Date: March 9, 2021
Overview
A client who owned a rapidly growing book wholesale company had fallen behind on filing both his business and personal taxes for three years. As a result, he was facing over $250,000 in taxes and late fees. He needed help organizing and filing his taxes, reducing the tax burden, and planning for future growth.
Challenge
When you’re running a busy, fast-growing business, it can sometimes be easy to spend more time focusing on day-to-day operations than administrative tasks like filing taxes. That’s what one CP&A client did when his business started taking off. But after three years of failing to file, the client was looking at a sizable tax burden with penalties and fees for every year. With back taxes piling up, this business owners’ concerns about the IRS pursuing him and putting him out of business continued to grow. He knew he needed professional help to get compliant in order to continue to scale his business without looking over his shoulder in fear.
When you are really focused on growing a business in a faced-paced industry, it can be easy to procrastinate doing the things that really matter. Every time I tried to sit down to do them, they seemed really complicated and confusing, which only led to putting off doing them even more.
—Business Owner
Taking Action
While the business owner knew it would take a professional to address the tax hole that he’d dug himself into, he didn’t know where to start. After engaging CP&A he was pleasantly surprised to learn that CP&A would also help to develop a plan to lower his current and future tax burdens in addition to getting him caught up. CP&A CEO Vanessa Correa stepped in to provide the client and his business with the financial leadership it was missing.
The first step: Completing four years of bookkeeping, identifying and maximizing deductions, and getting the client’s financial data in order so that we could accurately and completely file all past due taxes. With that out of the way, CP&A worked directly with the client and the IRS to obtain a First Time Penalty Abatement, an IRS policy that allows qualified individuals and businesses to get relief from paying significant late fees and interest due to missed filing and payment deadlines. By knowing taxpayers’ legal rights and holding the IRS accountable to its own policies, CP&A was able to significantly reduce the client’s tax liability to the tune of more than $8,940 in failure-to-file penalties. With the immediate, pressing issues addressed, it was time to move onto planning.
Our goal was to equip the client with financial clarity while strategically putting tax savings into focus so he could make smarter business decisions and grow his business by leveraging reallocated tax dollars.
–Vanessa Correa
CP&A developed a detailed tax plan designed to make keeping track of and filing taxes easier, while allocating tax dollars to reinvesting into the scaling business’s infrastructure. Lastly, we worked with the client to correctly structure his legal business entity structure, so he could continue growing his business while avoiding overpaying in taxes or getting into compliance issues in the future. With a few small structural and operational changes, CP&A was able to cut the business owner’s marginal tax rate by 50 percent, despite the fact that revenue continued doubling year after year.
Results
Thanks to CP&A’s efforts, the client was able to save more than $123,400 in taxes, overall. By helping him get his finances in order, we were able to support the client in securing a mortgage and moving out of his rental property, ultimately ensuring he can build his own financial future instead of someone else’s. With our financial guidance, the client was able to increase his net income by over 500 percent within 3 years (from 85k in net income in 2016 to 499k in net income in 2019). Furthermore, with our hard work and expert guidance, the client is able to keep doing what he loves, build his wealth, and focus on continuing the rapid growth trajectory of his business without having to sacrifice his peace of mind or continue paying more than he is legally obligated to pay in taxes. We take honor in removing the burden of financial leadership and management off of his plate so that he doesn’t have to worry about accuracy and compliance in his financial department.
CP&A really worked hard to relieve my anxiety over taxes. They set me up for future success and delivered the guidance I needed to manage the business finances in a way I did not know was possible. I sleep so much better at night knowing I am making more than I ever have before, and that my tax situation is on autopilot. I can’t even imagine running my business without their support. They’ve made a tremendous difference in the financial health of our organization.
—Business Owner