Sharing is Caring?
May I share with you? I am going to share with you about one of my clients but not any information about his real name, where he works, his projects or anything to break my confidentiality agreement with him. He has given me permission to share this with you.
I will call him John Smith (usually used to check into hotel rooms when you want to keep your identity secret). John is a CPA with many years' experiences. He works for a major company in a key financial role and receives a high salary (according to CPA standards) with large bonuses. He also is a real estate professional in that he does fix & flips and has a portfolio of short- and long-term rental properties.
When I met John, his question to me was what could I be doing better? This is a great question because it is easy to assume you are doing everything right – especially in your own field. I suggested a Discovery Session where we found significant opportunities to reduce his taxes and save him cash. With that discovery, I suggested a detailed tax plan so we can educate him how to achieve these cash savings. When we completed the detailed tax planning, he said that he always prepared his own tax returns using turbo tax. I acknowledged this and thought we were complete.
Later he called and asked me to look at his tax return. I stated the only way I could really do that work was to recreate his tax return from the source documents. He engaged us in that project. Upon completing that work, we compared the tax return he prepared with the one we prepared, he found substantial cash savings with the one we prepared and submitted it to the taxing agencies.
For three years, we have prepared tax returns from his source documents and compared them to the ones he did himself. His total cash savings from this exercise have been a little over $76,000. When asked what he is doing with this cash savings, he stated he was using it to expand his purchases in real estate.
What is important to understand is that this is not an isolated story. In 2020, our last full measurement year, our clients saved $572,026 cash by reducing their taxes. Our total cash savings for clients are $7,247,023. These cash savings are not accidental but on purpose. Our intent is to reduce your taxes and save you cash. How much did your tax professional save you in cash last year?
We believe it is not simply good enough to prepare your taxes and submit it to the taxing agencies but that we must add value by reducing your taxes so you can keep more cash. Our work begins with the Discovery Session to determine if we can really add value. In the Discovery Session, we look for mistakes and missed opportunities in your tax situation to see if you can benefit from working with us. If you are interested in keeping the cash you work hard to get, you should contact us for a Discovery Session by calling 970-668-0772. We will be glad to assist you.