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Many repair shops are experiencing an uptick in business this year. This may also increase your tax liability on your next tax return. Obviously, waiting until the start of 2023 to begin thinking about planning for taxes is not a wise move. So how often do you meet with your accountant to discuss tax planning?

I've used 3 different shop management programs over the years, including Mitchell. Around 2000, I started using QuickBooks in lieu of my shop management program. For a couple of years, I ran both programs in parallel because I didn't know QB very well. I slowly learned that I could tailor QB to the way I ran our shop, not the other way around. I discovered that I could design my own estimates, repair orders, reports, chart of accounts, not to mention accounting. It was a revelation to me. I'm speaking of QuickBooks Pro Desktop, not the online version. To me, the online version is a very "lite" version of QB Desktop. The more I used it, the more I learned I could do with it. I've attached a sample estimate I designed. To be clear, we are a transmission specialty repair shop, not GR. No more monthly fees or having somebody holding your data hostage. While there IS A HUGE learning curve, but I found it's well worth it. QuickBooks is the gold standard when it comes to small business accounting. Although my wife is an accountant, we still had a CPA. We could simply email a copy or our books to the CPA and he loved it. Actually, he gave us a discounted price because we were less hassle. As far as I'm concerned, QB is the best shop software. For the first year, I paid a small fee for customer support. After that, I just took the ball and ran. Drew Clarke Estimate_Redacted.pdf

Do you ever worry that if the credit card you’re using to make business purchases isn’t in your business name that you won’t be allowed to take the deductions? The good news is, that’s not the case—even if you have a separate entity! This doesn’t mean you should mix personal and business expenses. When you take a personal credit card and use it entirely for business expenses, you are essentially contributing this debt to your business. You can use the card the same as if it was in the company’s name and deduct every business expense you purchase on it. This can be a great strategy, just like with auto loans, when the company is new because it’s harder for new companies to get lines of credit without an established credit history. So if you’ve got a personal credit card available for business expenses, feel free to use that card and benefit from all of the rewards! To learn more please call 1954-324-0803 or book an appointment at https://calendly.com/markjohnsontaxplanner/45min View full article

He had been working with his accountant for 6 years. That’s over $134k in over-payments. The reality is most CPAs only do tax preparation not tax planning, there is a HUGE difference! I am offering free tax planning assessments to all group members. Where we will look at: Deductions review & Strategy planning Legal Entity Optimization Retirement Option & Plan to Hit Extra 1M by Retirement Insurance Review & Assets Protection TCJA (Trump Tax) Review Message me direct or book your slot on my website. View full article

According to The NY Times, you should have a well-padded cushion of savings by age 50 if you want to retire comfortably. This is how it should look: By age 50, have five times your annual salary saved. ( ie. $100K income = $500K savings) By age 55, have six times your annual salary saved. ( ie. $100K income = $600K savings) By age 60, have seven times your annual salary saved. ( ie. $100K income = $700K savings) The Times also reports that less than 13% of Americans have a pension or a solid retirement plan. How does your situation looks? Are you on track to retire comfortably? If not, no need to panic. We can guide you in getting there. If a shop owner who is currently 50 years old starts putting away $2,700 every month until he retires at 67. He would have amassed $1,245,344 by the time he retires. Now you might be asking where will I get the money from to save? Well, most of the shop owners that I encounter are overpaying an average of $22,679 in taxes yearly. This amount alone could easily be used to fund your retirement plan. When we met Henry he was 62 and his shop was netting a little over $283K per year. We were able to find tax savings which allowed him to save $84K per year and in 8 years he had over $1.1M in retirement savings. To learn how to use your tax savings to build your retirement portfolio message me directly or book a free consultation via my website.

I am fed up with Quickbooks Pro. We are a small two man shop, I do the accounting. We wanted to hire a teenager for a few hours a week for clean up and Quickbooks wanted a huge amount to add one more employee with enhanced payroll! Besides, we are sick of the renewals each year going up so much. I can either buy two separate programs (we want discs) one for shop management and one for payroll, I like to electronically file my tax reports and pay tax payments through the software online. Maybe someone here uses software that does it all, does not cost over $300-350 to purchase. Upgrades would be optional, I would like to implement a new system for January 2014. Help! <grin>