Dashboard: Your Last-Minute, Year-End Tax Moves

[Music] welcome to another 21 hats dashboard brought to you by our sponsor the great game of business I'm Lauren Feldman and I'm here with Gene marks welcome Jean hello Lauren good to speak with you great to have you here uh Jean in in past years you've ridden we've discussed end of year tax moves that business owners can employ uh kind of right up to the last minute I started thinking about this um because one of the regulars on this podcast mentioned that she has a little more in profits sitting in her bank account right now than she expected which is a nice problem to have but she's looking for things she can do to try to protect those profits I'm wondering if you have any suggestions you have written a lot about this in the past yeah I do have suggestions my first suggestion is why why is she even having this conversation now in December uh that's you know she did I think she was surprised she didn't know a couple things broke right fair enough which is fair enough but I mean the first thing I just have to make sure that the best type of tax planning strategy is not to plan your taxes for the year in December uh you do it you know in April or May with your account then you revisit it in September uh and you make sure that you've got um you know a good a good plan because it's only like what 20 to 25% of our income you know like it's like a huge number so okay so there there are a few things that um that we can all do um the first is retirement right so you know we've got until you know for most of us it's two and a half months after year end assuming we follow like a we have a calendar year end and we do a you know we have a pass through business which most businesses have um you can put money away to your if you have a a set plan a single employer pension plan or a 401k plan or an IRA you've got all that time after uh the end of the year to make that contribution so if you've got extra money left over in your business and you want to put money away into retirement and you you're still under the limit to do that um then you can do that and you can wait you know literally until uh March 15th um you know to to do that so uh that way when you do that it it cuts down in your taxable income you've uh but you you basically paid yourself because you put your money in your own you know account Y and you deferred it great suggestion so that's definitely one thing that that you can do a couple other things U just to to throw out there um depending on the business that you have if before between now and the end of the year you want to buy computer software hardware furniture or equipment for your business if you buy it and you put it into service by the end of the year then you can deduct 80% of that cost right off the bat right up to like $1.1 million uh you know it used to be 100% but that went down next year it goes down to 60% that you can deduct in the first year and then you have to advertise it over the another reason to do it this year right now right so you want to be ahead of doing that another thing that you can do is you can think about what's called wash sales wash sales are really good because um if you've got stock that's lost money and I have Amazon stock that's lost money Amazon Lauren I mean I bought this it's Amazon you lost money on Amazon yes who loses M only me such a dumbass to lose money on Amazon of all places anyway so what you can do though is you can sell that stock and take the loss you can offset the loss against any capital gains you might have had this year or uh you can take up to $3,000 of that against your income uh as a deduction you wait 30 days and then you buy the stock back it's called a wash sale so that way like if you really love a stock and you want to hold it for the long term but it's it's underwater um you can quickly like you know just sell it and as long as the stock doesn't go up significantly over the next 30 days it's not uh then you've got which which would be painful that would suck I not going to lie but at least that way you can um you know you can take advantage of of the loss take it as a deduction and then um and then get back into the stock after 30 days so those are three things you could do like now of course you have to have profits to take advantage of those things um cor for all three of those things that is that that is exactly right um the the only thing I just I'm adding different things here but um you know if you have excess profits and you've got employees in your business you know it it's it's nice to pay out extra bonuses to employees I'm doing that this year actually um I'd rather give money to my employees than to the IRS you know so um you know if I know I've got those extra profits you might want to spread that around uh you know you want to retain people and you know you know you got good people you should you know look after them so it's another thought that makes sense um are there any other twists that's anything else that's new this year or expiring this year that should be top of mine so other than you know the the the the the uh property and equip you know deduction going down to 80% um there have been some changes in and how you treat research development expenses but that's a little bit more obscure I think for most of you know most of our audience the big thing that you and I are going to be talking about Laur is really not next year but it'll be uh this year but in in 2024 um as we get heated up for the election um taxes are going to be definitely an election a campaign issue because there is a bunch of the tax legislation that you know passed under the Trump Administration that's going to be expiring uh in you know at the end of and that is a big big um that's going to be a big you know point of contention one of those things that I can just give people uh some some advanced notice of is you the limits the estate tax exemption is going to be cut in half at the end of 20125 so right now like an individuals you're not taxed 40% um at the federal level until you hit like about 13 million in assets so I get that that's a big number but it drops it's going to be cut in half after 2025 and I'm just I'm warning all of my clients and I I've been talking about this when I speak to groups learn you you everybody that owns a business and particularly if you're a younger business owner you need to talk to an estate tax attorney and the reason why is they will set up a trust for you so you can put all of your assets and your business assets you still retain control of it into a trust and if it's done the right way any appreciation in the value of your assets from the time you put it in the trust is not taxable for estate taxes so even if in the future you go above that6 million exemption that's going to take place after 2025 um if you put it into a trust beforehand you're protected and that really really conserves your assets for you know your spouse and future Generations so talk to a aate tax attorney now because that's going to be a big issue when 2025 ends have we put our entire audience to sleep at this point are they all I don't think so that that's a great tip that I'm sure they haven't heard uh too many other places and that we will probably be talking about more in the in the coming year yeah yeah you should do it too Lauren I don't know if you have an estate plan or if you have a trust set up or whatever for all the 21 hats assets but of course not um and actually that's related to my next topic which is I I also don't have a CRM and last week when we spoke about CRM systems you told me that 21 hats definitely should have have one and I've been thinking about since then and I'm curious do you have a recommendation for Solo preneurs or or micro businesses is there something you would suggest I'm GNA give three recommendations if you're a solo uh solo preneur first of all every good mainstream CRM that's out there and you can Google around the most popular crms for small businesses they all have free versions and or very inexpensive versions for like 10 bucks a month 12 bucks a month that uh really has all the features and functionality that any uh solo preneur very small business uh would want to have but I'm going to give you three you you align with with what you're doing L are you a Gmail guy or are you a Microsoft guy Lauren Gmail right get copper okay copper okay copper is a it's a I don't sell it so I you know I'm not a partner or anything I just you know I I know it really well and copper is built into Gmail and G Suite so it is you know with Google workspace so it's like a great CRM for a solo or a very small business and larger business too by the way uh that is just works real well with Gmail now if any of you guys are listening and you're like an independent a freelancer or you a very small business um I really like and you're a Microsoft person uh get Nimble nbla I think Nimble is excellent um it is made by the former guy who did Gold Mine software thousand years ago John Ferrara who I'm a big fan of and Nimble integrates super well with office so it's another good by the way there's tons of them that are out there so I'm just giving you three that I like um and then the final one is self-serving I mean we sell Zoho Zoho is excellent Zoho has a a smaller version called begin b i g i n um it's spelled that way because Z that's pretty clear it's an yeah it's an Indian company and I don't think they know how to spell begin actually so they they just misspelled it I'm just kidding that's not the case was probably a racist statement but it's they're very nice people it's just I'm just trying to make a joke but anyway so it's begin b i g i n it is a lighter version of Zoho made by the people of Zoho and it's it's targeted towards very small businesses and individuals and it works that works great with either Microsoft Office or G you know Gmail wow and um and Lauren I will just say to you because you're a friend of mine if you get begin and you need some help setting it up uh or any help whatsoever you'll call on me and we can provide any help that you want uh only at Double or normal rates we'll spend a lot of dashboards talking about that I suspect that's a that's a good argument for getting it thank you uh next topic you wrote uh last week about uh AI Apps for business um uh you you named a couple in particular that you think are worth checking out the one that really caught my eye was the one um for uh uh website building which kind of surprised me can you walk us through that a little bit yeah yeah yeah me too you know it's funny because uh on one of the P one podcast I do for the Hartford I interviewed a couple of uh Executives recently from Wix uh which is like a web you know a web you know Commerce platform and um and they you know uh but but they're not the only gameing pants Squarespace GoDaddy um I mentioned in this article it's in Forbes by the way called mixo mixo um and you can also you can Google you know AI website Builders Lauren these these companies and these aib based applications are phenomenal I mean it's conversational so it's like you have a web designer just sitting in front of you except it's inside your laptop and you say to it create a website for me that shows U you know my head shot uh I I prefer these color schemes and I'd like um you know pages about my company and pages about my products and I you know here here's an uploaded product document here's an uploaded description of my company you know and then go and it goes and creates the sorry it creates the [ __ ] website it's unbelievable alarm it just does it it it it suggests and then signs you up and creates your domains it gets you all done and then once it's created you you then give it instru you're like okay can you change this color color scheme to this can you add a page there can you add have you actually done this um yeah I've actually not personally done it I've watched it being done in front of me by some of these people that have demoed it for me and it's like whoa now there are it's applicable I see it in in two ways first of all it's Wix and Squarespace and GoDaddy are great because they they offer uh you know all these templates you know and and and a lot of automation for building websites this will be just very similar to that but it's just it's just conversational it's like chat GPT you know you're just you're not choosing different things you're asking it to do stuff more importantly once it then creates it for you you can have a a a a chat with the with with the tool um to to make changes and adjustments and it'll even chat back to you and make suggestions for you just like you have a web designer you know as opposed to going through some you know page after page selecting this template selecting this format blah blah blah this way you're like chatting back and uploading stuff to it and by the way uh all of these tools including so which is like new on the Block um you know they they are all in soon not immediately but soon we'll just they're going to support you know voice so you can talk to it you know so you don't even have to be typing this stuff in you know I see these website Builders uh big appropriate for two different types of business I mean um the first are like just you know startups and and you know entrepreneurs they're just getting going they don't know what they're doing or to set up a website so you know they literally just get in conversation mode and they start asking the questions and making their demands they can even upload a URL of of a of of a website they like and and tell it you know build it you know similar to the design of this website so it will do that um and and I think a lot of startups entrepreneurs are going to you know you find that much more user friendly to create their own thing so that that's the first group of people that I see really benefiting from this and then the second group of people I see are the ones that have multiple websites and multiple landing pages you know I mean it's not uncommon for a business to have different product lines and different websites so they need to quickly like start up new ones and I've got a few clients like that they start selling something new and they're like let's have a separate website for this U and then there's landing pages you know where people you know run Google campaigns and anybody will tell you that's experienced with with you know online advertising is you need to drive clicks to a landing page so you can track it better and you know you need you need help setting up that you know landing page these website designers will do it for you in a Flash um and you can sit there and you know set up a dozen different landing pages for a dozen different you know ad campaigns so I I think those tools are going to be used by by those two types of businesses the most me not not so much because my we my websites really I don't change that much and I have just two but um but you know so I I think it's exciting it really is that's really interesting you know I think to your point somebody who's got a big eCommerce operation is not going to take this route right but it does seem like I mean every businesses of all sizes occasionally just want to try something and a quick way to just test whether something is going to get any attention traffic sales uh before investing serious money in it it might be really handy it is really cool and if I can just give a shout out to just a couple others of these in this Forbes article really quickly um Lauren one is like sure these head shot generators are all over the place and I've played around with a few and they're pretty awesome I mean you upload you know you upload a photo of yourself like listen you know I upload my photo I mean talk about a challenge for any head shot generator to make it look good and you know they they make you up they they freshen up your look they um they put you in different clothes different backgrounds you know different scenes you know whatever um and you know I mean I joke around but like they're super important for people you know we all have online presence and you know we want a good head shot on our website or our social accounts or on our brochures and these generators use AI to really take uh existing photos and make them look that much better so really a great and I I or you can just do what most of us do which is use a photo from when we were 20 years younger um and I got a change mine I mean mine is I'm I'm guilty of that like mine's like 10 years old too I haven't even changed it it's not even like a uh an ego thing it's just I'm so lazy like I don't but I need to do that so there's that the other one is chatbot Builders I gave an example of one called dy. Ai and it it I think it has chat gbt as its uh licensed largely language model but dy. a like you connect it into your data Lauren you know your CRM system your inventory system your accounting system whatever and then it learns and trains on that data and then your employees can ask questions like you right to you know to to the chatbot about any of the information what customer did we have that bought this product you know or what was the last price that we priced this product for you know and then you can even make it public facing if you want so that you know customers can ask questions about products or pricing or quoting or whatever and it's using your data to generate that you know generate the responses I think that's also hugely helpful that's really interesting I guess I would be a little bit nervous about important proprietary data somehow getting in there I guess you'd have to be careful about that all of it is I'd be nervous about all that you know there's privacy issues there's you know all you know yeah I get it there's hallucinations that's going to get maybe the wrong data given I just think that um you for if you're the right kind of person you'd be testing it out and leaning into it do you know what I mean y um I just think it's I think it's really good stuff all right last topic last week in the morning report I highlighted a story that uh the most expensive cheese steak in Philadelphia now costs $140 it's it's served by a restaurant called Barkley Prime that if I'm not mistaken is about 3 feet from where you live I was just going to tell that story as well so you know if if you know if anybody wants to you know come and attack me and strangle me or hit me in the face look for me at around 10:00 at night walking my dog near Barkley Prime because uh I live just a block away and I and I walk the dog around the outside of written now square and down Spruce Street and I pass by Barkley Prime and do you occasionally stop in and grab $140 cheese steak that's my point first of all I'm fascinated by Barkley Prime I always look to see who's going in and out of Barkley Prime because first of all I'm like I'm I want you know some celebrities go there all the time because it's like the most you know well-known Steakhouse in the city but also it's like uh I I I'm looking at these people saying what morons are going to Barkley Prime and paying like $100 for a steak and $16 for a potato like you got to be like you know how how who are these people so I get a good laugh to myself at that as I walk by them and you know go home and you know you know eat my cheese stick but anyway so yeah so they have $140 steak sandwich um which is it's marketing it's great I mean it's it's such a great idea nobody who's going to buy a $140 G I mean they're not going to make any profits off of it I don't know according to the story a lot it's the third most popular thing on the menu that surprised me I was I'm okay I mean that even validates my point that there are morons that are going to eat at Barley it's not enough that they're spending $100 on a on a 4 o filet minan now they're spending $140 on a stupid cheese steak they're idiots but okay so people I gu let me read the description the cheese is now Cooper sharp the darling of better cheese steak shops everywhere uh the the chef now pan roasts the foa and and blends it into Brandy laced ve sauce which glazes the beef and cheese it's finished with a drizzle of fried onion truffle cream and a generous grating of black a fresh black truffle um so it's not just another cheese steak no obviously it's not uh but you know what it's um I guess but you know my my the whole theory behind this is I think it's just great marketing I mean you're trying to Stand Out Among a lot of other overpriced steakhouses in the city and this is a great way to do it by offering something that's very localized and overthe toop and ridiculous and getting people to roll their eyes and talk but which is kind of proved by the fact that you and I are talking about it right now that's exactly right and I think it's a it's it's should be an inspiration if people are Innovative and creative in their own marketing to come up with something that's you know Goofy and over the top and harmless and creates chatter I was always told and I'm sure you Lauren as well were always told in the world of uh journalism that you know you want to write something that's a cocktail party ready you know like like a topic and a headline that people will talk about when they're out with their friends like did you see that article on this can you believe it you know and we all strive for that and I think Barkley Prime did that with this because they're getting a lot of attention so good for them I guess the other message with this is that it's you you can't go wrong by asking yourself as often as possible am I charging enough for whatever it is that I do yes and no I you know I maybe again you that's your angle and fair enough uh my angle though is that I I can't believe that they're making money off of this I can't believe they have the volume to make money you just told me it's the third most requested thing so as usual I'm probably wrong but I I to me it's like a lost leader that's more of a marketing expense than anything else that's how I look at it it is amazing to think I mean you can get a very good steak I mean a real steak for less than $140 in Philadelphia I don't know what one goes for at Barkley Prime but for a cheese steak all right I know it's pretty well anything you're working on uh this week that I should be looking out for Jean well for the Chicago Daily Herald I will be writing about $140 cheese steaks I will be writing uh about these new uh EEOC roles that are causing all sorts of angst among uh among my clients uh you know regarding harassment that your employees are receiving both in and out of the office which might be your responsibility or not so that is definitely one of the things I'm going to be uh focusing on and the other thing I'm going to write about for Forbes is uh cuz I've been writing about AI so much is um you Google has delayed the release of their gemy gemni AI product um and and I want to dig into when it finally does come out like what impact it'll have on small business have you paid have you played it all with uh grank grock um uh you Twitter's new you know they just released it last week okay it's pretty funny it's pretty funny so what should I know about it it's it's um grock is Twitter Twitter X's whatever it's their your response to chat GPT but it's based on Twitter's huge database that's their large language model so um you can ask it questions and it will be using that large language model to try and come back with with answers and there's a real mode and there's a fun mode and the fun mode is really fun because the the fun mode uh starts making jokes and pokes fun at you and all of that and it's it's it's funny it's good I know you're a big Elon mus fan so I'm sure you're going to try it right away but is there any reason to use that instead of chat GPT no actually not yet not yet I just started playing with it so I'll report back to you whether or not I think it's better or not I mean I think chat GPT has been fantastic and um I have the $20 a month version the plus version and I think it's it's excellent you know what I mean so Gan marks is a CPA who writes weekly on small business for the guardian the hill the Philadelphia inquire the Washington Times the Chicago Daily Harald Forbes an entrepreneur you can also hear him on ABC radio's ey on the world with John Bachelor Jee host two small business podcasts with paychecks Corporation and the Harford he actually runs a business along with all that too at least he claims to this episode was brought to you by the great game of business which helps businesses use an open book management system to help build healthier companies you can learn more at Great game.com thank you Jean thank you Lauren we'll see you next week have a great week everyone [Music]