Why You Need A Tax Planner with Larry Weinstein

tax planner tax planning Oct 14, 2021

You're a responsible law firm owner, and you pay your taxes. You file your paperwork on time, it's accurate, and everything's above board. Fortunately, a tax planner can help you figure out how to pay as little tax as possible.

Tax terminator and CPA Larry Weinstein join us in this exciting episode. He generously shares his knowledge as an expert tax planner. We discuss his tax minimization planning, the Larry Six-Pack. He also shares the difference between a tax planner and a tax preparer and how you can spot a good tax planner.

Want to know how to navigate the tax code and enjoy more of your hard-earned money? Then this episode is for you!

3 reasons why you should listen to the full episode:

Understand the importance of a tax planner and how to find a good one.
Learn how you can legally minimize your tax with the Larry Six-Pack.
Change your mindset about tax planning.

Resources

This episode is sponsored by Smith.ai. Curious how you can use a receptionist service at your law firm? Download the Smith.ai free eBook: Are you Lawyering or Laboring? 7 Steps for Running a Highly Productive Law Firm with Virtual Receptionists.
This episode is sponsored by Get Staffed Up. Learn more at www.getstaffedup.com/VIP
Connect with Larry: Website | Facebook | LinkedIn
Larry’s tax checklist
The Successful Lawyer hosted by Larry

Episode Highlights

Larry Weinstein’s Success Story

Larry is a tax terminator and a CPA for lawyers. He helps professionals plan their taxes.

In his 32 years of practice, he has worked with lots of lawyers and several other professionals.

When to Start Tax Planning

Consider hiring a planner as soon as you decide to open a business. Selecting your type of entity has enormous implications on your taxes.

Think ahead. Look into fringe benefits, assets, family, and retirement plans.

Larry: “Tax planning — strategic tax minimization — is legal. And it is possible.”

The Difference between Tax Planners and Tax Preparers

Many CPAs and accountants file your taxes without being proactive about saving you money. In this case, they are only tax preparers, not a tax planner.

Larry: “All they do is they're just interested in putting the right numbers in the right boxes, making sure the tax return is timely filed and calling it a day.”

Meanwhile, a tax planner is someone who has your best interests at heart. A tax planner can create a plan for you to pay as few taxes as possible legally. Thus, a tax planner helps you grow your wealth and assets.

All the work that you can do to avoid taxes happens during the year. So, you need to align yourself with a good tax planner.

The Larry Six-Pack

Larry uses six strategies targeted towards tax minimization. He calls these the Larry Six-Pack.

When clients hire Larry as a tax planner, they already have a good idea of their taxes. This is because he makes sure that his clients put in an appropriate amount of money.

All of his tax strategies are compliant with the tax code. He does not believe in tax loopholes because mistakes in the tax code are swiftly corrected.

Larry: “I personally do not think there's such a thing as a tax loophole. Because I think that a tax loophole suggests that there's a negative connotation... that somehow the government has made a mistake... and we're exploiting that mistake.”

Tax laws and benefits exist because the government wants us to act a certain way. For example, there are tax returns for people who buy an electric car.

Family and Fringe Benefit Strategies

Suppose you get to deduct an expense from your profits. That makes your salary non-taxable. Therefore, that's tax-free salary.

Five out of six of Larry’s tax strategies revolve around allocating your expenses to become tax-free.

You can hire your children or parents and pay them a minimal but reasonable fee. The money then goes back to your household tax-free.

Hiring your spouse can also be beneficial. You can set up a Medical Expense Reimbursement Plan, which covers your employees’ spouses.

Moshe: “The name of the game is to try to claim expenses you're already paying for.”

Asset Strategies

You can also buy assets and deduct the expense from your taxes. You don’t even have to pay cash as long as it’s noted or billed to your credit card.

A tax planner can help you categorize your assets, so you get a bigger tax deduction.

Larry: “Don't just be buying assets just to be buying assets. But if you need them… maybe you can accelerate the purchase into the current year and get a deduction for it.”

Providing your employees with fringe benefits can also be a good tax strategy. It will cost you more upfront but save you money in the long run.

Moshe: “If you look at it in the reverse, the tax that you're saving is helping you pay for the thing that you're doing.”

Why You Should Hire a Tax Planner

A tax planner can help you save money, which you can use to your competitive advantage.

You can spend this money on marketing and hiring better people.

Another fringe tax strategy is to overlap your family vacation schedule with your business conferences. Your tax planner can help you write this vacation off as a business expense.

Retirement Strategies

Retirement is a tax deferral plan.
This means that while your money is in a retirement account, it is tax-free. However, you'd be paying tax once you get retirement benefits.
Even if tax rates become higher once we retire, our money grows more in a retirement account because it is tax-deferred.

Larry: “Tax-free salary is the best kind of salary.”

Investment Strategies

There are also tax strategies you can do outside of your business to improve your dues situation.
If you have money saved up, you can invest in long-term assets or real estate.
When investing, you should also factor in the dynamic nature of tax laws. You have to be smart.
Larry has a friend who pays a smaller percentage of tax than his secretary. He can do this because of the type of pay that he has.

Moshe: “The smart people align themselves with somebody who's going to have these conversations throughout the year.”

Parting Advice

If you’re not paying for tax planning, you’re not getting tax planning. Tax planning does not start during tax return season. It happens all year long. Filing an accurate salary tax return is also important, but it’s not proactive or strategic.

To hire a good tax planner, ask your potential candidates for information about taxes and tax law. If they can’t answer it off the top of their head, they probably aren’t the right person.

About Tax Planning Expert Larry

Larry Weinstein is a CPA with over 32 years of accounting experience. He calls himself the CPA for lawyers because he’s effectively helped many lawyers minimize their tax bills. Most of his clients include solo and small practice lawyers who want to grow sustainably.

Larry doesn’t believe in tax loopholes. Instead, he believes in proven tax strategies compliant with tax laws the government itself has put in place. He helps his clients using a detailed and holistic tax plan, which he calls the Larry Six-Pack.

Aside from helping his clients, Larry also shares his expertise in his own podcast, The Successful Lawyer. If you have any questions for him, you can check out his website. You can also connect with him on Facebook or LinkedIn.

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