Most business owners don’t lose sleep because they hate numbers. They lose sleep because they are terrified of what those numbers might reveal if the IRS ever comes knocking. Behind the unfiled returns, unopened IRS letters, and messy books is a constant, exhausting fear: “What if I’m in trouble and I don’t even know it yet?”​

In this episode of the Tax Answers Advisor, Enrolled Agent and Certified Tax Representation Consultant Marcelino Dodge sits down with CPA Laura Zarate of Athena CPAs to talk about a different way forward: building clean systems and proactive tax strategies so you can stop looking over your shoulder and finally look ahead. Together they show how “boring” consistent accounting, intentional decisions, and year‑round planning can turn chaos into clarity and fear into confidence.​

You’ll hear how reactive habits—ignoring IRS notices, mixing business and personal money, relying on shoebox receipts, waiting until April to think about taxes—quietly build penalties, interest, and anxiety, even when no one is sending you letters yet. You’ll also discover what a truly clean system looks like, why documentation matters so much in an audit, and how separating your business and personal finances protects not just your deductions but your entire entity.​

Marcelino and Laura walk through real‑life scenarios: missed S corporation elections, owners who never took reasonable payroll, people who bought expensive vehicles “for the write‑off” and ended up with a cash problem instead of a tax solution. They unpack how simple timing and structure decisions—like how you sell a business, when you take income, and how you compensate yourself—can save thousands when you plan ahead instead of cleaning up after the fact.​

Most importantly, this conversation speaks to the business owner who feels ashamed, behind, or afraid to reach out because “it’s already such a mess.” You’ll hear why it is absolutely possible to clean up the past and build better systems for the future at the same time, and how showing real change can make the IRS or state far more willing to work with you.​

The problem this show solves

This show exists for the business owner who:

1. Has unfiled tax returns, IRS or state letters, or a tax bill they don’t understand.​
2. Is trying to DIY their books and taxes while running a company, and feels constantly unsure if anything is actually right.​
3. Has grown from “side hustle” money to real revenue but never adjusted their entity, payroll, or planning.​
4. Lies awake wondering, “What if I get audited? What if I can’t fix this?”​

Through this podcast, Marcelino helps you:

1. Move from fear, avoidance, and reaction into proactive planning, clear systems, and predictable tax outcomes.​
2. Replace shame with informed action by explaining what went wrong, what can still be fixed, and what to do next.​
3. Keep more of what you earn legally, while getting compliant and protecting your business and family.​

If today’s episode hits a nerve—if you see your own situation in these stories—it’s a signal, not a sentence. You don’t have to fight the IRS or face your books alone.​

Take the next step

When you’re ready to stop letting the IRS dictate your future, visit taxreliefcall.com to schedule a confidential conversation with Marcelino. As an Enrolled Agent and Certified Tax Representation Consultant, he can step in, deal with the IRS on your behalf, and help you build the clean systems and proactive strategies that let you finally breathe again.​

You. So you've heard that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, right? But what happens when you're in the thick of it and need the cure? Right now, Today on the Tax Answers Advisor with Marcelino Dodge, we are bridging that gap. We're talking about how to stop looking over your shoulder for the IRS and start looking forward to grow your business. Whether you need to fix a past mess or build a cleaner future, this episode is about how intentional planning can help you sleep better at night. If you are listening to this conversation about clean systems and realizing yours are anything but, don't panic. If you have unfiled tax returns or an IRS letter sitting unopened on your desk, ignoring it is the most expensive thing you can do. As an enrolled agent, I can step in and handle the IRS for you. You don't have to do this alone.

Go to taxreliefcall.com right now to book a time with me. Let's get you compliant and help you get your life back. Today we have a very special guest on our program. It's Ms. Laura Zaratti, a CPA. And we're going to invite you, Laura, to please just introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about your background.

Yeah, of course. Marcelino, thank you so much. It's an honor to be here. My name is Laura Zarate and I am the principal CPA of Athena CPAs and advisors. We are a boutique style CPA firm and we help overwhelm small business owners manage messy finances so they can grow their business more with more confidence, increase their take home pay and also have time with their family, friends and actually have a life. Thank you so much.

Yes, yes, have a life. And that's certainly what we want people to do in their business. Instead of letting the business own them, let's let them own the business. And we've had some conversations and in those conversations you've talked very nicely about how well tax relief has its place. But the real impact is with a proactive approach, which is the way and the direction you really like to take and which is what I actually encourage ones to do as well. So can you go ahead and break down the difference between the mindset between a business owner who merely reacts at tax season versus one who is actively planning for it?

Of course. So the reactive versus proactive mindset is something that a lot of people need to get right when they are talking about not only taxes but money. Just overall just having money or trying to make money and not having a W2. It's so important. So reactive owners take or treat taxes like a complete surprise. Something that kind of happens to them at the beginning of each year or ending of each year. Right. And then proactive owners treat taxes more of like a system that they can sort of design.

Right. So instead of thinking something like, what do I owe, what do I owe? Or how much is going to be my liability or oh my God, the IRS is going to come after me, which is something that I hear sometimes proactive people are like, how can I make decisions today so I can reduce what I owe tomorrow? So they treated more of like a, not only like a, like a design, but more of like a project that you have someone in partnership with, Right?

Yeah, partnership. That's good being proactive there because I've seen the end result so many times of people who aren't proactive or are even, we can say procrastinators. And then you're having to clean it up.

Yeah. And sometimes a lot of people are like, if, you know the ostrich effect, if you put your head in the sand, it doesn't exist. And that's not true, especially with taxes. They might not send you letters, but they are accruing interest and penalties.

So yeah, I don't think just because you haven't filed or whatever, those things aren't accumulating. They are accumulating. They're just kind of virtually accumulating, but they are accumulating there. Now in our discussions you have a core pillar and I talked about it in my opening about having clean systems. So for a business owner who listens, who's perhaps managing their own books and even doing it, even what, what would be called now an old fashioned way, loose spreadsheets or shoebox receipts there what is a clean system? What does that look like? And when you have that, why is it a nice first line of defense?

Well, a clean system is something that you can. That records constantly and maybe like concurrently what is happening in your business. Accounting is a language for business. It tells you exactly what happened when. A clean system includes just knowing when things happened and not guessing. I really like it when systems. Well, I mean, if you do the spreadsheet kind, that's great. But it would be great if a system had reconciliation so you know that it agrees to your bank statement and it knows exactly what's going out and in.

And then also a clean system also entitles things like separating business and personal finances that for some reason people just struggle to do. And I keep repeating over and over again, so unfortunately, so, so consistent categorization that tells your financial story per se to the irs. So some. If something was to happen, you have the backup. And then you did mention like receipts and all of that. They are super important. I don't, I recommend personally, and I'm sure you do too, to take pictures and keep them like in, like in, like in digital copies because they tend to erase after like 3 months. I don't know about you, but like, they just kind of like disappear once you take them out.

So I don't know, like they hit the sun and something happens to them. But yeah, so that would be just have, you know, a spreadsheet, maybe something like QuickBooks would be a nice investment, if that's the next step. And then also have some kind of. Some documentation in order for if the IRS is going to ask questions. You can provide the documentation that they need.

Oh, yeah. Documentation is so important. And I really appreciated you, you mentioning about the separation of personal and business expenses. That's a challenge as tax professionals that we have in the sense that people start a business and they just do everything through perhaps their personal bank account to begin with. And then you got to stress them. You got to have a separate account. You really got to separate those things because the business is not your personal bank account. Yeah.

And I think it's important to understand that if everything, you know, if it's the issue would be. And you, I'm sure you more than know this. Like in a court of law, they can invalidate or tell you that the LLC was not an actual entity, and that's where the issue is.

So.

Yeah, that's the real risk.

Yeah, it's a huge risk. Then of course, the receipts, as you mentioned, very nicely taking a picture of them, scanning them, whatever method that you use to maintain those receipts is just vital. Important because you just can't rely upon the bank statement. That's a starting point, but the IRS is going to want to go beyond that if something does happen and they want to look at your business a little bit closer there. And once again, that's part of that prevention because when we have to go back and reconstruct, like I have to do, it's almost like you're rolling dice because.

Yeah. And I'm thinking you're hoping like, dear God, please make sure. Like hoping that they have something digitally or they have a receipt on an email or something goes insane.

Yeah, it really does. There. And see, when they have those things, it's leads into our next stop here about how that helps a business owner to sleep at night. So is there a specific anxiety that you have found that keeps entrepreneurs, those thinking about taxes at night? And how does planning cure that anxiety, would you say?

Yeah, so the anxiety that I see the most, and you, I'm sure you see the most, is unexpected tax bills or uncertainty of what's going to happen. I think in all areas of our life, not only taxes, we get a little bit rattled about not knowing what's going to happen and not knowing whether we're doing it right or wrong. So I think that just worry creates and so you're just using your energy the wrong way instead of actually focusing on, you know, things like growing your business. You're constantly worrying about, oh my God, I'm going to get, I'm going to get in trouble with the irs. So what cures or what replaces that fear is actually having some strategic planning where you have predictability, you know what's coming, so you know the timing and you have options, which is your specialty. Right. So like, what is, like where are we? What's going on? And then how to move forward. So what?

Sorry, yes. As we try to move forward, there that anxiety people walk into, or I get that phone call and they're just about this, this tax bill, what's going on? What happened? I thought I filed. It turns out they didn't file. Or in the case of someone I met yesterday, they were relying upon one spouse to get everything done. And it turns out that. And then to compound it, sometimes you have a spouse pass away during this time and the other spouse had everything. And we don't have copies of tax returns and we're not sure what's been done. So now we're having to go back and try to reconstruct and get tax documents.

And certainly in the case I'm thinking of, it doesn't include a business. But still you have the same anxiety. You get this letter saying there's something missing from your tax return, which for business owners can be an issue real big time, especially if they fail to include some income on their tax return. And thus that's anxiety. And then they're like, oh, wait a minute. They're sitting there thinking, wait a minute. And then they come in, we got to work on getting, relieving that anxiety, giving them the options and saying, okay, this is how we fix it. But once again, as we're talking about here, how can we then prevented in the first place?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, with systems, with good old fashioned, very boring accounting, like that's. That's that's really the option. The answer, you know, like, it's, it's funny because a lot of people are like, oh, the new shiny thing. And it's like, no, you just keep doing like the same stuff. And I think a lot of people just want the shiny thing, so.

Oh, the nice shiny thing. I like how you brought that up very nicely because. Which leads us to. We don't, we both do deal in the tax preparation, but there's a big difference because tax preparation, as you mentioned, in some point already it's recording history is recording what already happened. It's like taking a look back is basically what it is because like, right now we're in 2026 preparing the 2025 tax returns here. And then there's the tax planning, which is, as you mentioned, also writing the future there. So now we can plan for 2026, which if anybody's really paying attention to what's happened in the last six months, tax wise, there should be some planning going on. There's some great opportunities out there.

So how does, how do we turn around and explain that distinction to clients who think, well, my tax work is all done now. I filed the tax return. How do we get that? How do you find that, you find it effective to talk to, to explain.

That difference to them Generally kind of like worded as different engagements, right? Like, it's like, it's like you are buying milk and you need orange juice in a supermarket. Like, they're completely different products. So tax preparation is things that already happen and tax planning is what will happen. So, so I generally like what I approach them is if I think they're a good, they're a good candidate for a specific or a specific tax strategies, or if I think, you know, what they're like paying too much tax and they just came to me last minute to do their return. I approach them with hi, like after we're done with the return and after we're done with the busy season, I come in and say, hey, I think you'll be a great candidate, but I think that is something that everyone should be looking to do. Tax planning is something that everyone, big or little, but everyone should be start thinking about, right? So filing a return is just a compliance requirement. It's not a strategy. And then you have different planning tools that you can, that you can use, like, you know, timing, structure, intent, that you can definitely plan things out and really see how, how clients or how, how good, you know, how, how, how much the savings is.

I recently had a client who was selling their business and they were thinking of receiving the whole amount either once, like, like a whole $2 million once, or just, you know, it's a simple example where they were thinking about either doing it once or over five years. And obviously there is different tax advantages of doing it over five years, but they really didn't know. And that's one of the easy examples where you're like, that's a timing issue that you can. And then we can kind of pair higher income years with different strategies.

Yeah, See that's where once again, looking ahead, you can sometimes look as you look ahead you can perhaps move, move or just make strategic moves. Income is perhaps take part part income like I said it through taking the payments over years instead of paying all the tax at once. It could be advantages to taking over, taking it over years. Just like in some cases people take in, take get income in, but they kind of split it between you because it's at the end of a year they can, they can get it split, give me payment in December, then wait to make payment in January. As far as on the income side, on the other side, the person paying it, they want to pay, they may want to pay it all in December. So it's a, it's a real careful balance there and trying to do that. But when they're our client, we try to have them delay the income as much as possible where, where it works. It may not always be a good, good plan, but sometimes it's a good plan.

So split it between the years there. So now oftentimes. Yeah, but oftentimes we have clients who come in and guess what? Everything's already gone wrong.

Yeah.

And so how do you have an example when there's a lack of intentional decision making, how that cost the business owner money that they otherwise could have kept?

Oh, I mean the simple one is like missing the S Corp. Election due date or missing the S Corp. Election at all, or not knowing what that is. Taking distributions instead of, and not panic. Planning for payroll, buying assets at the wrong time for the wrong reasons. Like you don't need a Rolls Royce if you already had a car last year. Like that's one of the things that I say the most like a good, like buy a car that's like, it's something that you need, but don't buy it just because you, you wanna the tax deduction. Because what ends up happening is that you're buying something for fifty or a hundred thousand and then you're saving what, twenty, thirty, thirty percent of that.

So that's not really a tax plan, like a strategy at all.

Yeah, yeah, I've, I've, I agree with you totally on that. I was like, why go spend money? I mean, because you're. The return is not, it's not. I mean, as far as what you pay in tax and your return, sometimes you're better off paying the tax and instead of having an asset that you may not have actually needed.

Yeah. And you're paying the full price. I see like tax, not, not to, not to be bad to a lot of, like, tax professionals recommending that. And I'm like, that is not a tax strategy. So.

Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. So just got to be. That's where the planning comes in and, and working at it through the year, not just waiting toward the end of the year, because some people like to wait till the end of the year because they want to know how much money they have and everything and then try to figure out. But really it should be something that we do throughout the year. And then if you need the large purchase, well, that's great if you really.

Need it for your business.

But if you don't really need it for your business and you're spending 50,000 to save 10 or 11,000, that just doesn't make sense in taxes. It really doesn't.

Yeah. Yeah.

So that's where the planning comes in. Instead of trying to figure out last minute what, what we're going to do.

Yeah. The other one that I've seen that I want to mention, like, I've seen a couple, like, people that like, have S Corps and then they, their, their payroll is so like, it's, it's creating a loss for the business. And I'm like, this does not make sense. But they just don't look at the payroll at all. And then they're like, I can't pay payroll. And I'm like, well, if you, you know, it's a whole, like, where is your net income? And then we can like, look at a payroll level and that's where we come in.

Mm. Yeah, exactly. And see, that's where making sure their payroll, especially for the owners of the S Corporation, make sure that's reasonable. And that's in there because I, I see a lot on social media these. I don't know what, what's going on with these guys. I never look at the information, but some of these guys talk about advantages of s corpse and I'm just scared of what they're talking about because I don't know if, if they're. What they're talking about. Because it could be not taking.

They could be advocating not taking payroll. I don't know. But that's, I know that's a strategy that some have.

They don't mention. Yeah, they don't even mention. Sometimes they don't mention anything about the payroll at all. And I'm like, you need to start talking to people about the disadvantages and not make it like the next shiny object and be like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they come to somebody that, you know, like you and I, that we're like, where's the payroll? You need to restart taking payroll now. Like, where? So, yeah, yeah.

So anyway, I've had a. I've lost client. That's one of the things I've lost people over is the facts. I've. And S Corps in particular, because I said, no, you got to be on payroll. And they had only been doing distributions. And it's like, well, that's between you and the irs. Because I'm not.

If you don't do it this way, I'm not, I'm not working with you. And so anyway, they also. And that's fine because I do know that some people, that's what the IRS flags. If you have an S Corp and you're not taking payroll, you're like throwing up a big red flag saying, audit me, audit me, audit me. Anyway, that's, that's, that's a whole nother discussion. But that is, that is an issue if you are an S Corp and you're not taking payroll as, as an owner or shareholder in there. Well, when you're actively working in it, that, that is, that is the distinction. If you're actively working in it, if you're not actively working in it, well, that's a little bit different.

But anyway, now in my area, of course, and as we mentioned, I work a lot in the tax resolution field, fixing the mess after it happens. If there is somebody in a mess. Is it possible to start taking these proactive strategies while we fix the past tax mistakes or do we just need to clean them up first?

Yeah, so it is. You can start doing proactive staff stuff while you're fixing the mess. Because what happens is that cleaning up the pass is not guarantee you that you're going to change the systems in the future. So you need to make sure that, you know, if you catch the mess from now, you know, like let's say 20, 26, going forward, you have good systems. So resolution kind of stabilizes kind of the ground. Let's say but then planning builds for the future. So you're not. We're in Florida.

There's not sinkholes in the ground and you have solid ground for you to build.

Okay. Yeah. So basically, as a coming in, as a tax resolution, I can help lay the found, get that foundation built. But yet, while at the same time, once as we're building the foundation, this is actually interesting, you can build the foundation and the house essentially at the same time here.

Correct? Yeah. And honestly, you want to make sure that. Let's use the analogy for the. For the roof. You want to make sure that there's no more leaks in the roof while you fix the leak that you have. Right. So that's a, I think, might be better analogy to, than my. Than my initial analogy, because there could be multiple leaks.

Yeah, that's exactly it. So we build the foundation, but at the same time, we fix the past, but yet we also fix the current at the same time. That way as we get the past resolved. Which actually helps when you're dealing with the IRS or even a state revenue department if you're starting to work and going. Getting things right going forward. But at the same time, you're fixing the past, a lot of times they're a lot easier to work, work with because they realize you're making changes and good changes. That way you can take care of these compliance responsibilities there.

Yeah. And sometimes, I mean, unfortunately, sometimes people don't know. So I think showing that you are changing and you're learning as a business owner could be something that definitely signals the right, the right intention to. To. To the tax authorities.

Yeah. This relates to another podcast I did a while ago to the I wish I knew syndrome. And so it's just the same in this particular circumstances. Well, I wish I knew. Well, guess what? We're making, you know, now. So we're going to get there.

Yeah. So important. Yeah, yeah.

And through here we've talked about intentional decision making. So then for you, is this meaning that a business owner should be consulting with a tax strategist before every major purchase? Or. Or are there certain trigger events when they perhaps should make that call before making the purchase?

So I'm thinking, you know, not every purchase, but some moments you absolutely knew do. And I can think of a couple key trigger events, you know, hiring or adding payroll, buying vehicles that you need, like least or large, large equipment that you definitely need. Significant. Oh, this one. Significant jumps in revenue. So important. Like a lot of people going back to the escorts, for example, if you are having a significant jump in revenue we might have to adjust the payroll for example or not even that like a strategic what are you going to do with the money coming in? Things like that changing entity structure. That's a big one.

Because whether what, what. Whatever, whatever structure it is, you really need to not only educate yourself on the different requirements that or different requirements and characteristics that each entity has. Basic basically and then major. Well I already kind of mentioned equipment but like any major investment or distribution.

Yeah. So there are some events and depending on the how you have you should be able to have a good relationship with your tax person to where you can make that call there. And each professional has their practices set up a little bit differently. But yeah, we certainly encourage, encourage those listening that if you are going to look at some of this, look at this seriously, you may want to get a good relationship with a tax professional who can guide you through these things and be accessible and use whatever program they may use. Because some tax professionals use what's called relationship pricing which basically gives you access to them without having to pay, pay extra. So but that's, that's, that's another discussion but something you want to make sure that you may look into if you're considering some of these items as we're talking about them today. Now we get interesting. I have a case like this and maybe you've dealt with a company like this where it grows from one or two owners to a larger entity.

Thus the tax complexity increases. So a company scales. So you have a company that goes from 100,000 thousand a year in revenue up to over a million dollars in revenue. How do the rules adjust in those situations?

So yeah, a lot of the rules change so over 100,000 you're really focusing on cash flow clarity and making sure that you know a lot of like the clean systems that we emphasize as a foundation of growth. And then you're trying to focus on simple habits and simple systems that kind of, kind of lay that and then 500 to a million. You're really thinking about entity optimization. What kind of entity Depending on how much cash you want to like do you want to go ahead and have multiple owners like you said like one or two owners. And then you start raising capital. That's a conversation that we need to that to have payroll strategies have matter how much are you know, like where is the payroll? What, how much payroll are you taking? And then the credits related to retirement accounts start counting timing of income for example and expenses become strategic and just overall the stakes become higher because it's.

More complex yeah, yeah. You got some other credits that perhaps can kick in as well as part of that planning process. So, yeah, it's got a. Be able to. And once again, work. Work with your tax, tax and accounting professional to help you to. To work through those. And don't simply state it.

Don't try to do it on your own.

Yeah, yeah. And a lot of people also in this stage, because I had a couple clients who started with me and then are at this stage, they just require, like, their account, their accounting becomes just more complex. Like if they have either like different stockholders or they have different investors, it just becomes that much complex that you have to keep track of not only the loans, but who owns what. Who are you giving money to? It just becomes a little bit harder. Not harder, but it's just more work that somebody that has accounting knowledge needs to look at. That it's not just a basic apar.

Yeah, definitely there. Now, as we look at this, business owners grow or they start small, but yet even. Even when they have a certain amount of cash flow or a certain amount of revenue, they still hesitate to pay for advisory service. Because the way they look at it as, it's just an extra expense. So then how do we come in with strategic planning that actually helps so that they view it more as an investment that helps them to keep more of what they earn. And then by doing so, it actually covers the cost of this planning service there.

So a lot of clients or kind of already know that they need help. A lot of people just come in and say, oh, my God, I don't know what I'm doing. So there's a part of what we do that is the whole dealing with uncertainty that honestly is priceless, you know, so that's. That is. But another, like, if they're not, they're at that stage, 500 to a million or even I have a couple that are like 1 to 12, you know, 12 million. You really need to show them the math. I recently did this. I have a client who is opening another entity, and he did not understand the difference between one entity and the other.

And I actually, like, put it in a little spreadsheet and be like, here's like, here's the numbers. Obviously, he was already like a client of mine and we were just discussing, like, the strategic planning sessions that I definitely encourage. But that's one of the things that just do the math and see how much you're going to do. And then the planning, you can identify tax savings and cash flow and also, like, avoid your you know, penalties and inefficiencies.

Yeah. Penalty.

Yeah. And then our cost can be recovered from, like, reducing tax liability, reducing penalties, which could be crazy. And then also, like, I've seen a couple ones that are like smart compensation structures.

Okay. Yeah. And then too, I like throwing it into this about the fact that how much time does it save them in going out and making money in whatever it is that they do? They don't do what, what we do. So if you're a business owner out there and you go out and make. Instead of spending 10 hours or more a month on dealing with this accounting and payroll stuff, how much.

And not being able to sleep at night.

And not being able to sleep at night. Exactly. That's important. How much can you go out and make in that 10 hours in what you do? Or even say, how much can you go out making five hours of what you do there? Wait, what can you make a thousand dollars an hour? I know it varies from profession to profession, but some can do pretty good. Whatever you go out making that time should more than make up whatever you're investing in a professional like us to be able to help you to then sleep at night, maybe get an extra five hours of sleep, maybe you get an extra five hours of recreation, who knows? But see, that's where the investment comes in of, of, of putting, of where your time. How valuable is your time as a business? And that's that we like to encourage.

Yeah. And also, like, be with their family. Like, I don't know, like, I have a little kid and like, his hours with me are sacred. So anything that I can even, like, as a tax professional, anything I can outsource, as far as, like, you know, things like, I don't know, looking at legal stuff, I'm like, here, lawyer, help me. Or looking at different things that are not my bread and butter. Marketing. No. Here we go.

Bye. Bye. Anything that obviously I could do, but my time with my son is sacred, so. And my family, sacred. So I'm like, no, I'm just going to focus on what I do best. And then the rest I can either, like, figure it out, what to do, outsource. I'll figure it out.

Yeah. Because even as professionals in what we do, there's things that we outsource. And one of them is just particularly legal matters that we have to watch out for and then other things. And some of it is, I know in my system, stuff that we outsource that we pay for, I pay for myself. And maybe you do the same is to Have a third party monitor your computer systems, make sure they're secure.

Yeah.

I mean, I'm not a computer security expert by any means, but yet that's something that if you are looking for someone to assist you, that's something you should ask them. Really. Not a little bit off topic here, but that is very important.

Very important. Yeah.

As far as you're looking. I mean, I spend a lot of money each month just making sure I have secure computers. Antivirus, firewall, all that stuff. Because I don't know it. And so I pay somebody just like as we're talking about here. You would want to pay somebody to help you keep your numbers so then you can sleep at night. I mean, I sleep better at night just simply because I know I got secure computers.

Yeah. So and you know. Yeah. And you. We're taking all the, like, this is why we invest on professionals. We just happen to be some of them. Yeah.

Category, we're just a different category. But you help the little business owner, the business owner of whatever size to understand their numbers and to be able to sleep at night or. And to relieve their anxiety. So now as we come. Come here, one last thought here. That someone listening here realizes that right now, boy, I've been listening to this. This all sounds great, but guess what? I've been completely reactive. All I've ever done is think about my taxes in April.

What would you say is an actionable step ones can take, even right now, to start shifting to being proactive in this?

Ooh, I would have them schedule like a tax planning conversation. Now, I wouldn't really make it so that it affects your 2025 taxes, but like, how can we start planning for 2026? And also like within that realm, the first thing a tax professional or a tax planning professional is going to ask you is like, what is your income projections for the year? What are we talking about? Estimated tax payments and then decision con or decisions that you want to make within like the first, the next six to 12 months. So those would be the stuff that you would talk in that tax planning projection and not make it so that it's once. Make it so that is, you know, every three to six months, have a check in. I don't, I mean, I don't know how it works, but we like, in our firm, we have like a plan where we meet with our clients every four to six months so we understand where like we are. We know exactly what's happening. And also, like, by then tax planning becomes easy because I know what's happening. In your business.

And then tax planning prep becomes a breeze because I know exactly what's happening, I know what's going on with your books, where is your, all your planning conversations?

Yeah. So once again, stop. Just if, if, if you are thinking about this, the options for 2025 are limited because we're obviously in 2026. But there's a, a few things that can be done for 2025 still kind of in rear, looking in the rear view mirror, but they are, are very limited of what you can do. But there are a few things. But then you can start looking now toward 2026 and even beyond and just making those adjustments because with, with the big beautiful bill that was passed, there's, there's some good stuff in there. And I was, as, I've gone through classes, I've been like, wow, this is great for the average taxpayer. Small business owner.

There's several things in there. So you need to be, you need to get with a professional, be it with myself or Laura or whoever. You need to be with someone who can help you to, to go through these things to start planning out the year and looking what advantages you can get there. So any final thoughts there today, Laura?

I think as far as that last question, you don't need like perfection. I would say you just need like a starting point and then. Yeah, just a starting point and make it so that it's, it's consistent. It's not a one year, it's not a one time a year thing. It's consistent in all kinds of matters. Because you're not a business. A lot of people are like, no, but when I used to work, you're a business owner now. And as a business owner we have to adjust to being a business owner.

And this is just part of being a business owner.

Yeah, definitely there certainly. We really appreciate that. That's a wonderful insights. They really appreciate your input there, Laura. So if someone would like to reach out to you there, Laura, how can they do so?

Yeah, so we have a webpage, it's Athena, like the goddess. And then cpas.com and there in the contact us, you can fill out the questionnaire and then you will be directed to having a contact call with us or with me specifically. And then we also have an Instagram with the same handle, Athena, CPAs. And then a LinkedIn. I think you can find me on LinkedIn under my last name. I am the only one, I promise. I looked so I looked all over. But yeah, so that would be it.

And thank you so much. Okay.

Thank you, Laura. Once again it's been such a wonderful conversation. Being proactive in your business is so important, but especially in the tax. So what we want to really look forward to is just continued discussions encouraging business owners. There's incredible insight strategic planning. You need to get the assistance and then we want you to remember whether you're trying to resolve a tax debt or just trying to keep more of what you earn, the secret. The secret there is taking action. Don't let fear paralyze you.

Remember, the tax code is complex, but your strategy doesn't have to be it never too late to implement a clean system. That's been talked about today. If today's episode has sparked a realization or made the light come on that you need help now, reach out. As a certified tax representation consultant, I am licensed to represent you before the irs. You do not have to fight the government by yourself. You can visit taxreliefcall.com today and stop letting the IRS dictate your future. Take control of your finances and get the peace of mind that you deserve. Thank you so much for listening to the Tax Answers Advisor.