This week, Bella talks about some of the amazing tax-saving tips her Mastermind members were privy to when CPA and tax expert, Christian Culpepper joined the Mastermind video session earlier this month. Chris has 30 years of experience in accounting, banking, real estate finance, and tax preparation for a very diverse group of people. From homeowners to business owners, he has been able to save people thousands upon thousands of dollars at tax time each year.
He believes CPAs should be serving the needs of their clients by using creative thinking to lower tax liability. He offers many services including helping business owners to clarify income, expenses, and cash flow, set budgets, and projections while maximizing their revenues and reducing costs.
Bella treats her podcast audience to an inside peek at the type of high-quality resources her Mastermind members receive every month. She sums up the main points of Christian Culpepper’s pointers on how to save big on your taxes.
Show Highlights
- Shout to New Members: Is your name here? [2:03]
- Keeping track of your expenses the right (and simplest!) way [2:40]
- FUN Business deductions you will LOVE [4:00]
- Personal grooming deductions [5:10]
- Meals and other expense[6:50]
- Importance of testing your CPA and if they will work for YOU, What is “the law?” [8:10]
- Vehicle deductions, pros, and cons of traditional vs electric [9:30]
- Sole proprietorship vs LLC vs S-Corp [10:45]
- Reviewing your credit, building “business credit” [11:35]
- Setting up an offshore account [12:10]
Biggest Takeaways You Don’t Want to Miss
- Tracking Your Expenses
- FUN Business Deductions
- What Do Different Types of Cars Have in Common with Your Taxes?
- Legal Stuff like Scorp vs LLC
Other questions Mastermind members got answers to during the actual Mastermind session:
- Do groceries have to be “delivered” to be deductible?
- Is Starbucks deductible?
- Can I deduct my Metrocard, train fare, bus pass, public transportation?
- Suggestions for building business credit
- Can I put my kids on the payroll?
- How often should you meet with your CPA?
- Importance of covering all areas of life, retirement, business
How to Get Access to the Mastermind
(including this awesome tax session!) Click the image below that says “Join the Mastermind.”
Links
Christian Culpepper’s website (Even if you do not live in AZ, he may be able to help or refer you to someone.)
Join the Mastermind group: Get in on this session’s recording, past session recordings, and future valuable business resources and sessions.
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Transcript:
This is episode 230 of Bella in Your Business.
Hi there, I’m Bella Vasta from Jump Consulting. You might know me from CBS, NBC, Fox, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, or maybe you’ve seen me speak on stage or read my book, The Four Dogs That Every Business Owner Needs. In any case, get ready because you’re about to get your hashtag Bella Butt Kickin’ in this next episode of Bella in Your Business.
So what do you say? Let’s get ready and jump. Welcome to another episode of Bella in Your Business. My name is Bella Vasta and today I’m going to be talking all about tax breaks and policies that will save your business. I’m basically going to regurgitate a lot of what we learned in the Mastermind with our special guest last week, Chris Culpepper, who is an incredible CPA for a lot of very, very wealthy people, quite honestly. So he definitely knows what he is talking about. He is by far the best CPA I’ve ever worked with in my entire life. And that actually probably sounded weird because I’m not very, very wealthy. I am just a pauper. But that being said, Chris is the most strategized CPA I’ve ever worked with or known, and it was a real big treat giving him access to all of my Mastermind members.
He gave us ten different things and I’m going to kind of regurgitate it because honestly, the information is just too good. And I’ve been squawking to a lot of you and telling you that you need to come in and join us because the information is just amazing. I’m also going to say there is a disclaimer. I’m definitely not a CPA. So some of this stuff might be like, huh, really? And you might want to write it down and you might want to ask your own CPA about it and just see if it actually applies to you or your situation.
Before we do that, I actually have been welcoming eleven new members to the Mastermind this week alone. So I actually am going to give a huge shout out to Kelly, Jane, Joette, Christina, Shannon, Lila, Alexis, Stephanie, Sabrina, Lauren, and Carolyn. Holy moly, you guys. I’ve been so excited and my entire team has been popping off my notifications where they go, “My gosh, someone else just joined! My gosh, someone else just joined!” We practice what we preach. I have an entire system that the minute that you join, you get added to our system where we just start really supporting you. We have it all kind of like, it’s like a domino effect. Anyway, the whole team is excited. It’s not just me. Welcome to the Mastermind. We’re so excited to have you.
Anyone else, if you guys have not checked out this recording yet, it is in the Mastermind. But because you are a loyal podcast listener, you’re going to get to hear some of the goodness. All right, so the first two, I’m going to warn you, they’re kind of like, “duh, Bella.” So stick around because it gets sexier and sexier as we keep going.
Basically, one of the first things that Chris talked to us about was—duh—track your expenses, save your receipts, and don’t pay cash so that you can always track where it’s spent from. I know this is common knowledge, but I know that it’s also really hard to do. So I’ll just kind of share my own thing. I have a business credit card and I have a personal credit card. I love the Spark Card from Capital One because my business and personal can actually transfer the points very easily. So basically, all of my life goes on those two cards, whether it’s business or personal. And then you also are able to easily have it all downloaded in whatever software you use, like from QuickBooks.
If you have a bookkeeper or even your CPA, everything’s all in one spot. It’s not like you’re going to a hundred different cards or debit card and another credit card and a bank account and a Venmo and a PayPal. Guys, that costs you money trying to reconcile all of that. So keep track of your expenses by streamlining how you pay for your expenses. The next one, again, this kind of sounds pretty easy, but sometimes we have to state the obvious—use accounting software. And remember, there’s always an app for that. It makes life easier for you and your CPA if all the statements and the receipts are in one place.
So kind of like we just said, you use the same kind of card or whatever to track your expenses, but then it also always funnels right through exactly where you need it to go so that you can add your team members to it, and it works out really well.
The other thing is number three: deduct your business clothing. Y’all, a lot of you that follow me are pet sitters and dog walkers. A lot of other people that follow me are actually live streamers and their social media mavens or Mavericks, right? You guys, we can deduct our clothing—the blouse or the shirt that you just bought for your Zoom calls. The IRS says you can do that. The attire that you wear to business events or to maintain a professional image—and that could be yoga pants, that could be your t-shirts, that could be whatever it is to walk those dogs, even sneakers.
Employee stipends and how to categorize, depending on how healthy your business is. If you’re a pet sitter or a dog walker and you want to give your staff a stipend of something—like “go buy shoes” or whatever it might be—you can do that. Talk to your CPA about the advantages of that.
Number four: deduct your personal grooming expenses. I know a lot of you are probably laughing right now like I am because you say grooming and you automatically think of grooming a dog and you’re like, wait, what, Bella? Guys, here’s the thing. I can totally attest to this with my hair and nails, but it includes your makeup that you wear while having virtual consultations. It includes getting your nails done or other supplies that you purchase that aid you in having a professional, credible image. Maybe you do monthly photo shoots or maybe you do monthly lives or whatever it is that you do. So it’s not just your clothing, but also your grooming expenses.
Number five: this is a big one. You guys, this is a very big one and I want you to listen up because this basically does apply to everyone. Things like Instacart, your groceries at home because you’re going to make lunch and come back into your office. Meal prep services, grocery delivery, Postmates, any of the delivery services—having pizza delivered while you’re working—it’s a 100% deduction as opposed to meals and entertainment, which is only a 50% deduction. So that means if you take your employee out for lunch, 50% of that’s deducted. But if you’re actually eating a meal while you’re working, that is 100% deducted.
Number six: buying a car. You can depreciate the total value of your car deducted from your income. You also want to understand the advantages and disadvantages to your unique situation about buying versus leasing, and also about the amount of deductions that you can take.
Number seven: buying an electric car. This one’s important for pet sitters and dog walkers because they drive so much. Consider the tax credit plus gas savings. Maybe you’re getting ready to get a car or in a year from now, you know you’re going to need a new car. Consider that and ask your CPA.
Number eight: converting your sole proprietor or single-member LLC to an S-Corp and how much taxes you can save. Because if you’re not filing it as an S-Corp, you’re essentially paying double taxes. Chris recommends that around the $50,000 revenue threshold, you should really be considering this.
Number nine: review your credit report regularly. He gives a lot of suggestions for building business credit, which I know a lot of people are thinking about right now.
And the last one, number ten: for my Mac Daddy businesses that are generating lots of money—offshore options. You can lower your US tax liability to zero by doing an offshore account. Now, I know this sounds so taboo and so crazy, but truly, the way that it works—your business could pay a corporation that is set up in another country, for example Belize or the Caymans, that do not have a tax liability there. Essentially, your profits are pushed over there, so your business isn’t responsible for taxes.
We also talked about groceries, Starbucks deductions, Metro cards, train fares, public transportation, building business credit, putting your kids on payroll, how often you should meet with your CPA, and the importance of covering all areas of life, retirement, and business.
I appreciated this about Chris so much that I actually just asked him to come back on and come to the podcast to talk to all of you because I feel it is my duty to keep bringing you important information. I sent him a pitch and said, “Can you do a show that says how to find a CPA that cares about you?”
So hopefully, coming to an episode near you, we’ll hear about what businesses should consider when finding a CPA, common mistakes, fee structures, how often to talk to your CPA, and how to understand your returns.
I want to really encourage you: are you being fed? Where are you getting fed in your business, your brain, your mind? There are so many tiny dials that need to be adjusted that I want to make sure you guys don’t get caught with your pants down. COVID has not got your business. COVID has actually given you the biggest blessing of your life, and that is the gift of time. What have you done with it? Strengthen your business, your mind, your relationships.
We are in unprecedented times, which means you need to be unprecedented. You need to do things you normally wouldn’t do or that are outside your comfort zone. As a business owner, it’s up to you to disrupt back, to stand up among all the noise and confusion and say, “We’re still here, we understand, and we’re going to support you.”
Make sure your marketing is professional—your graphics, your videos, your content. Video will always get higher in the algorithm, and professional graphics show that you’re relevant. I’m here to help you with that. Reach out to me. I love to know that you guys are actually listening. Let me know what stood out to you about this episode.
Remember, your CPA can only do what you give them. If you give them crappy records, their duty isn’t to make sense of them. It’s to take what you give them and make the best “sandcastle.” So keep that in mind.
These kinds of items are things that you need to be thinking about, talking about, and you can’t just delegate them away. Stay awake, stay conscious, stay vigilant.
Again, for the third time, I am not a CPA. I know CPAs that can help you. This is not meant to be financial advice. This is meant to get you excited or curious enough to have an open conversation with your own CPA.
You guys, this has been another episode of Bella in Your Business. I want to encourage you to always keep jumping when life gets you down. Do not ever stop jumping because when you stop jumping, you get stuck in the muck. Bacteria will grow. It will be harder to get up. You have to keep the momentum going. Always keep jumping. Thanks. Bye now.
So what did you think? Did you love this episode? I sure hope you did because I put a lot of love into this for you. And the best way you can show me that is by going to iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, or wherever you listen to your podcast and leaving a review. I just might read it on the next episode. I also want to remind you that when life gets you down, remember to always keep jumping. Thanks for listening.