The Tax Goddess Blog

Travel as a Business Expense? What about as a Business?

Hi There All! Do you love traveling? 

A lot of people have to travel for their work, so sometimes their travel isn't so fun.  They are rushing around, trying to get to business meetings, hassling thru traffic. 

Sounds like a lot of fun, doesn't it?

Some people out there also travel for business, but it is fun!  Those who are travel agents, meeting planners, etc.  They get the goodies when they arrive at the hotels, get bumped to first class flights, get personal tours, all because the travel industry is trying to convince them to get the professionals clients to go to each various hotel, airline, restaurant, etc.

There are many people with W-2 jobs (employed by someone else) who can do this on the side.  Not so much as a hobby (just make sure you are REALLY trying to make a profit) but as a side business.  There are many Multi Level Marketing companies out there that are offering such promises!  YTB, World Ventures, etc.

Now, of course, the IRS could look at your new business as a hobby and disallow your expenses as a part of the hobby-loss rules.  So, make sure that you are tracking Who you meet with, When you met them, What you did, Why you were there (to learn more about a product, or to sell someone a deal!).  If you do not have these records, your expenses might be disallowed!

So, if you want to add some travel excitement instead of bore to your world, try one of these programs.  Just make sure, of course, that if you are also trying to deduct it - you had better have some sales to prove you were trying to make a profit!

As always,

Your Tax Goddess :)

Arizona Credit for Contributions to §529 Plans

Arizona is allowing a credit of up to $750 / person for any contributions to a §529 plan (savings plan for college education!)

Gotta love Arizona!

That means Arizona now has credits ($ for $ the money goes where you want it to go) for the following:

$ given to public schools
$ given to private schools
$ given to any charity that helps the working poor
$ contributed for a §529 plan for education!

GO ARIZONA!

LLC Ownership for a Rental Property - Refinancing

Freddie Mac just announced a new standard that could hurt many investors in real estate. 

If a piece of property has been held by an LLC within the last 6 months, they are not allowing refinancing!  Fannie Mae is expected to follow suit.

This follows, of course, the severe drop in property values around the country and many lenders being forced out of business for loans no longer back by the real estate value that they were provided on.

Your options:

1)  Any property that you intend to refinance - take it out of your LLC 7 months in advance, and get good umbrella coverage.

2)  Go with a Lender that allows LLC refinancing (and perhaps pay a higher price!)

3)  Use a trust.  Have the Trust own the property and an LLC owning the beneficial share in the trust (however, trusts do not have a lot of case law showing that they will protect the asset they are holding, so be sure to discuss this scenario with your Tax CPA and your Lawyer!)

Just trying to keep you on top of the world's happenings!

Your Tax Goddess,

Shauna~

We want to improve for You!

SWC, the CPA firm of the Tax Goddess, is interested in improving for you, our readers, clients, vendors etc!

We were wondering if you wouldn't mind filling out a brief survey!

Access the Survey Here

We look forward to serving you better every day!

Shauna, The Tax Goddess

Reselling to your Customers

This morning I went to a great sales presentation hosted by the Arizona Chapter of the International Sales Professionals Association.  The speaker was discussing the topic of the expense of earning new clients.  He was describing how most of us will spend $200-$400/ lead that may or may not even turn in to business, yet we fail to look at our current customer base.  We fail to follow up, ask questions, see how we can improve our services, yet this database is already existing and doesn't cost a penny (besides your time!)

Have you thought about your current customer base lately?  What have you done for them?

With good ideas all the time,

Your Tax Goddess, Shauna~

The Tax Goddess is writing a book!

The Tax Goddess is writing a book!

They always say that telling the world is 50% to getting you to your
goal (it makes you more driven!)

The tax goddess' goal for this summer is to write a book.  I figured I
should let you all know (so you can help me promote it and SWC!  :)
And, of course, get the most benefits yourself!)

We are working on creating more and more value for our clients, and I am
hoping this is one way to do it!

I hope everyone is having as much fun as I am!

Your Tax Goddess!

The Benefits for Techies!

Well,

This morning I got up and looked at my blog and all my blog postings were over writting themselves!  You guys weren't getting anything new since March until this morning! 

I am soooo sorry!  It only speaks to the fact that having a good techie is worth their weight in gold!

If anyone is an avid reader of my blog, did you stream catch any of the other blog posts I made?  Can you forward so I can repost?

THANK YOU!!!

Sincerely,

Your Tax (and not techie!) Goddess!

Time Management - How important?

There are 2 things that I have implemented in my business that seems to help everyone involved (my clients and my staff) be most productive and have a clear understanding of how communication works in my office.

1)  My office has a scheduled time every day (2-3pm) that we all return any phone calls that have come in that day.  This allows both my clients to know when they should expect a call from us and also my staff to be most productive with their time each day b/c they know when they need to respond to calls.

2)  Each person on my staff ONLY checks their email twice a day (1/2 hour each).  That way, they can look for any urgent emails, they spend 1/2 hour at each time responding to emails, and they are not pulled in to what a professional organizer friend of mine calls "screen sucking" (where you sit for an unknown length of time in front of the computer allowing your minutes to slip past you).  Once again, clients know when they will get responses, and the staff can be most productive!

These two quick little points have allowed me and my staff to best utilize the 8 hours we have each day, so I thought perhaps I should mention it to you all as well!  Without being productive, how would be run our businesses!

Wishing you the best of all things!

Your Tax Goddess