Tax season is about to end again for non-extended filers in 2016 and the majority of you filed and have already received your refunds or paid your bill.  Some of you were done months or weeks ago others just barely got your tax returns done on time because you received late documents or your CPA or EA was seemingly in an “ignore you mode” or “dead rush mode” leaving you to chew your fingernails right up till just a few days ago, when you finally got your return.

Many of you got that return and realized there was an error right away, and received an apology or an excuse and a repair, but it shook your confidence in the people that you have preparing your documents! When they make a mistake on something that you think they “should know about you” the problem is often simply fatigue and a national error rate for all preparers is calculated annually by the different tax associations.  That’s right…nobody expects this very human process called tax preparation to actually be free of errors, so what does that mean to you?

All it means is that some of you have a mistake on your returns. Often you catch that mistake at delivery because you know the key things that affect you that help you get deductions and you are keenly aware of them, whereas the CPA or EA that you’re handing those items to may have looked at 25 returns today, 50 yesterday, and you’re just part of the blur.

What should you do about it if you you’ve got that little gut feeling that you might have a mistake on your return?

Was your refund not quite what you thought it would be?

Was your tax bill a little bit larger than you thought it would be?

Do you feel like the people at the tax office you went to didn’t have good internal communications and it looked like errors were likely to happen?

All of those things simply mean one thing, get a second opinion! Our tax offices have a large breadth of back office staff in many parts of the country that are experts at looking at what other preparers have done and seeing obvious flaws. Sometimes in the “carry forwards” between documents or in the comparison of your 2014 to 2015 work and where those accidents or mistakes might have occurred. In other words, what harm would a second opinion do?

There are two places that we feel that you should never wait on a second opinion, and that’s with your health and with your wealth so why not, while your tax documents still haven’t made it to the back, back file in your cabinet, grab your folder with your ’14 and ’15 returns and drop them by our office!  We will take our time and carefully go over your 2015 return to see if it looks like any mistakes have been made.  We’ll look at your 2014 return and all the carry forwards and the hints that a prior year’s return can bring to a current year.  If we find any mistakes, we’ll write you a report of what they are and what you should do about it.  Sometimes we find mistakes in the IRS’ favor.  We’ll let you know and we won’t report it to the IRS, just to you, you’ll have to do that. We also find mistakes that are in your favor, and we can help you amend returns, or at least make you aware of the fact that you could file an amendment.  It’s second opinion season, it lasts from April 15th to June 1st.  We’d love to see if we can help you, and the service is FREE!!!

Call us at __________  or E Mail _____________________

A E-blast or Post of the message above will bring you a few new prospects!

As Always, You`re Welcome

The Tax “What if” Dr;-)

This is a simple idea but it is the easy marketing that is often not done by financial professionals that do tax marketing as they have had to learn so many multi step or complex marketing strategies they mentally dismiss a simple direct approach. Where being direct as an Insurance Professional or Stock Broker would almost never work, “I want you to leave Vanguard and move your portfolio to me!” it’s actually an acceptable approach as the owner of a tax office. It will not make everyone you approach automatically answer your request but it will not alienate anyone, they will either comply or say no thank you.

Example E Mail , tweet or Letter;

Here we are about half way through the tax season and we haven’t seen you in our office. We understand you have another preparer or do it yourself, that’s OK but do you understand our value proposition?

If you have already filed, bring your completed return in to us and let us review it for errors or missed tax deductions! What’s the harm in getting a second opinion? According to CCH the national error rate for tax returns is over 50%.  Perhaps we can find you some additional refund!

If you have not filed yet, bring us the work! We use only qualified CPAs and EAs and we will prepare your return for 50% off of whatever you paid last year as a special just to have you consider letting us be part of your team!

We still have appointments available so call us and let us give you some of our terrible coffee and awesome advice!

Call _________________ or e-Mail us at ______________________

We`ll get you in ASAP!

If you simply e-mail this to you current suspects, prospects and clients that you have not completely captured yet, and you get even just two replies for appointments, you’ll have spent no money to get them!

Rearrange the words…..Try it a few times as e-mails sometimes end up not being read right away, but use the direct approach along with your more complex campaigns and you will find it adds additional appointments to your day!

As always you are Welcome!

The Tax What-if” Dr;_)

People are rolling into Tax Preparers’ offices, calling to inquire about pricing and stressing over the pending unknown dollars due to Uncle Sam. It would be different if people didn’t feel like all of their tax money was wasted, and it’s not! The fact that we have a military and I am much safer than the majority of people in other countries is not lost on me. It’s the wasted money that people remember and the news stories of scams we all pay for over and over again that make sending a check to the IRS seem like a penalty. Perhaps learning to frame a conversation around tax planning that addresses these emotions can help you gain a client. Here is an example;

Mr. Prospect, what do you think a fair tax bracket would be for you to pay for the services that are not a waste, like the military? Current brackets are 10,15,25,28, 33 and 35%, unless you`re making 415,000 or more a year, and you are in the 25% bracket. Be silent and let them actually ponder and answer before you speak. Doesn’t matter what they answer. They say,”10%” (or any other number), and you begin crafting the pattern of speaking to help them understand.  This could also make a good base for a prospect forward blog or email.

Many people feel like taxes “happen to them” like a car accident rather than because of the choices they have made. An example of this is schedule A of a tax return.  Schedule A includes things like taxes you paid to the State last year, medical expenses, charitable gifting and other things that are in your control and offset the tax bill from your earnings. You can learn to control that outcome by using the “Double Up!”

A commonly overlooked strategy by those who are near the limit on their itemized deductions is prepaying expenses that are deductible. For instance, if, in 2016, you were planning on spending approximately $10,000 on deductible expenses—health insurance, property taxes, charitable donations, excise taxes, or other itemized deductions—then you could prepay next year’s charitable contributions, next year’s health insurance, and in some cases, even next year’s property taxes.

For example, if a person paid all of their 2016 and 2017 expenses at the end of calendar year 2016, $20,000 of paid expenses would allow them to itemize and take greater deductions. Then, in 2017, they would simply claim the standard deduction because they would have no expenses that were on the itemized list.  They were prepaid in 2016.  This strategy leaves a smart taxpayer in an every-other-year posture—one year, double up, file the long form and itemize; the next year, claim standard deductions; the next year, double up and itemize; the next year, take the standard deduction.  In sequence: itemize-standard deduction-itemize-standard deduction.

For people with the proper cash flow and circumstances, this is an excellent strategy for tax savings, especially now that the medical expense exclusion is 10%, up from 7.5%.

This is one small way to take control and learn to make your taxes fair. Not make them zero, as well all need to pay to live in this great country, just fair!

Call us today and get our Tax Planning Guide, 9 EASY WAYS TO REDUCE YOUR TAX BILL

As our Free gift to you or just call us and come in and have some coffee and a planning session on us!
Prospecting is all about communication, so learn to help your community see you as a resource.

As always ,You`re Welcome!

The tax “What-if” Dr;-)

Ever had a “light bulb” moment? I have been driving since I was 15 years old and I’m 52 now.  I’ve driven at least a million miles and I own a few cars (I collect certain types) and when driving my wife’s car or one from the collection that I haven’t driven in a while, inevitably it’s time to put in gas.     I pull up to a pump and get out and realize that the gas cap is on the other side, back up the car turn it around with a sigh and fill it up. Then this year the “light bulb” moment, while trying to figure out the dash board “iPhone” charger fuse location, I happened to be looking at the diagram of the fuel gauge in the manual from the glove box and I see it.

“On all American cars and trucks the fuel symbol appears on the left or right side of the fuel gauge to indicate the location of the fill cap on the automobile”

I ran to the barn and looked at the Jag, the Caddy, the GMC….I’ll be damned. LIGHT BULB AT 52, Homer Simpson`s got nothing on me!

People often have simple truths right in front of them but don’t always “connect the dots” until they have their “light bulb” moment. Tax marketing using a simple and straight forward approach to telling people that they are 100% IN CONTROL of their own tax bill, can assist a few prospects each time you reach out to them see the simple truth in front of them.

Here is how that E-Mail or Letter or Social Post might read;

Dear Prospect,

If you haven’t already filed your tax return, you`re just waiting on a few more documents and you are thinking about it. Often people have an “Angst” about what their tax outcome will be, some even lose sleep! Those same people will then go to a tax preparation service that’s different than ours, like an H&R Block or a Jackson & Hewitt and have the return prepared and then suffer through the end result.

There is a better way, our way!

We don’t just prepare your tax return. We help people look for honest and often overlooked tax deductions that people don’t think about. Just as a quick example last week in our network, by the CPA trying a little harder, we uncovered that one client whom was taking care of her mother could have been claiming her as a dependent for the last two years, and after properly filing this year’s return and amending last year’s return she will be getting an additional $1604.00 refund.

We invite you to use us this year and if you do this is what will happen.

You bring us two years prior returns and your current documents. The CPA or EA (we have both) will carefully prepare your return and also review the prior years and look for anything that might have been missed by a “go fast, crank`em out, next ,next, next” service. We will put any observations in writing and then help you file the return. We will also give you a list of behavior changes that you can decide to follow going forward to further plan a better tax outcome for next year as well.

We do all that and charge about 50% less than what people pay at those “Other Services” and this week for we are having a special for $159.00 including Fed and State preparation including all schedules and no surprises!

You could keep feeling and/or acting like you’re not in control of your tax outcome. Or you can decide to break a “not so good habit” and instead adopt a new one with us…THIS IS YOUR YEAR!

Call us at ___ __ ____ or e-mail us at HGVGV@HJGVKJGV and we’ll call you!

By making people think about the way they behave and how the “other services” behave you can help people have a “Light Bulb” moment. If they think about that behavior and reflect on it being a bad habit that they can change you`ll get a phone call. Keep getting that message out consistently, as not everyone’s light bulbs come on at the same time about different things. My gas gauge light bulb took 37 years….but it’s on now!

As always, you`re Welcome!

The Tax “What if” Dr;-)

A few brokerage 1099 statements have arrived but for the most part people are waiting by the mail box in anticipation. The people that have been filing over the last two weeks are w-2 employees or pension and or social security income filers that often also have bank savings 1099-int statements.

Advisors whom use tax planning as an opportunity to convert tax clients to financial planning clients can combine their understanding of estate planning with the tax reviews to make that conversion from tax client to financial planning opportunity by simply paying attention to the titles of those 1099-int statements.

While a quick review process cannot guarantee accuracy 100% of the time, with a very high success rate by simply looking at title you can quickly surmise the status of a client’s estate plan.

Single name followed by no initial data:     John Doe 123 Doda lane ,Dodaviile

Likely means, a will as an estate plan or no estate plan.

Two names: John Doe, and or Mary Doe Doda lane ,Dodaviile

Likely the same, a will or no estate plan; although the joint title means at the first death the remaining person has access without probate.

Single or jointly titled followed by TOD: John and Mary Doe TOD Linda Doe

Means the account will be “transferred on death” by contract (like insurance or IRA beneficiaries) without going through an estate plan, avoiding any will or trust

Single or Joint names followed by POD: John and Mary Doe POD Linda Doe

Means the account will be “payable on death” also by contract (like insurance or IRA beneficiaries) without going through an estate plan, avoiding any will or trust.

Titled to trust: The John and Mary Doe trust dated 1/2/2014

Means the account is in trust and likely a “revocable trust” so the income is reported on the trust creator’s 1040 tax return as if it was not in trust

Or lastly, titled to an irrevocable trust: John and Mary Irrevocable trust dated 1/2/2014

This means that it is not going to be included in the 1040 tax return but used in the preparation of a trust return that will then issue a K-1 to the individual or pay a higher tax rate independently.

New trust estate plans often confuse the people whom have had them created and the advisor needs to be on guard when looking at trust titles to be sure to determine if it’s a revocable trust or irrevocable before using those documents in preparing a return.

How does knowing this turn that tax review into a financial planning appointment?

By asking the client to verify your suspicion, “Mr. Doe this bank statement simply has your name alone on it, is it not going to Marry if you die?” The response is often disbelief of the notion, “No it’s my wife’s money also, and it’s both of ours!” To which you can reply, “Well, that might be true but let’s call the bank together now and confirm because the title leads me to believe that this account goes to probate before she can touch it. If she had access it would be titled with both your names and say John Doe POD Marry Doe.”

There are a great deal of similar examples of conversations that we could post but they all lead to the same conversation which is an appointment to do an estate plan review checking all documents ,insurance beneficiary’s and contingent beneficiary’s and so on. “If there was one account that was neglected that how are the rest of them?”

Set the reviews on your May, June and July appointment calendars and book your spring, unless of course they become very concerned and want to do it tomorrow!

As always,

You`re welcome, The Tax What if Dr;-)

If you`re sitting across from a prospect, reviewing their taxes at this time of year or social security statements from a marketing event, remember that what they own is not important in the beginning!  Asking them, “how do you feel about what you own?” is going to help you connect with them and often get to the heart of how you will win them over. You can also do this by E-mail or even in a social media tweet or a short YouTube video, posted on your “You Tube” channel but then the video link sent by e-mail or tweet.

Here is an example;

I’m trying to improve myself as an advisor every day, and I was thinking about you yesterday while having a conversation with my better half and they asked me, “How do you think they feel about the accounts they aren’t managing with you?” That really set me back and I actually lost sleep, so this morning I decided to send you this question and request.

Do you understand the accounts you own? Or do you just “own what you own” and in your mind moving those assets to our firm would not mean feeling any different? I think a lot of people I have made recommendations to have felt that they don’t understand what they have for investments but changing to another asset would just be changing to another account they don’t understand. I hope that’s not true but I fear that it is.

Would you take a 15 min call from me to discuss how you feel about what you own know?

I will not shove anything at you, I’m truly looking to improve myself and I would appreciate receiving the gift of your time.

You`ll be surprised how far you can get and how quickly you can get there!

As Always You`re Welcome,

The Tax “What-if” Dr;-)

Advisors that own tax offices and do tax preparation for clients as well as prospects are now starting to see people and get really busy. It`s a great time to plant “tax planning seeds” that can turn that tax intake into financial planning appointments and opportunities.

There are just a few that can help with the current year`s tax return retroactively.  IRA contributions made now for 2015 tax savings or election of section 179 deductions for equipment purchased in 2015 that advances the expense “all in one year” rather than over 5 or 7 years are examples of current year help. Knowing when to recommend what is a skill set and “art” that must be learned by those facing the public.

The larger opportunities come in recommending behavioral changes that will not immediately help your clients but will make even larger tax avoidance impacts in following years. One example of that is this author`s favorite tax deduction and was one of the deductions that until Jan of 2016 had come and gone numerous times starting as one of the president Bush temporary tax cuts that had expired but was often brought back and continued for “one more year” as a last minute extended tax deduction.

Now, it is not just back, it is permanent and a huge opportunity for both the taxpayer and the advisors whom assist them. IRS Sec.408(d)(8)   the right for a 70+ year old to transfer up to 100,000 from an IRA directly to a charity and not have that income declared as taxable income on their return while satisfying their RMD requirement!

Think about the many ways a client could benefit and how to quickly check a tax return for just two quick clues that will identify people with the most potential to want to act on the advice.  Start with the one item you’ll need to know that’s not on the tax return; the client`s age. If they are under 70 move on to other tax planning items as only 70+ year olds get to enjoy this one.

Next check to see if there is a number in line 15 on the first page of the 1040. The presence of a number means the presences of an IRA (although if they have an IRA but no number in line 15 they might plan to take advantage of waiting until the next calendar year and taking two RMD`s, an option that one time in their life)

Next check line 40 of the second page to see if they elected the standard deduction for Schedule A items or if they claimed more and there is a Schedule A long form to review. If the Schedule A line 16 has a number then they are giving money to a charity already…”winner winner chicken dinner!” If a client in the 15% or 25% tax bracket gives money to charity than they save 15 or 25%. If they instead give the money directly from the IRA to the charity via a direct custodian transfer they save 100% and the state tax to boot!

You benefit hugely! Being the only one of their Team Members that brought this up (their other advisors, cpas etc..) wins you huge caring and credibility points if you are competing for those assets!

To review:  If you have a return in your hand look at line 15, if there is a number in that box say how old are you now? If they answer a number over 70, look at line 40 or for the presence of a schedule A long form. Found it..look at line 16, charity. If there is a number in that box..ding ding ding, look up and say”Oh My, We Need to Talk!”

Plant enough of those seeds and you`ll likely open your eyes to not just that but many other opportunities for CRT`s, Nimcruts and all the other fun stuff in that world, but that’s another Blog!

Happy hunting and as always,

You`re Welcome!

The Tax “What -if” Dr;-)

The only constant especially in the tax code is change. The IRS “new years resolution” is to mix it up as usual and the small details are the things that turn a simple job into a time consuming mess. Missed small details often eat up time and kills not just profitability but also makes the “Tax Office Owner” look unprepared or uninformed which won’t help convert tax clients to financial planning clients. 

The ACA tax rules that where passed in 2010 to phase in things over time so the rules are  a “time released” set of small changes that are easy to “not know.”

In 2016 any tax payer has the possibility they will receive one of three different forms from the ACA rules, 1095-A, 1095-B or 1095-C.

1095-A will be issued by January 31st of 2016 to everyone whom purchased Insurance from the “Marketplace” including everyone whom received tax credits against premiums.

1095-B will or appropriate substitute can come from the individuals health insurance company and report premiums paid, and months they are covered. (this is new this year!)

1095-C would be from the tax payers employer if health insurance was provided if the employer has over 50 employees. 

To further “Tax” the Tax preparer, any child of a tax payer that receives these forms needs to provide a copy of that (their) child’s return for their parent to give to you as that income needs to be included in the “Total Household Income” and can change the tax due for the parent.

Tax Office Owners..it’s the second information requests that kill time and profitability!

Ask about 1095-A, B and C forms, understand based on the tax intake answers what form the client should potentially have and if they have kids that already did their own returns on, often on a free site or Turbo Tax and get all the details to help your prepares calculate ACA credits all in one go and not a slow stream of details dribbled in over a long period of time!

You`ll thank yourself for a better bottom line in May of 2016!

You`re Welcome,

The Tax “What-if” Dr;-)

As I’m sitting at my computer listening to a heavy snow storm outside and looking at my computer screen, it’s buffering an image. Normally the item would propagate in less than a second, but it takes FOUR, and it’s the longest four seconds of my life.

We live in the world where everything is now almost instantaneous; at least, that’s our expectation. While I know the storm is the cause, I can’t help mentally to say out loud, “Come on, XYZ Company; load it.” We all expect so much from our systems and providers, that when they don’t do something well, or worse, don’t do it at all, it feels like we should question whether or not we’re making the right choices when we choose to do business with them. Your clients, unfortunately, may be experiencing that same “buffering feeling” from you, because they desire or expect tax and accounting services as a convenience from you in addition to your handling their financial affairs.

If you refer them to someone outside your offices but don’t control the experience, you may be putting yourself at risk for at least being “shopped” or replaced as well, so your quandary now is how do you say yes to every client’s demand especially in accounting and tax, and not over staff, overspend or over work? “We need estate planning, we need bill paying services, we need other services from you, financial planner.” The problem is, perhaps you don’t currently have the bandwidth to actually provide those requests, and have the experience packaged and concise.

The answer to these problems is learning how to outsource properly using the latest technology and best business practices combined together and replace the old fashioned ways of outsourcing. Making a referral recommendation correctly is keeping control of the client experience and process that takes place once they leave your office. The right way to address your client when they inquire about your taking over these services is to be able to reply, “Your new accountant representative for taxes will be John and your new write up team will be Kathy and Carol. I will simply need a little additional information in order to accomplish that, but of course, the answer is yes! Here is one additional form (we will e-mail you this as well) and let’s set a transmission date together now.”

The form only asks the additional bits of information that are going to be asked when referred internally though Cloud Technologies, to that outside provider. That form does not ask name again, and doesn’t ask address and Social Security number again, and doesn’t ask the names of your children again because you already collected that information long ago and refresh it at annual reviews at a minimum.

For you to “Load well” in the mind of the client and not “Buffer,” the experience needs to be concise, the additional paperwork minimal, and the additional team members stellar and responsive.

Providing those additional services becomes a true value proposition on both sides of the table; your and theirs. It also gives you the ability to review ongoing information being shared with that service provider that is of great value to your own decision making when it comes to doing your core service and analyzing their selecting of financial tools.
Any advisor in today’s instantaneous universe is likely to find themselves on the bad side of a Tweet (that can go viral instantly) when they don’t provide the family office experience and provide them in the right way. Cloud technologies can make keeping and sharing this information seamlessly, but it’s the thought process of how you do what you dot that matters. You have to take the responsibility for being the family coach, the quarterback and have a concise process for saying yes.

You’re Welcome!

The Tax “What if” Dr;-)

Every year all around America almost every tax preparer asks the question, “Do you have charitable deductions like donations?” The answer is often, “yes 500.00 at Goodwill, Salvation Army and others.” That answer although widely excepted is not defensible at audit so why not use the pre-holiday season to send your clients a few tips on how to easily and properly document those gifts in order to prove your value as a planner that cares about them. It`s a great excuse to dove tail that call into a request for an appointment between Thanksgiving and the end of year to talk about other more valuable tax saving opportunity that expire at midnight when the new years eve ball drops!

Cash is Cash that’s easy, never use cash! Write a check or use your credit card.

Used Clothing is the biggest offender so below is a link to IRS publication 561;
The long and the short of it is that the value of the items you bag and drop off are the prices they will put on the items when sold next week. Not a percentage of what you paid!

They usually have a guide at any location as to there pricing on items, and you can pick that up and put it with your tax records along with the receipt that says, “One Bag of Clothes.”

BUT WAIT, I’m dropping off the clothes so its too late to price these drop offs..this isn’t easy!?!? ANSWER, before you take your items spread them out on a table, floor, bed and TAKE A PHOTO, with your phone!
It take 30 seconds to spread those clothes you just took out of the closet on the bed and snap a photo seconds before you shove them all in the bag to go. After you’ve dropped them off and picked up the sheet you print the photo (emailed from you to you at work and hit print) then at tax time it’s a few seconds. There are 1,2,3,4,5,6 sweaters. 1,2,3,4,5 slacks and 1,2 belts. Sweaters are 24$ and Slacks are 12$ belts are 7$ on this sheet from Goodwill, that’s 218.00 deducted. It takes moments to do and that photo and the list in with your tax documents is 100% defendable!
What the short version of all this? Reach out to clients and tell them the IRS is cracking down on the non-descript “Automatic 500.00” people have taken for years without thought. Tell them you must take a quick photo of donated items before you drop them off and then pick up the stores pricing list and put it with the photo.
It just takes a retraining of behavior but isn’t difficult to do or time consuming. Then after they thank you, tell them there are some other things that are also time sensitive and smart and could save them $$$$$$ and ask if it would be OK to set a 15 min appointment to chat about them after thanksgiving?

Your office will be full through the holidays,

https://www.irs.gov/uac/About-Publication-561

You`re Welcome, The Tax “What-if” Dr;-)