Why Most DIY Tax Filers Overpay and What George Dimov Wants You to Know

If you find an extension and it's still tax season for you, well, in fact, tax season really never ends.

There are a lot of changes in the wings, and that's why also we have the perfect expert here for that matter.

Welcome to the show, George Demo.

Thank you.

So George, a lot might change, but already as it is, it's complex and complicated enough with the tax system.

What are your clients concerned about?

My clients are always looking to legally save taxes, and the kind of clients I have want to follow the rules.

They want to follow the law, and they are looking for an adviser that's going to help them put together a strategy that long term is going to ensure that they do not overpay.

But that's what's happening.

I mean, it seems like a lot of people think, oh, I'm just doing it myself.

Of their smart apps right now.

I'm going to save 2000 to $3000.

Is that something I do encounter only then to later find out that they have to pay so much more in taxes or did over the years?

Yeah, you know, that's a really good point, and we talked about this a little bit earlier in our conversation before the show, but we get this all the time where it's tax season, it's February, it's March, it's April, and taxpayers approach us after the Doing their taxes in TurboTax or on H&R Block or a do it-yourself app, and they have a huge tax bill and they don't know why they have it.

They don't know even how it came about.

They sometimes don't have the money for it and I always tell them make sure to start planning with a professional far ahead of time, maybe 6 months before, 9 months before that is really that is that people would think, OK.

It's February.

It's tax season.

Now it can get cracking, but you would say bad idea, like definitely 6 months.

Well, we're going to as tax professionals, we're going to be too busy in February or March.

We're going to be filing people's taxes.

So if you want to start planning, you want to meet your adviser far ahead of time, especially if you know something big is happening that year.

You just sold a home and you know you have capital gains.

You just got married and you don't know what your taxes are going to look.

With your spouse, you just had a child and you don't know how that's going to impact your taxes.

You just made a big purchase or you made a big sale in cryptocurrency or equity or stock bonds.

You don't know how that will affect your taxes.

Plan early because if you don't, there might be a surprise.

Any tips that you can share, for example, for people who are trying to make some good investments and get some good write-offs.

Any moves that you typically advise.

So if we're going to talk about strategy, and I'm going to say overall if you're a business owner, make sure to meet with your accountant and discuss your business structure, because one of the main things that I see, and we had over 100 clients this last tax season that were in the wrong business structure and on average they overpaid anywhere between a few 1000 to even tens of thousands of dollars in tax just because they did. not have the right business structure for themselves.

So make sure review ahead of time with a tax attorney or a CPA.

What is your business structure and what's going to be the one that's most optimal for the type of income that you earn, the state that you're located in, and how much you earn?

Is there a special approach that your company has to help busy professionals have a specific system, how you go about it?

I would assume that most people just want to hand it over to you.

And then I want to just be in good hands, but there are also those business owners who would like to maybe understand all the detail, right?

You know, it's something interesting.

We talked about it before.

People that are in finance or engineering, a lot of times they're very detail oriented, and we have many clients that are in those fields.

They want to get into the detail.

And what I say make sure get into each one of the stocks that you're about to sell and make sure that you are using the proper capital gain strategy because the amount of time that you held onto the stock is really going to.

Influence how much tax you pay and especially if you're earning equity from your employer and you have stock options you exercise, also make sure to plan how much alternative minimum tax you're paying because there's ways to reduce that strategically.

What do you expect now for the months to come with the new tax laws that are in the wings?

I'm very excited because, you know, for me as a business owner in the tax industry, we always get a lot of business when there are tax changes and if there are any tax changes we're going to get a lot of questions.

And if there aren't, let's The bill doesn't pass, we're still going to get many questions.

So I'm very excited for the clients.

I tell the clients to reach out.

Any questions that you have, make sure to reach out as soon as you have the question.

Don't wait until the questions pile up.

Get all your questions answered right away and make sure you have an accountant that knows you that you can pick up the phone or text them or call them or schedule an appointment over email.

They can jump in and provide you custom guidance that knows you well.

Do you also take calls from your clients after 5 o'clock on the weekend?

That's a great question.

Actually, and you know, if you ask my wife, she'll be very upset to say that I do take calls from clients all day, all night, on weekends, holidays, trips, vacations.

I'm always on the phone with clients and I'm always on the phone with staff, making sure that they are serving their clients properly too, which are working for me.

No wonder you're on hiring mode.

It seems like your clients are in good hands with you.

Thank you.

I appreciate it thank you so much, George.

I hope you'll see us again.

With another episode of Perceived Reality.

Join us again next week.