employees or less, is a great place to build an incredible financial practice.  Companies from $1M to $3M in revenue with one to ten employees have a litany of issues from bookkeeping, accounting, payroll, business valuation needs, and the list goes on and on, but financial advisors in the past have not gravitated to helping solve the problems faced by these businesses and their owners.

To win the 401k, the buy/sell agreement sales, DI, the life, and all the other topics in the sea of opportunity for an advisor, they need to learn all of the points of pain for a small business owner, and then develop a process for solving those problems.  Tax planning, accounting issues, payroll issues and business valuation issues often quickly lead to 401(k), buy/sell, group life, individual life on the business owner and their business partners, and then their financial planning as individuals.  It’s very lucrative, and because of what’s about to happen, if Trump is successful with some of his agenda, it is going to be a fast growing space which very few financial advisors are truly prepared to serve.

Join us for a webinar or a one on one demo introducing the concept of what’s going to be done in the tax space under the Trump agenda, what those opportunities turn into for the issues you’ll need to master, and the way that you can become a small business expert in the field that’s about to become a blue ocean opportunity.

P.S. Ask me about our NEW Social Media Marketing Automation Program!

Paul A. Dyer, CEO

15 Phillips Rd, Suite B

Glenburn, ME 04401

Toll Free ● 866-998-1141

www.ucloudps.com

https://twitter.com/Ucloudps/status/793058117168795648

Stop by our office today for some treats and a Thank You as always to all our Loyal Clients!

Blog the post below to your clients and prospects and you have a good shot at touching a nerve and getting a call!

People love to vacation.  Some do it often while others hold on all year for that one great week and live day by day until that magical start date on the calendar! A new wave in our digital age is to only take three or four day weekends, but do it more often.  However you “vacation”, they do have one common thread, and that is that they are not free.  Furthermore, when you are officially vacationing (which becomes a mind set as well….I am officially on vacation as of right now!) you spend more freely, often with a disregard for cost shopping.  “I’m stopping at Starbucks for the mocha frappe latte, not Dunkin, cause I’m on vacation!”.

What if next vacation you could upgrade to fly first class, stay at the five star hotel on the best beach and make all your dinner plans with the restaurants on the Food Network and it didn’t cost anything extra?  How cool would that be?  How about if it only cost you two hours of your time to “supersize” your vacation into the best one you ever have had!?!  Well, that is all possible by taking us up on this simple offer to Tax Plan before the end of 2016!

It is not uncommon to find a combination of missed deductions and proactive moves that are easy to make that add up to thousands more in our clients’ pockets instead of Uncle Sam’s!

Call or text or e-mail us and set up an hour review and we’ll work together to “supersize” your next vacation!  Call ___________or e Mail _____________

As Always You`re Welcome,

The Tax “What -if” Dr;_)

Advisors using tax marketing need to send messages to prospects and clients alike that are current and of interest. This weeks advisor blog should make your “inbox” happy, just get it into your blogs, e-blasts, posts and tweets!

Every year, The IRS gets together and starts looking at economic news and forecasts and works with several departments of the government to tweak our tax code. They look at the leading economic indicators, they decide what they need to change, and the collection of tax revenue often changes by year end. In 2015 there was a lot of activity in making temporary tax rules that had been put in place and carried forward numerous years into permanent tax rules.

For Example, originally as part of the Bush tax cuts, was a temporary tax law that was that allowed tax payers, once they obtained the age of 70 and a half the ability to have funds go from a personal IRA directly to a charity. The gift satisfying the required minimum distribution rules for IRAs, but was not included in your personal tax income.  This was very popular and was made permanent in the 2015 tax code negotiations! A great planning tool for both financial advisors and for their clients. Now in 2016 and from now on those who are who are over 70 and a half and have some form of pre-tax account, can use this way to fulfill their charitable goals and get 100% pre-tax distribution instead of taking the distribution, paying income tax on the distribution and then only getting a deduction based on the percentage of tax they pay.

I know on first read this probably sounds complicated, but it’s very simple. It’s better to take the income taken off your tax return than to take the deduction. It’s a win and it’s now permanent.

There are numerous other items which we’ll partiality list the permanent but others not listed are extended for two more years as well, but at the end of the day, to utilize these deductions properly does take some forethought and planning.

• Permanent extensions
  • Qualified charitable distributions (QCDs) from IRAs
  • Deduction for state/local sales tax
  • Higher education credit (American Opportunity Tax Credit)
  • Teachers’ classroom expense deduction
  • Code Section 179 deduction
  • Exclusion of gain on qualified small business stock

Because they’ve been temporary, in some cases on and off again tax rules, I don’t think most tax firms have really intertwined their advice to the general population of how to use these breaks because they haven’t always been permanent. Now’s the time to examine your personal income or business income, see if any of these tax breaks that are now permanent could be helpful to you before the end of 2016. The best way to do that is to call us, text, or e-mail us right now and we’ll set an appointment, discuss these new permanent tax code rules, and examine which ones may be beneficial to you. Then you’ll have time to react before the end of the year without being in a rush. Call us today.

When your phone does ring of course, for our members, we have your back. The cloud CPA`s will do three way calls with your inquirers and make you look good as well as help you bring them in for an appointment!

As Always, You`re Welcome!

The Tax “What-if” Dr;-)