Growth & Grace

Announcer 0:00
This is a KU NB studios original program.

Wesley Knight 0:05
The following program is underwritten by Crawford management group and Chris glow and does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5 jazz and Moore the University of Nevada, Las Vegas or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education. Even better than that was the last time, baby

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we back and we back and we back and we back.

Leaha Crawford 0:46
And yes, it's still my birthday month. Hello. Welcome to growth and grace. I am Leah Crawford, your host. Say hi to Julian. To Hi, Julian. Julian's not here today with us, so I'm just saying hello. Hello. I miss you. I am here today solo, dolo and I had planned today to talk about a topic that is near and dear to me. I know It's tax time, and some people are very happy about tax time. Some people are a little bit stressed. But I wanted to kind of do a little share with with the listeners here, something that I do around town just talking about tax. And what I do is I try to break it down so that we don't have that fear, oh, it's time to do my taxes, but we go and then we develop a plan. And what I love about our office is that's what we do. And we develop a plan. Because in anything, if you plan it, and even if it doesn't work out the way you planned it, at least you have some idea of some you know, of what's going on and what's going to happen again. My name is Leah Crawford. We're going to talk about, like just first some of the tax mistakes that I see people make. It's March. You know, they're waiting too late to file. April 15 is the first deadline date. What do you need to know if you are not if you don't have your documents ready, file and extension, but just understand the extension means you can file later if you are expect, if you think that you are going to owe, you need to pay that balance by April 15 to mitigate, to mitigate the penalties and interest. I'll say it again. You need to pay the balance you believe you owe by April 15 to mitigate penalties and interest. One thing I see a lot people missing deductions. When you go and you talk to your preparer, you want to work with someone that you feel comfortable with, right? And you want to, you know what happened last year? You know what's going on. Did you start school? Are you making student loan payments? Did you buy a new car? Did you start a new business? Did you get married? Did you get divorced? What are the things that are going on in your life so you're having a conversation so that they can accurately give you I mean, just knowing all the deductions that are available to you credits and deductions, but I can't read your mind. You have to talk to talk to us, explain to us what's going on so that we can give you a good return. So let's say you set up that LLC. You set up that LLC, and okay, I set it up. I didn't do anything with it last year. That's okay. But you set it up, you got an EIN number with the EIN number, you got a letter from the IRS stating the return that you would need to file. What if you set up LLC? You did do something. You paid the Secretary of State. So you want to do a Schedule C so that, if it's a single member, you want to do that schedule C to show that you paid the Secretary of State. So those are the little things that you know, just you talking so that we can talk through it to see exactly what we need to do, organizing your documents. And this is huge. You know, a lot of us have a lot of moving pieces. We do a lot of stuff throughout the day. I know people that know three or four different businesses. They're doing this, they're doing that, organizing your documents, taking the time to understand, you know, we had a client, and I take my hat off to them. He's a gambler, and he had hundreds of w2 G's. But what I can tell you is the documents were organized. The documents were organized. He had all of his January documents, his February documents, his March documents, which made it easier for us, but it's like when you go to the casino and you get that W, 2g you want to put it in an envelope. Store it away. Don't throw it away. Way store it away, because they gave you the document and they sent it to the IRS. Interesting thing about gambling, understand, you know, there are new rules every year coming out about gambling. This year, only 90% of the losses are deductible, and I'm sharing that with you, only 90% of the deductions are deductible. But also be cognizant that next year, the winnings have to be over $2,000 for you to get the W 2g you heard it, it has to be over $2,000 for you to get the W 2g I share that with you because while you're organizing your documents, and let's talk about organization. And what does that mean? You got a w2 real easy. Organize it. You know, you just keep the w2 if you have multiple, keep them together. You're retired. So you may get some 1099 R's, or you might have pulled out a distribution from your retirement plan. You get a 1090 9r put them, 1090 9r together. You know what you did. And if it's something that is taxable, there should be a document attached to it. You own a home, you should get a mortgage interest statement, and depending on the type of loan you have, will determine whether you have interest and taxes on there, or if it's just interest only. You want to have that document. Some of us have HSA plans. With our HSA plans, you want to make sure that you have the distribution statement and the contribution statement. So you want to have those documents, and you want to you know what you did. And when you come well into our office and you start talking about it, we know what documents we need in order for you to have an accurate return. You know, what do you bring to your tax appointment? Again you bring, Well, right now we upload everything on our portal, our W twos, your 299 your mortgage interest statement, child care expenses. If you pay the child care agency, they give you receipts every time put them in a file. I mean, even if you have electronic files, you can call it tax 2026, put this, you know, organize it by the name of what it is, and then put all the documents in the file. If you're like me and you still have paper files, get a folder, get an envelope. Put a label on it, put everything in there you want to start to organize the documents, you know, brokerage statements, your prior year tax return. Now we ask for this prior year tax return if you were not in our office, because we want to see what they did from the prior year. We want to see what deductions and did you miss something when you came into our office. You know, we talk about side hustles. You know, you may be driving Uber, or you could be you have Airbnb, you have Airbnb property. You're just doing no different things. You're doing nails on the side. You're doing this. You anything that you potentially can get a 1099 you want to pay estimated taxes, and you want to be aware of what the business can deduct. I'll say it again. You want to keep track of your income, because you may get it to 99 you want to pay estimated taxes on that income, because there's no taxes coming out. But you also want to be aware with that business, what can you actually deduct? And when no have hard conversations all the time, when people come in, they're like, you know, Lee, I got an easy return. Well, you say you have easy returns. Easy returns to me are you have a w2 and, you know, maybe you own a home, but when you start talking about retirement accounts, you got brokerage accounts, you lived in another state, you moved to law, you you moved to Nevada. So now we got to do that state return. That makes the return a little bit more complicated, but we are able to handle it. But we want you to understand that you when you give us your documents, we're going to put them we're going to put them together on a return, and we're going to give you an accurate return based off of what you gave us, what I can say if you need assistance with your taxes and you aren't sure, you just have some questions. 702-382-5737, again, 702-382-5737,

Leaha Crawford 9:12
we are located downtown Las Vegas, on the corner of six and Clark. We've been there for 16 plus years, in business for 1718, years, and Texas is a love of mine because it's like putting a puzzle together, and everybody's puzzle is different. Everybody's puzzle is different because of just what you do like everybody you know you're different. And we want to service you entrepreneurs, a lot of entrepreneurs out here, and the one thing I see where they have the most challenges is when it comes tax time, because the documents, just having the documents organized and understanding their financial statements. Because as entrepreneurs, several things, not only. Are you running a business? So you have to work in the business, but you also have to work on the business. So you have to make sure that all your are, your ducks are in a row. So what does that mean? So you know, you you receive money from the products that you know, whatever products or services that you're providing, but then you possibly, you have to pay rent, you have to pay people, you have to have the right insurances for you, for your industry, very important, depending on your industry, you want to ensure that you have the proper insurances for your industry. Then you might have no copier calls. You know, you have to buy some supplies, you have to buy some software, you have a website. You have all these things, and depending on what it is, will determine how much deeper you need to go when you talk about being an entrepreneur and having employees having a real clear distinction. Are they w2 employees, or are they contractors? I'll say it again. Are they w2 employees, or are or are they contractors? And I hear, you know what I got, contractors? Well, okay, well, explain to me what they do, if you control the time, how they do it, when they do it, and they're coming to your place, and you have total control, they are not contractors. They are not contractors. But if you don't, then, you know, let's dig in deep, and in our office, you know, I remember, years ago, had a restaurant owner, he wanted to pay all his employees to 99 you can't do that. Can't do that, because what happens a lot of times is, you know, something happens. Someone leaves. They go file for unemployment. Once they file for unemployment, unemployment office says, We have no filings on you. Because when you have a w2 employee, you're paying several different taxes. You're paying the FICA portion of Medicare, Social Security, you're paying modified business tax, and you're paying a Nevada unemployment tax, and you're reporting to these agencies, social security numbers, names and amount of the compensation that you actually paid this person. So someone believes that now they work for you, and they go file for something, but you have not filed. It triggers that agency to come look at you. And I'm not telling you what I heard, I'm telling you what I've been through. Been doing this for about 30 years now, have seen a lot of things, and it took us some time to get everything right. We got it right, right. But it took some time. It took some time, but part of it is it is he didn't know and no one, no one had explained it to him. He started the business, no one told him. And when I came along and I started to show him and show Okay, well, this is what this means. This is what that means. This is what you need to do. You know, it helped. So again, my name is Leah Crawford. I am not only a certified public accountant, I am an enrolled agent. Have all the papers that I've learned about this over the years. And more importantly, when people have issues, I'm non judgmental. When you come into the office, I have tissues on my desk. I'm listening, not judging, because I want to know what got you here and then where you want to go. What do we need to do to help you get to where you want to go? I've been in business for a very like I said, 17, 1819, years here. I have to look at the years 2026, been in business since 2007 here, but I have been working with small businesses since the early 90s, straight out of college, worked for a small firm in DC, and that's what we did small business owners. We worked with them just to help them to understand how to run, manage the business with the financial statements when they're making management decisions. You know, I always give a mantra to the listeners, and the mantra today was, I am abundantly blessed and divinely aligned. Everything I touch prospers with ease and joy. My Businesses flourish, my relationships overflow with love, and my spirit is grounded in peace, balance and grace. Think about that, what you're saying is I am abundantly blessed and divinely aligned. I'm going to get my paperwork in order. I am going to do the things that are necessary for me to get to where I want to go to. Because where you are today is basically a summation of all the decisions that you've made in the past. So not only do we work on a tax return, but we sit down holistically and look at you, you know, not there, and that's again, not that we're judging, because what got you here, what got you here, maybe not for the goals that you have might not be what's going to get you there? And I know that by tweaking a few things, tweaking a few things, life can change and be a whole lot better. Now, what I can say is, when we're doing the returns, again, several steps, when you are looking at your business, so when you're looking at a schedule, a and you're looking at, you know, medical expenses, some of us have medical expenses, so you want to look. All your medical expenses to see if they qualify for a deduction, you want to look at the taxes you pay in Nevada. We don't pay a state tax, but you can take a sales tax, your property tax, and the tax that you pay on your vehicles. So you want to add those numbers up. Then you also want to look to add in all of the mortgage interest, if you paid PMI all the interest you may have paid on your on your residences, then you want to look at your charitable contributions, charitable to see if you know the see what they are and add it up, so that you can see with this Schedule A, if this schedule A is more than what your standard deduction would be, we do that calculation on a regular basis, because we want to, you know, just to explain to people, okay, this is what you did. This is how it impacts you. This is how it impacts you. And if there are some limits in place, we also have that conversation too. What I also love about what we do is that after we're done, if we need to do more analysis, like for our married filing jointly tax, prepare to tax tax customers. Is it more beneficial for you to file jointly, or is sometimes it's beneficial for you to file separately? And we look at that because we want to see what is going to give you the best tax picture. Again. My name is Leah Crawford. I'm the owner Crawford Management Group. We are located at 431, South Sixth Street, Las Vegas, Nevada, 89101, contact information is 702-382-5737, again, 702382573, 825737, let me say it again. 702-382-5737,

Leaha Crawford 16:50
and last week, we brought on the bankers talking about the products that they have for small businesses. And one thing that I've heard from several different bankers is the same thing. It's the accounting Leah, it's the tax returns. And when we look at it, you know, we just want to make sure that the tax returns make sense for what we're doing. So I can only implore you, when you're no interview, some people see if they really understand what they're doing, how you need to do it, so that you get an amazing, amazing tax return. And we want to try to take the fear out of it, because if you plan for it, if you plan for it, and then you can have a conversation. Okay, so I owe this year. I don't want to owe next year. What are some things that I can do so that I don't owe next year or and I've heard this before too. I know I know something I might believe in. Leah, I don't want to get a big refund. I want I want them to owe me less than $100 I owe them less than $100 because I need to use my money throughout the year for the things that I want to do, and then I have some clients that, if they don't owe, at the end of the year, they did something wrong. They were like, Nope, I didn't do something right. I need to owe, and I'll pay them by April 15, but I need to owe because I am doing a lot of stuff, and I can use the money throughout the year. And what I love about us, we know the personality of our clients, and we build a plan based around what your goal is, you know. But what I can say, if you do have a balance, or if you haven't filed for years to be in compliance with the IRS, you only have to file the last six years, the last six years. So this year, it would be 20 520-423-2221, and 20. So it would be all the 20s, right? And we've had some clients that came in that didn't, and they got refunds in the first three years, and they had to forfeit them because it was they were out of the timeframe for them to claim the refund, and I'll say it again, they didn't file and got refunds and had to forfeit them because they didn't file in a timely manner. I don't, I mean, I can understand, you know, I got overwhelmed. I got busy. I didn't do it. You know, align yourself with someone that is going to stay on you, you know. Okay, are you coming in here with us to file? Okay, you didn't file. Okay, send us the documents. Somebody's gonna give you a friendly reminder not to nag you, a friendly reminder to say, Come on, let's handle this business so that we can so that you can do what you enjoy doing. But we got to handle the business again. My name is Leah Crawford. I am the owner of Crawford management group, we are located, 431, South Sixth Street Las Vegas Nevada, 89101, again, 431, South Sixth Street Las Vegas Nevada, 702-382-5737,

Leaha Crawford 19:58
I know here in LA. Las Vegas. We always talk about having multiple streams of income, and when you have multiple streams of income, which is an amazing thing, to have those multiple streams of income, just make sure you are handling the business for the multiple streams of income, it makes the tax situation a little bit more complex, not impossible, not impossible. And if you keep your documentation and paperwork in order, in order, we can actually see, you know, it doesn't make sense for you to keep on doing this, because it might not, you know, or is it something that you need to grow even bigger because your paperwork in order? And we can look at it to see if it is a viable business, because with IRS, says, especially with single member LLCs that choose to file a Schedule C if you have losses the three year losses three years straight, it's a hobby. It's not a business, because in business, you're there to earn money. I want to close with a special just just, I want you to understand taxes, does it doesn't have to be complicated. You just need to have a plan. I can't emphasize it enough, a plan if you owe in this a large balance, let's develop a plan. You know, in some instances, depending on the situation, we can do an offer in compromise. In some situations, you're just gonna have to pay it monthly, but we can do something that you can afford, and also build a plan so that you don't have this moving forward, I want to say Happy spring to everyone. It is March Madness. Go watch TV. Watch the games, watch the people play. It is a fabulous time in the Valley. It's hot, it's warm. Get out, enjoy yourself, but most importantly, take care of them. Taxes, Peace and blessing. Bye.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai