Tax Tip of the Week | No. 436 | Do You Need Tax Planning or Business Consulting?

Tax Tip of the Week | Dec 6, 2017 | No. 436 | Do You Need Tax Planning or Business Consulting?

As the year end draws near – the usual hosts of magazines, newspapers and the internet will all be busy with age-old articles on tax planning. Most will be repeating essentially the same techniques as they have for the last thirty (30) plus years.And that is not to take away from these strategies – most are quite valid and very useful. Tax planning is important! Do it! Deferring income taxes is always a good thing. And, if the tax deferral is for a long enough period of time; then, in certain situations those deferred income taxes might be eliminated with your demise.However, what does one do when a tax liability does not exist because your business and/or other adverse personal events resulted in tax losses and little tax liability? Then, one removes the tax planning hat and instead puts on their business consulting hat. With that hat comes a new mission with a new set of questions:1.    Do I have the right people?2.    Do I have the right customers?3.    Are incentives aligned with my business goals?4.    Are my assumptions still reasonable?5.    Am I outsourcing the right tasks?6.    Am I measuring the right things?7.    Were our sales on goal?8.    How am I different than my competition?9.    Am I really optimizing technology?10.    Am I stressed out?11.    Were our gross profit margins on goal?12.    What is our accounts receivable turnover?13.    Am I avoiding the really tough decisions?14.    What is our inventory turnover?15.    Are we committed?16.    What is our accounts payable aging?17.    What is our capital assets budget?18.    On a day-to-day basis, can the business function without me?19.    Do we have adequate capital to take the business where we want it to go?20.    Etc., etc., etc.And, provided you arrive at the right answers for these questions and implement the answers according to your strategic plan; then next year you will also be wearing a tax planning hat as well. A good business person will always be wearing both hats along with some others.You can contact us in Dayton at 937-436-3133 and in Xenia at 937-372-3504. Or visit our website.This week's author....Mark Bradstreet, CPA...until next week.