During the housing bust, a client was going to sell their residence. In this case, no loss is allowed if it was a personal loss. We had the client rent the home out to a friend for a year and thus the $100k loss became a tax deductible loss.
Savings to the client: $25k in taxes.
Saving The Salesman That Kept No Records
One client had moved several times and lost their records proving expenses. The IRS wanted $14k in additional taxes for three years because of no records. Two other CPA firms told him to pay the tax because he had no receipts and no records to prove deductions. We had him reconstruct his business trips and amounts spent based on the fact that his yearly sales calls and clients were usually the same. We had him make up expense reports by the month for three years detailing estimated amounts spent and mileage. IRS allowed all but $5k.
Tax settlement: $1,000 vs $14,000.
FICA/Medicare Tax Work-Around
A previous CPA had four professionals operating as a partnership and paying fica/medicare taxes on “guaranteed payments”. We changed the client operation to an S corporation so that some of earnings are exempt from fica/medicare.
The annual savings: approximately $24k per year between individuals and business.
Creative “C” Corporation Merger
A new client owned 100% of a C corporation with accumulated losses of approximately $350,000 and about the same amount due him from the corporation. He also owned the building the corporation was in and had an offer to buy it, which would result in a taxable gain on which about $155k in taxes would be owed. Two other accountants told him to “just pay it” when he asked if there was something he could do to avoid or postpone. Since he owned 100% of both, we merged the building into the C Corporation in a tax free “merger”.
Result: Minimal tax on the gain and client tax savings was $155,000.
Business vs. Personal Loss
A client read our newsletter about business vs. personal loss and told a friend who had lost over $250k on a truck stop that went bankrupt. His prior CPA had been deducting his losses of $3,000 per year as a “capital” loss when it should have been a “business” loss. We filed amended returns, claimed 100% deduction and recovered past taxes that had been paid.
Recovery to client: approximately $75,000 in past paid taxes.
Over $100K Recovered
A new client came in needing a financial statement on his corporation because his previous accountant was not a CPA, so they were not licensed to do this. During the process of due diligence, it come to our attention that the client had been reporting as an “Investor” when he should have been a “Mark to Market” trader. The prior accountant was limiting stock market losses to $3,000 per year when losses should have been 100% deducted.
The result: A tax savings of over $100k recovered on amendments to returns.
Auditors Are Not Always Right
Our client was audited by Minnesota Revenue for four years. Combined Federal and State tax bill was $192,000 due to government denying “real estate professional” and other home office related deductions. Upon Appeal, amount was reduced to $13,000 after contesting auditors’ findings resulting in 7 cents on the dollar settlement. The point? Auditors are not always right.
Savings to the client: $179,000.