SPEAKER_01 0:00

So that's where I think a lot of people fall short or just don't do the things right because they switch to an escort too soon. And then if you have losses, for example, or your income is not, I want to say like 50 to 65k in order for us to justify the extra expense. Even a little bit higher. You know, the more you earn the the better, but like I would say a minimum of 50 at least. That's when you start seeing the real savings.

Violeta 0:26

If you have or plan to start a side hustle or business, one of the things that you really have to figure out is the taxes to ensure that Uncle Sam doesn't come knocking at your door asking for their money, right? The problem is that if you go to the IRS website or any of that, the financial system is just so hard to navigate. I know I got overwhelmed, and even still, like I will go and look at something up, and it's just like, what are you talking about? But it is so important to learn about it, at least be aware of that, on how you first of all have to pay your taxes. What is all taxable, all of that? What's your tax liability? But it's also important because you can then start strategizing to help reduce your taxes so that way you can keep more money in your pocket and invest it back in your business or do whatever you want with that money. Uh so today's episode, we're going to get into the taxes on the business side. So if that is you, then make sure you have a pen and paper because we're going to have a lot of important information in this episode. Uh and if you're not able to, definitely save it for later for you to have it as a resource later. But the good thing is that you don't have to navigate it all on your own because you can always go and get a tax expert, which is who I have with me today. Today, the guest is Laura Sarate, and she is a CPA and founder of Athena CPAs and Advisors, where she helps six to seven-figure businesses owners nationwide keep more of the money that they earn. And she has saved more than 10 million in taxes. And she was born in Colombia. She's the first in her family to build a multiple six-figure CPA firm. So welcome, Laura. Thank you so much for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 2:21

Thank you so much for having me, and I'm excited about starting to talk about all things business.

Violeta 2:28

Yeah, yeah. So definitely the taxes has been a fun sarcasm to start figuring out. Uh so I'm glad that I have you because actually Laura is my CPA and she handles my real estate taxes and also now the businesses and just in my personal taxes. So it's like a whole bunch of stuff. So, which by the way, this is part of like a two episodes. We're doing the business side here in Money Achievement, and we will be doing another episode for real estate tax benefits and just taxes for the real estate side over there at real estate achievement. So make sure you go check out that one as well. I'll have it linked in the show notes. But yeah, like I want to get into it, and I guess we could start because one of the biggest questions I know I had was like, What do I start an entity? Like, what do I do? If so, which one? And for this one, we're just gonna stick to the tax benefits side. We're not gonna get into like the liability side, but I want to hear like what you tell clients when they come to you and be like, hey, what kind of entity should I have for my taxes?

SPEAKER_01 3:41

Yeah, so generally people start with an LLC, especially when it's super brand new and they're not really sure how much money it's coming in. So that generally is the most flexible type of entity. Also, the LLC is fairly cheap on the taxes as far as like it's in within your personal tax return. Some people like that and some people don't, but you know, you don't have to pay an extra tax return, it's just a different schedule within your tax return. So it's fairly easy. That is to say that there is rules related to having an LC and it's a separate entity, and you should treat it as such, but it is fairly flexible.

Violeta 4:25

Yeah. And I have a question because it popped up as you were talking about like treating it LLC. One question that I had off the bat is because a lot of times we're kind of like self-funding at the beginning as a startup, like what is a way one of the things that I was concerned about, especially you know, not to get into the liability side, the legal protections over there, was like, how do I go and contribute to my LLC, put money in there to get the business up and going? And how does that work with tax-wise? One of the things that I was like, well, do I reimburse myself, take it out as a loan? Like, how would that work for somebody doing the startup side of that?

SPEAKER_01 5:12

Gotcha. So the first thing that should happen is that you open your LLC, you get your EIN, you register in your state, and then you go to the bank and open a business bank account. Very important because we want to make sure that we treat the LLC as a separate entity, right? Again, not in the liability side, but and maybe this is not the wrong, but they do teach it at school that there is issues where you don't treat your LLC as a separate entity. So you can technically be personally liable. So, in that sense, that should be kind of the start of everything. And then once you open your business bank account, you're gonna contribute, it's called a contribution or an owner's contribution to the entity. And it's actually a lot of people that start a business, they're like, no, but this is income. No, it's money that you're putting in. Income is things that you earn with your business, so you're not gonna be taxed on any contribution that you make.

Violeta 6:20

Okay, yeah. I was like, I should probably make sure that I'm doing this correctly, but yeah, that's what I was doing. I just would mark it as an owner contribution, so it's good because I was wondering, I was like, dang, is it is it gonna get taxed or what was going on? So I'm glad that I'm not gonna get like double taxed.

SPEAKER_01 6:36

Yeah, no, no, no. So, like the only, you know, real like tax would be income that you earn minus expenses, and then that's kind of how everything is assessed.

SPEAKER_00 6:48

Yeah, and I had a question for you too, Laura, because a lot of our listeners are W-2 employees, and so they start side hustles or earning money on the side, and do not do like pay bills to save to whatever goal that they have. But there is a difference between starting a side hustle and starting a new business. I think where would you recommend the point to like if it's income reaching, let's say, over a thousand dollars a month, and now at the end of the year they're gonna have like additional $12,000 to basically claim. When do you recommend to switching? Like, you know, what my site hustle now is becoming its own thing, its own business. So I need to start treating it like a business. To do that, I'm gonna go start at LLC, I'm gonna contact the CPA and then see if I actually can benefit from one of those tax deductions that you would have if you treated as a business.

SPEAKER_01 7:46

So I I wanna make sure, and I know we said we're not gonna talk about anything legal, but unfortunately, this happens to be both uh tax accounting and legal. So the reason why we have an LLC is not specifically for the tax benefits. You can still make deductions if you're a self-employed or sole proprietor. So a sole proprietor just means that you have an entity, but it's not registered in the state. The reason why we have an LLC is because we want to have that limited liability protection. Because in the eyes of the IRS, uh LLC, that is single member, mind you, so one owner, it's a disregarded, they call it disregarded entity, which just means that it's you. It's you. So for tax purposes, that is the case. However, going back to your question, when do I recommend it? I would evaluate things like what is the liability, like what is the chance that something was was going to happen that might impact you financially, something like a lawsuit or insurance issue, that you might be like, oh, it's better for my protection to put it under an LLC. That being said, I do think that opening an LLC is important when you have recurring income, right? Because at that point, and it's the same source of income, right? So you can't be doing Uber and then DoorDash and then uh, I don't know, doing landscaping, and then you're like, I'm just gonna open an LLC for all these things. So there should be one activity that you're consistently getting income and doing deductions that you should be considering opening an LLC, right? Okay, and then also I do think that sometimes when you have an LLC, you have the it's almost like you have the vision of having this business and it's almost real in the sense that it is a real business otherwise, but you know what I mean? So people do take it a little bit more seriously. So for the obviously the mindset and just the the stuff around it, which is like, oh, this is a real business, and they will consider it for things like loans and things like that. I definitely think sooner rather than later. However, I want to make sure that we understand why we're opening an LLC or uh or even a corporation if that's the jam. So that would be my answer.

Violeta 10:21

Yeah, because I'm thinking off the bat, like the people that because for example, my sister, she she's basically a 1099, and she does like she'll do social media for this startup.

SPEAKER_01 10:32

But she only has them right now, so I think uh right now, I think she should be good as a 1099 unless she starts, I guess, getting more people, but yeah, she gets uh monthly paychecks, so yeah, this is a little bit outside of the realm and it's generally of accounting, but it is at this point in time you would need to evaluate. Is it easier for you to get a business account? Mind you, you can get a business account as a so-pro that can happen because what tends to happen with people that do contractor is that they don't know the deductions at the end of the year because everything is intermingled with their personal. So that is the other thing that it's not that you get more deductions with an LLC. I think you just have the activity on a separate bank account and you can know how much is coming in and out. Whether if it's your personal, yeah, money's coming in, but you don't know what part of those expenses are personal and business. And I think if you just do accounting once a year, you're not gonna know if a business lunch was business or personal. You like I barely knew what I I have a kid, so I'm I really know what I did last week. So mind you, a year later, you're probably gonna be like, I don't know what I did X. So I I also think there is benefits on the LLC where it makes it again, it makes it like a real business with separate with a separate bank account, and it makes it easier for us to go ahead and track deductions, which I think is the real benefit of having a business at the end of the day.

Violeta 12:05

Exactly. Yeah, I've been finding that now that I've created the LLCs, it's been so much easier because now that's over there, and I still have a few more things to kind of like move around, but yeah, it's so much easier. It's and I could easily just like track, be like, this is this, this is that, whatever, because yeah, I remember last year I was scrambling to get everything to you and figure out, and then I had to sit there and be like, oh man, I know we did this one thing, and then I gotta remember where I put it, you know, search in my email for the receipt or invoice or whatever. So hopefully this year it's gonna be so much easier.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

But then I do wanna like the systems that you build around your business, Violeta. Like I remember we talked about this about when we started working together, are so important too.

Violeta 12:55

So yeah, yeah, definitely it going into creating the system for sure, which that would be another one as well. As you're starting your business, what are some tips that you would tell them to start implementing now so that way it's easier to go to their CPA and be like, hey, here's my stuff, instead of scrambling and trying to figure it all out?

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Yeah, so well, the business bank account, which I already mentioned, so we have a separate account for business stuff. Please do not do groceries or go to the spa or anything related to your, I've seen some like children's summer camps, anything personal that in your business bank account, you can, you know, if if you want to go ahead and draw out money, please do a transfer or a check to yourself and do it out of your personal. So that would be like my first one. Have the business bank account. And then aside from that, what I mean by systems is actually having a bookkeeping system, whether it's QuickBooks, a spreadsheet, something. I think the important part is that it is consistently updated, that you are looking every month at your accounts and you are taking into account all of the transactions that are business related. In our website, we do have a template for everyone that wants it. I guess that's a shameless plug, but it helps a lot of people that I meet that don't know how to proceed. But I also do recommend things like QuickBooks, Zero. It helps. It obviously comes at a monthly price. So, I mean, just something to consider is not horrible, but it is a subscription.

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Yeah, and in different states also, for certain professionals like myself, this is something I'm gonna ask for you self-ishly. When you have a license, when you oversight in the state of California, you can, in order to provide services to a professional, you need to open a corporation instead of an LLC. And when that happens, that like I believe that opening an LLC is like level one and opening a corporation is like level 10, because there are so many things that you have to do in order to open a corporation. And there is the whole if you listen to TikTok or YouTube or whatever platform that you're using, everybody's asking you to escort, even if you are on an LLC and you hear this word escort, escort, escort all around social media. Can you explain real quick what that means if you're an LLC and then you escorp you or even if you're a C corporation and US Corp?

SPEAKER_01 15:35

Yeah, so first of all, I do have several clients in California, unfortunately, and I do hold the C Corp requirement. We've actually called even the board and asked several times. However, you can S-Corp both an LLC and a C Corp, and I think you are aware. So let's talk about what an S-corp is, because a lot of people think that they're gonna close their LLC and open something called an S-Corp, and then they go to the state website and they're like, there's no S-corp, there's only a C Corp. So let's get that out of the way. An S-Corp is a fiscal election, meaning that you are telling the IRS with paperwork, mind you, hey, IRS, I want to be an S-corp for tax purposes. I know I have another type of entity, I have a C Corp, as LOC, whichever it is, but I want to be taxed as an S-corp, right? So there's that distinction, and I just want to make sure that that's the case. The reason why we wanna be an S-corp, and I'm gonna tell you about timing in a little bit, but the reason why we're doing an S-Corp, which a lot of people don't know this, so if you know this, you're like 90% ahead of the game. They all talk sexy and they don't explain why. And it drives me insane because I'm like, I always try to find the why. Like, why is this happening? Okay, when you are self-employed, you have to pay obviously the federal income tax and the state income tax if that's if you're in a state that taxes, but you also have to pay something called the self-employment tax, which is the Social Security and Medicare. Every W-2 has to pay that, but unfortunately, for self-employed people, you get it charged at the end of the year on your tax return. And it is an additional 15.3% on top of your federal income tax and state tax, estate income tax. So that could be significant, right? So the reason why we S-Corp is because we're trying to save on that tax alone, the Social Security and the Medicare tax. So that that is my first. Sorry, this is a long explanation because I've explained this over and over again to my clients. They're like, but everybody in social media is talking about it. Yeah. So there's a couple things. If your only income is the S-Corp, I mean only income, like this is not your side hassle. This is, you know, like Laura Zerati has her own accounting firm and she is an S-corp, let's say it is great savings. However, you need to time the change, right? So you need to time it because the thing is that when you become an S-Corp, there are several requirements. The first one, and I think the one that gets the most red flags, is you, as an S-Corp owner, need to pay yourself a W-2. And by need to pay yourself, it's not the draws that you do every two weeks trying to pay yourself, right? It's actually doing a W-2, doing the quarterly payroll reports, doing all of these requirements, all of the quarterly or the payroll requirements, which is a state requirement, a federal requirement, every three to four months. And then at the end of the year, you have the other requirements. So that is what paying yourself means. And then the pay needs to be something that's called reasonable. So what is reasonable, you may ask? So there's all these requirements that we want to make sure we meet for it to be reasonable. So that's the first thing that I want to go ahead and say. The second thing that I do think that a lot of people have an issue with is that paying a payroll company costs money, 60 to 100 bucks. Having an extra tax return is upwards of 15 to $3,000 on that only tax return. And then you have it on your, you know, it's gonna flow through your personal, so you're probably your personal is gonna go up. So all of these things are great, but keep in mind that you're spending what four to five thousand dollars already in the change. So what you wanna make sure is that the savings is more than what you're spending on it, right? Because if you're spending five, you want to make sure that the savings are at least seven because you're also doing extra stuff. So that's where I think a lot of people fall short. And I can keep talking about this, sorry. But I think where a couple people feel or or just don't do the things right because they switch to an S-corp too soon. And if you have losses, for example, or your income is not, I want to say like 50 to 65k in order for us to justify the extra expense, even a little bit higher, you know, the more you earn the the better, but like I would say a minimum of 50 at least. That's when you start seeing the real savings. If you switch when your income is negative or like you just started, because your uncle and their son's father, whatever, told you, then it should not be like that because you might end up in a situation, and I've seen several of my clients coming in where they have losses and they have an escort. Then I ask why, and they're like, Yeah, I don't know, the other person did it, or the previous person, or I did it because my uncle, whatever, told me.

SPEAKER_00 21:02

And I'm like, I saw it on TikTok.

SPEAKER_01 21:06

A lot of people don't talk about this, and I have another thing that I could say, but I mean I'm gonna let you just talk.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

No, I totally understand that I looked into it because I did have to open a corporation this year, and one of the my fiscal responsibilities to see if I'm gonna elect as a C COP or as an S-corp, so I had to like do research and then talk to my CPA as well. But yeah, in social media you keep saying, like, it's oh, just elect S-Corp and you're gonna get over this deductions, you're not gonna pay self-employment tax. But is there any other advantages that basically negating that 15%, not negating it because you're like you're gonna pay payroll and then all of these accountable taxes? Is there any other advantages of having access to it?

SPEAKER_01 21:48

So just keep in mind that you're still paying that 15%, but over a lower amount. So let's say that your net income after expenses before your pay yourself is a hundred thousand. Keep in mind that you're Gonna, I mean, depending on what you do, let's say that based on the reasonable compensation report we have, we you have a payroll of 40 or 50k. That 40 and 50k are gonna pay like payroll tax, which is really social security and Medicare. And then the benefit is that the rest, the other 50k, are not gonna pay that. So that is the real benefit of the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 22:25

Is there any other benefits to having an S-corp other than having the self-employment tax?

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yes. Okay, so there's a couple benefits. So the first thing is that you can, well, you can also do it with a LLC, but specifically in your case, you can actually deduct self-employment health insurance, uh, disability insurance. There's several other credits that you can apply if you qualify. And yeah, it's pretty much it. So yeah, usually you do it for the savings of the self-employment.

SPEAKER_00 22:55

I don't know if this is correct, but for example, if you have an LLC, if you don't choose to escorp, you're not able to contribute to if you wanted to maximize retirement accounts, something like a 401k or IRA. If you escorp, then you have the employer and employee, which you could to you know accelerate the way that you are contributing to retirement accounts as opposed to just having an LLC and you don't claim an escort.

SPEAKER_01 23:21

Okay, so I think you're talking about a solo 401k.

SPEAKER_00 23:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:25

So there's two traditional accounts for self-employment that are initially, I mean, there's more, but like your first choices are gonna be a solo 401k and then a CEP IRA. A SEP IRA is usually the first option because it's fairly flexible, and an LOC or S-corp can contribute to that. It's technically either 25% of your net income or wages, or there's a limit, I think it's $52,000 or $50,000 or $60,000. It changes every year. There's one or the other. So that is the first one. The other one, which is a solo 401k, it's the next level. There is a fee, that's why you start with a CEP because it's fairly cheap, and then you switch to the solo 401k. So yeah, so the solo 401k uh is generally a good option, and that's where we start with the other plans. Solo 401k, there's other plans in relation to that that you can actually choose. And yes, you can make the contribution as an employee and as an employer, correct?

SPEAKER_00 24:30

Yeah, so a lot of the people that I think, including me, you know, when we're thinking to moving into your own business, we are looking at all the benefits that our current W-2 job have, and we're trying to see if we can transfer some of that into our employment. Basically, you can, right? You can, whatever 401k that you do have at your W-2 minus the match that they're matching you, you can technically have the same structure into your in business, plus the deductions that you can take. So there is a lot of benefits to starting your own business when you're licensed. But yeah, a lot of the questions are being asked online versus like LC S-Corp, Corporation, S-Corp. And I think that's where people get like stuck because there's not a lot of good information in the internet.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yeah, I would look a lot of people start at that point getting employees, and for some of the plans, uh, you have to offer the same benefits you offer to yourself. So I would definitely encourage you to even look at the requirements for the people that you employ, even if it's one, or get somebody that can probably help you with that. I definitely recommend it. I do think that, especially self-employed people at a certain level, 50, 75 do need, you know, a team of advisors, a lawyer, a CPA, a financial advisor, probably a banker eventually, maybe like an insurance person. So, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:03

I wanted to ask, you know, bringing it back to like just starting a business and doing bookkeeping free business. What are the common mistakes that new entrepreneurs do when they open an LLC?

SPEAKER_01 26:15

Oh, so many, but first one, not keeping track of your accounting. I know it's boring, guys. I know. But at this point in time, if you don't know where you stand, I tell a lot of people, we don't know what strategies we want to take. We don't know, it can't be a surprise at the end of the year that you're like, oh, I made $100,000. Okay. Like, good for you, but it's already, it already, the year already passed. So like it can't be a surprise at the end of April to know where you stand or to know that, oh my God, I'm at a loss. You're gone. And this happens a lot with people, well, maybe not that start a business, but like when they have contributions or they have help from a startup loan or something like that, you don't know what part of the loan or like what part of the money that is in your business checking account is business and what part is not business. Or is business part of the loan and what you earned? So I think it's important to have systems, you know, like a bookkeeping system in place to know where you stand. Because if you don't know where you're going financially, it's probable that you won't grow as fast or won't grow at all.

Violeta 27:29

So yeah, I would say one of the biggest as well is we like to do things on our own or be like, I'll just learn it from like YouTube or whatever. But right here in this episode, you can see how important it is to go to an actual professional. And because I think a lot of people just were like, Oh, I'll just give the stuff to the CPA and they'll do whatever, and it's just the taxes, right? But you can see how much more it can be. For example, Lynn was talking about like, oh, like 401ks and things like that, and other benefits. And then you mentioned how important it also is to ensure that you strategically do the switch, uh, and things like that are things that people don't realize the benefit of just going to a CPA and creating a strategy for. And I know I worked with you last year and plan to do it again and figure out my strategy as I navigate all this switch from W-2 to now myself and to real estate professional trying to get that, which we'll talk in the other episode on real estate achievement. But I think people don't realize how valuable and how important it is to just go ahead and talk to a professional, an expert to help you navigate this because the last thing you want to do is that do all this at the end, then figuring out, like you mentioned, during tax time, and you realize like, dang, you missed out on stuff. Because I know that has happened to me. There's been a few times where I didn't do the depreciation at the very beginning of my real estate investing journey because I didn't know about it. And I just tried to do my taxes on my own. And then the next year I went to a CBA and they're like, uh, you didn't do this. Like, you know, I was like, oh wow. So like you miss out on money, you miss on out on benefits and deductions, credits, whatever you want to put on there. So I think it's so important. And so to kind of like end the episode, I want to hear, because you kind of mentioned it a little bit, and I can't remember if we were recording yet or not, but you were mentioning of like the people that like try to write stuff off. And I know with business, there's some things that you can like deduct or you know, the write-offs or whatever as business expenses. So what are like I want to know what are some of the expenses that people don't know that they can write, and I want to know what's one of the crazy expenses that people have tried to write off.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Ah okay, let's start with uh things that they don't know they can write off. Well, the one that I see a lot is the home office. People don't uh either don't track or don't care, but like the home office expense is if you have an office that is your main place of business, so like is where you work, uh you can deduct part of your housing expenses. So your mortgage interest, your electricity repairs for the whole house. So like if you change your roof, AC, anything, you can deduct part of it as a business deduction. So that one is the one that I see a lot that people do not keep track of.

Violeta 30:41

So you say like if you have a home office but you make updates to the house itself, you can start writing off.

SPEAKER_01 30:49

Yeah, so for example, you know, if it benefits your like the whole house, things like that's why I mentioned things that could be like the roof, the AC, things that are for the whole house could be uh, you know, like changing all the flooring. That can be partially deductible based on the square footage of your home versus the square footage of your office.

Violeta 31:11

Okay, that's something I did not know about. And you just mentioned because we plan to do the floors. So that's interesting. That's good. I I found that out. I was like, okay, so I'll have to make sure I keep that receipt. Because I was just thinking that because you know, last year we did, you know, okay, square foot and yeah, some other few things like internet, whatever. But I didn't even think about like flooring or or things like that. So good to know.

SPEAKER_01 31:34

Yeah, and keep in mind that if you buy a desk or you do anything to your office and it's like a room like like the one I'm in, you can deduct fully. So, like if you buy a desk, it's not it's fully deductible. If you paint the walls, it's fully deductible, like it's not partially deductible. But if you were gonna do something for the whole house, then it is partially deductible. There's a whole formula, but again, not to shameless plug, but in the spreadsheet that I have, there's a tab, it's called the business profit and loss. There's a tab called home office, and then on it you can track all of your home office expenses for the whole year. And then a lot of my clients just get me that. They're like Laura, here you go. And it's super straightforward. I really like it.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

That's like for pens, new curtains, blows.

Violeta 32:22

I was just telling you, Lynn, you're you're setting up your your your business. So I go go. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 32:28

So, like anything, curtain, you're right. So curtains, blinds, I don't know, rugs. I'm actually proceeding to get a rock here, but um but things like that that could be deductible, correct?

Violeta 32:40

Yeah, that's good to know. Lynn's next time I have Lynn. Um I'm just gonna slowly see her office just slowly thinking all nice and everything.

SPEAKER_00 32:52

Another thing that came on the tech talks was oh, I can get an LC now, I can buy a car under the business name. How accurate is that?

SPEAKER_01 33:01

So generally, you won't be able to buy a car under the business name by itself because they're not gonna let you take a loan under your business unless you have more than two or three years of credit, and then you had loan history under your business. So keep in mind that your business, once you started and you get that EIN, it's like an 18-year-old kid, or maybe you guys, when you when you know, when my dad came to this country, no credit, no credit because you can't build it outside of the US, it's almost like that all over again. So you've got to start doing things that people that are starting to build credit do. Things like you know, getting your first credit card, maybe getting a line of credit, SBA loan, make sure you keep track of it and make sure you're paying it in time. It's the same way. So, unless you have that history and that usually takes three to five years for you to get, you usually have to buy it yourself. But what you can do is actually deduct it, but it is very important. You can only deduct a percentage of it based on the usage. So if the same car you're using it for business and personal, I would recommend to have either a log of miles or like a log of usage. Um, because the IRS can come back and say, Well, what do you use for your and there's a question there, like, do you use this for your personal? In the tax return on the car, it says, Do you use it for personal use? So they're expecting that you know, if you're using it for personal use, you don't deduct 100% of your gas. You deduct, I don't know, 70%, whatever percentage that you feel you think or you have used it. So that's very important. Yes, you can deduct your car. It's probably gonna be something of a usage situation. So I would advise to keep records of your usage.

Violeta 34:56

Okay, yeah, those TikToks and I can't go. I was I'm shopping for a new car, so I was like, when you said that, I was like, oh, darn.

SPEAKER_01 35:06

So I mean, you can't you can't go ahead and deduct, mind you, you can go ahead and deduct it. The issue is gonna be it's very likely, and Violeta, let me know how your car experience goes. But it's very likely they're gonna be like, we're gonna have to either guarantee it or we're gonna have to buy, have the loan under your name. Because you can always close an LLC. So they only really do this with I've only seen you know really established businesses for X amount of years do that, or small banks also will do one under under your business if they feel like you have been around for a while.

SPEAKER_00 35:43

Okay, this is like a very specific distribution. But what if she chooses to go and lease a car for the business and then she keeps track of the miles used for the business, with that lease payment we tax deductible at least a portion of it at the end of the year?

SPEAKER_01 35:59

Yes. Okay, that can also happen, and that can also happen with that car you buy, and actually it's gonna make it long, but like once you buy the car, especially this year, you can fully deduct the whole thing or like 100% of the purchase price if you use it for business and you bought it within 2026. So just keep that in mind, it's co-bonus depreciation. So a lot of people, I don't want to say that it's a strategy because you're spending, I don't know, 50k to save 15k, but it is something that could be used to lower taxes.

Violeta 36:36

So awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on here. And I've learned so much in the review. I didn't even think about it. I forgot about the car. I can't believe like I'm shopping for a car. I can't believe I'm about to ask that question because I meant to, so I'm glad Lynn had my back and brought it up. But yeah, where can people find you? And I'll make sure to have all the information down below.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

Of course. So our webpage is Athena like the goddess, CPAS. And that's actually cpas.com, and then that's actually our Instagram too. So at Athena CPS. So that's where you can find us. We also have a Facebook page and uh LinkedIn, and um, yeah, and just let me know that you learned. That would be great. Just know that somebody learned something.

Violeta 37:26

And are you able to do like all states? Or I'm in yeah, I know you can do mine, so like yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:32

So we generally do all 50 states. Uh obviously, so I'm in Florida, but I've done, you know, a lot of our clients, I want to say 50% are in other states, maybe more. I I feel like maybe more. But let's say 50% of all the clients are in other places, so definitely uh yeah, so we can definitely help you out with state returns too.

Violeta 37:55

Yeah, awesome. Well, thank you so much. Her information will be down below, and she has several services. I've done her tax strategies, of course. She does my taxes, and there's other things as well. So uh make sure you check it out, and we'll see you in the next episode. Bye.

SPEAKER_00 38:10

See you guys. See ya.