​There are many ways to make mistakes on your tax return and many different kinds of people make them. We have seen this recently as actor Danny Trejo has declared bankruptcy as part of a plan to handle a $2 million tax debt.

There are few details available about this, but Trejo flippantly joked that he has learned dog grooming is not a legitimate expense. This would be one thing if he was handling his taxes himself, but as someone who runs multiple businesses and whose acting work probably takes him across many states in most years, that would have been a tough task for him to handle alone. But hey, maybe he did, and maybe he legitimately concluded some things were deductions that should not be.

“I take my dog to photo shoots with me, if she ends up in the picture, I need her to look good for my own image.” I can follow this train of logic where it seems reasonable anyway.

But if he did have help, then shouldn’t he have received better advice than what he got? We cannot be afraid to work with people who will tell us “no” and not simply seek someone who gives the answers we want. This also applies if you’re doing it by yourself, you need to be able to check yourself and not wish things into compliance.

This can be seen in another story involving tracking mileage for work.  On the surface, there is nothing wrong with this, for taxpayers are allowed deductions for legitimate business use of a vehicle. There are rules surrounding this, though, and the most important one may be the need to keep a mileage log.

Now, this story even has a taxpayer who submitted a mileage log to the IRS. But then, the agency could not corroborate that the places he was traveling to were locations where he would have conducted business. And some places were visited on the same day across different years. This seems like a half-hearted effort that was then copy and pasted.

At least in this case, it seems clear that the taxpayer was really trying to get away with something. It’s much more of a ‘well, you just got caught’ feeling. But maybe this was someone well intentioned, again. Maybe they really did travel for work but did not keep an actual log as they were going, and tried to create something that would give them a bit of what they would have been legitimately entitled to. Again, someone who could give them real answers may have helped.

So if you do have any questions about handling your taxes, seek out an expert, and ask quick before their calendar gets too full during this busy season.

​Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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We have talked enough of taxes lately, and surely will be doing so more over the next two months or so, so let’s take a step back today.  And let’s take that step back by talking about how good it can be to take a step back.

This idea came to me when looking at this article from NPR talking about how commuting can be a good thing. Of course, this headline sticks out as soon as you see it, for it must be a decided minority of people who really look forward to their commute. It’s a case where we mostly are thinking about the destination, not the (potentially long and arduous) journey.

But what the article discusses is how commuting becomes the liminal space between being at work and being at home and helps transition the mind between those two states. And this idea of having that moment to disconnect a bit, to leave the work stress behind, makes sense.

The traditional workspace provides this naturally, but we work with many small businesses where that can be much more difficult. In that situation, the difference between work time and personal time can be much cloudier because so much of your life becomes about your business.  Heck, your business and home space may even be one in the same. I am not here, however, to preach that this situation couldn’t work for some people. It is possible to have a level of drive where you can thrive being able to pick off tasks at all times of day and where that combination of work and home is a positive.

It is also possible, though, that you feel pulled toward never really checking out of work mode and it’s wearing you out. This definitely can be exacerbated, too, if you are doing your work at home and there’s no transition in and out of your workspace.

Now I don’t think (and the article doesn’t really claim) that there is something magical about the act of commuting itself. But there is value in just taking stock of where you stand and allowing yourself the grace to transition away from work if that’s necessary.  So that is what I mean here about the value of taking a step back.

We never perform best when stressed, overworked, and tired. Sure, you can knock off some tasks in that state, but they will take longer and not be done as well. So step back, check in with yourself, see how things are going and take a break when you need to. Keeping balance will keep you moving forward.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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Now that we are getting into the start of the thick of tax season, some of the nervousness around taxes starts to grow. People wonder if they are handling their taxes right, often submitting returns without fully appreciating what it says, hoping that their software led them to the correct answers.

And we are not going to feed some grand lines here about how that’s not possible – of course it is.  These companies don’t get to have the money to flood you with commercials this time of year by selling faulty products that never work.

But do they work as well as other options?

Such software can shine is in avoiding some types of mistakes. For example, if you enter all your information correctly, it is going to ensure that you don’t make any simple addition or subtraction errors. You can be confident the math is correct. Where this option does not shine, however, is getting beyond the calculations.

In many ways, tax software works better the more you know about taxes. Sure, you can go through their paths and answer the questions along the way, but do you understand exactly what is being asked or are you just waiting to find the next spot where you know you have information to enter off a tax form? In this way, you will probably capture all of your income, but you may not capture all the ways that you can lessen your tax burden.

And now we will give some grand lines about how a live tax preparer can serve you better.

There are numerous times when someone comes to us for their first professional tax return, and even if they understand the information that a tax return requires to be legal, they don’t know what else can be included. Whether it’s the fact that they aren’t utilizing something like a home office deduction or if they aren’t getting some reimbursements from stuff they paid for that’s necessary to complete their work, we are able to ask the questions that get behind the outer layer and lead them down paths that may not be immediately apparent.

And we can’t promise savings of thousands of dollars by doing this, but chances are we can offer some savings. What we can do even more, though, is alleviate that nervousness that can come with tax time. You will have someone on your side who knows taxes, who allows you to be confident in your return, and lets you know things have been done correctly and done in a way that ensures your best interests have been looked after.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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Many times in this space I have mentioned how difficult it is to be able to accurately predict everything that could affect your life and your business. That is why staying on top of where you stand financially is so crucial to being able to move when surprising things do occur. When it comes to unpredictability, just think of sports betting as we look toward the Super Bowl later this month. When guessing what teams would be there in the conference championship games it was difficult to know just how much a preexisting injury would affect one quarterback (yet Patrick Mahomes still made it to the big game) and impossible to know just how much as-yet non-existing quarterback injuries would prevent the 49ers from being able to join him there.

More from the “you couldn’t really predict this” file surprisingly came up in this article about Super Bowl parties.  For example, after a year when we have all had to come to terms with new norms about what we have to pay for groceries (and have you bought eggs lately!?!?!), it turns out that the price of chicken wings are down over 20% from last year. Also on this list of cheaper buys are steak, bacon, shrimp, and avocadoes. And all of this is kind of due to that’s just where things went for the last year for whatever reasons.

And then there is the fact that beer prices are 11% higher this year than last, but wine and spirits have just gone up a more reasonable 4 and 2%, respectively. Now there is no telling where this article got these numbers from, but it is possible that this could reflect the ongoing entry of more (and more expensive) craft beers into the market. So does this really mean that a case of Bud Light costs over 10% more than it did last year? Well, that isn’t really clear there.

So here we are where not only are proper predictions difficult to make, but understanding exactly what is happening in any market takes a little more study than latching onto one simple number. If you want an answer to a specific question, then you need to be able to look at that precise situation. This then brings us back to how important it is to be able to know what is going on with your own personal numbers. It is one thing to know about trends, it is another to know about where you personally stand – and maybe sometimes some more light-hearted examples can help this look clearer.

Warmly,

Josh Bousquet
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