How a Professional Handling Your Numbers Can Save You a Fortune

Today I wanted to share how having a professional handle your numbers can make a huge impact on your tax bill.

We had a client who received a letter from the IRS for a three-year audit. It turned out he hadn’t used his QuickBooks numbers for his taxes. Instead, he’d gone through and taken the numbers straight from his bank statements, then used tax software to file them himself. He had become an S-corporation the prior year but didn’t submit the correct tax form for an S-corp. And that is what may have triggered a three-year audit.

We were brought in to recreate the files in QuickBooks for those three years. We started a brand-new QuickBooks Online file and imported three years of data across multiple bank accounts and credit cards. We then categorized all of those transactions and reconciled everything. Once that was done, we had the client look through the reports and confirm he was happy with the categorization.

As you can imagine, this was not a quick one-week job. It took months to work through, but we completed the project.

When the client first came to us, he already knew the number the IRS was trying to charge him. By recreating the files and submitting them to his auditor, that number was reduced by $800,000.

Then, after we introduced him to a CPA we partner with, she reduced his taxes by a further $190,000 through tax planning and strategy.

This is a perfect example of how knowing your numbers throughout the year, and having your accounting handled by a professional, can have a huge impact on what you pay in taxes, and on what happens if issues arise and you end up facing an audit.

This client is, understandably, extremely happy with the outcome. He still has a large tax bill, but it’s a lot less than what was originally presented to him. And he’s learned a valuable lesson. He will never do his own bookkeeping again!

He now has us take care of everything throughout the month, so he knows it’s all categorized and updated correctly. That means when tax time comes, he can file with confidence. He’s no longer doing his own taxes either. He’s working with the CPA we introduced him to, who meets with him quarterly to keep his tax planning and strategy on track, so he can be sure he’s paying the right amount, not overpaying or underpaying.

This isn’t meant to scare you. I’m sharing it as an example of what can happen if your numbers are incorrect and used to file your taxes.

We pride ourselves here at Abacus on the quality of the work we produce. We love what we do, and we know we’re great at it. Just like you’re great at what you do, we’re the same with what we do.

Running a business is a lot of work. We’re wearing a million different hats and juggling a dozen balls at once. There are areas of your business that it’s critical to outsource as soon as possible, so you can focus on growing the business, working with your team, and taking care of your customers, while experts like us take care of your bookkeeping and accounting.

That gives you the peace of mind that everything has been done accurately and is up to date, so you can be confident in the business decisions you’re making.

If you don’t currently have a professional working on your bookkeeping, I’d love to jump on a Zoom call and chat. No heavy-pressure sales. That’s just not me. Let’s talk about what you have going on and what your concerns are.

Maybe you already have someone doing the bookkeeping but you’re not sure it’s being done right. We’ve come across that situation plenty of times too. Let’s have a chat and see if there’s anything we can do to help. We can put you on the right track, and if we end up working together, great. If not, you’ll have walked away with some valuable advice you can put to work in your business.

Email me at info@chooseabacus.com and we can schedule a time to chat.