Lunch & Learn with the IRS: Taxes, 2024
Topics Covered: Taxes, Tax Planning, IRS Guidance, Small Business Taxes, Tax Deductions, Tax Credits, Business Structures
Conference Overall Ratings: Venue (3.5/5) - Food (3/5) - Speaker Content (3/5) - Networking Opportunity (2/5) - Likeliness to Return (3/5)… for details, see the end of the blog
Initial Conference Thoughts - Why Go? Taxes might not be anyone's favorite topic, but this event promised practical insights for small business owners. Despite initial hesitations, I attended—and learned plenty about navigating tax complexities for businesses like mine.
Photo Collage & Commentary
Bullet Point Notes from Conference :
Here’s a detailed notebook dump from the event—what I learned, what surprised me, and some things I’m still thinking about…
I was not sure if I wanted to attend this event. I have met with this venue twice before for meetings for my own business, but when I emailed with questions about something, (the question was about registering my business as a small business or women owned business) but they never followed up. I’m sure I could have called, but I just let it fall through the cracks. I get their emails all the time and still try to attend events but it hadn’t worked out till today. Part of why I wanted to attend was to revisit this location and see how it was. I also have recently had to work with the IRS to get some info for my business, so it seemed like good timing to learn extra about taxes. In addition, exactly! When is it a bad thing to learn about taxes? Other than the fact it’s potentially a bit boring. So, with all that in mind (and, again, our new amazing subway/light rail system making travel a lot easier), I headed onto a scooter, over to the subway, and then down past the city to the ECCO (Entrepreneurship Community & Cultural Office).
There’s a fun thrill to riding public transit. On top of that, it can save so much money - while hardly taking much more time.
There is a psychological effect to something taking over/under an hour to travel to - while it’s only a matter of minutes difference sometimes. Like seeing “56 minutes” is so different than seeing “1 hour and 4 minutes” yet it’s less than a 10 minute difference but the second one feels so much longer. I realized that recently and made myself not get as reactive to things taking over an hour to travel to.
This event took an hour and change to get there, so at first I was really hesitant to go, but I found myself feeling a sense of happiness/nostalgia(?)/peace while waiting for the subway. I love public transit so much. Even when something is 13 stations away! It still ends up being better than expected most of the time.
Though they do need more security at Westlake Center Station. With how much random havoc happens there, they need a few more eyes on that station. IMO.
IRS Tools and Resources for Small Businesses
This is meant to all be basic introductory information.
Not the favorite topic of many, but it’s one of the biggest government industries you’ll have to interact with on a constant basis. They want your money.
As a business owner, make sure you’re not paying too much.
The government wants small businesses to exist. For the government to do work efficiently, it’s got to benefit all of the people.
They want you to succeed and hire employees. This helps the government when you’re giving people jobs.
The IRS speaks a strange language. As a business owner, you will learn that language.
Most people don’t intend to have a tax problem. If you’re finding yourself in a tax problem, it’s probably because you’re not educated enough on tax law.
This idea is part of what got me into teaching financial education. I thought (and still think) it’s unbelievably frustrating how they make it so easy to learn about dinosaurs, shapes, colors, Pokemon… but not actually essential life skills. When are you supposed to learn this stuff? It’s all “do you own research” expectations… and not enough content is created to help people do research effortlessly… yet they can watch movies or tv that teach them how to rob banks and commit crimes all the time. It’s lame that this stuff isn’t made “cooler” and attractive to compete. Instead, it’s left to be “DYOR” and boring/dull/responsibility at the fault of the individual
If you’re paying your taxes and your competitors aren’t, the IRS wants to fix that.
I heard lately that many sectors of our government are completely failing audits lately, for years and years in a row. And so much of our tax money is misspent. Just seems like this is a “nice way of saying” everyone deserved to get screwed. It’s like the opposite of a meme/post I saw where someone said the analogy of “just because your grandma died of cancer, does that mean you’d want to stop cancer cures for everyone else?” I feel like if the money is not being well spent, it should not be taken so extensively. Then this whole speech they said like, they don’t think you should give more than you need, and they hope you do your research and find your credits and keep track… and it’s all based off miseducation… but also, not truly working to resolve it (or at least they don’t advertise it) from a young foundational level.
Most people don’t pay taxes properly due to lack of education. But education is the key to success and knowing you’r paying your taxes properly.
Start your tax planning early
Choosing a tax professional means you want to find someone who is professional. Knowledge is the key to knowing you did/didn’t do it.
get to know your own business and own taxes at first, see if you can do it yourself.
The IRS has a directors of certified tax professionals.
If your accountant says they can get you more refunds than anyone else, they may be acting very unethically. You don’t want people writing off things they shouldn’t. The tax preparers can cheat by not signing papers properly so its your job to ask the right questions.
Always read over your taxes before signing.
Tax code is over 100 years old and we keep adding onto of it. Laws keep adding ontop of laws.
You are more educated in your business than your accountant.
Your business plan is how someone can examine what you’re trying to do.
Part of your business plan is to include taxes.
Don’t pay the IRS more than you need.
Tax credit is often only found by word of mouth or their website. There’s no auto-crediting.
Visit the IRS.gov/smallbiz when you are leveling up your business, like from sole proprietor -> bringing on payroll, etc.
Often times, businesses find more trouble when they’re growing than eaten they were small. More money, more problems.
The IRS’ website is really unattractive and hard to navigate. He even suggests you google stuff to find it, instead of navigating within their website. Again.. if this content is only accessible through there, and then it’s hard to find…. how do they expect people to realistically find this? It’s unfair and working to their advantage a bit. I think they could invest in better web services and better experiences for everyone in general to save money. But then they lose money, right? It just doesn’t make sense sorta…
You can join the IRS’ newsletter to get updates. They send lots of emails often.
They have YouTube videos teaching people how to navigate their website, though the YouTube videos don’t directly address the problems themselves.
I mean.
IRS small business publications exist on “every topic out there”. You can really get into the details. That’s your source, and you can also attend in-person classes and seminars like this one.
“The government is not as advanced as you’d think they are.” They spend money by taking the lowest bidders, so the lowest bidders isn’t always the best service.
Submitting your taxes electronically helps prevent effort from occurring (versus submitting papers). Then this will help save yo money.
Your EIN is your employee ID number. It is generated by the IRS.
all of your rights w/ the government are yours till you sign them away to the government.
more than one EIN can make your life more complicated
mistakes can be very difficult to correct
Whether you’re an LLC, S Corp, Sole Proprietor, etc… each of these can help save you money. Some of these you can pay yourself as an employee of the corporation…. you can learn how it all officially works.
New businesses may often grow out of your hobby.
Record keeping is a challenge. Most business owners focus on sales and customers, but you must also keep a record of what you spent to then get your deductions. Take a picture of the receipts, then put everything int he right place for later.
Record Keeping is the most boring in the business, but it’ll pay you back.
The government is required to make everything public, but not always “easy to find”.
Every little dollar counts. This tax money won’t save you a lot, but your taxes don’t need to be paid on business expenses. Spending $100 to make $75 may not be worth it. Breaking even may or may not be worth it.
Some things pay in other ways.
Don’t pay your taxes based off only revenue.
If you spent what you made to build your business, track it. All you have to live on is what you make.
There is no extra credit, don’t overpay
Develop a record keeping system and you know what you brought in and made too.
If your expenses are increasing and not your prices, you may not sustain.
Electronic filing is preferred.
There are ways to save money as a company
if you hire individuals who used to be in jail, used to be on welfare, used to be in the military, summer youth, ex felon, SNAP recipient… then you can apply for a tax credit to get the people off of government services and onto your payroll.
It’s simple, employers need to fill out two forms and employees fill out one.
You can get credit for having a a commercial clean vehicle. Save up to $7,500 in tax credits.
Tax credits change all the time so keep an eye on them. But you can only find them through word of mouth or the website.
“You can put a solar panel on you business and get paid back”
When he made this comment I literally laughed out loud and thought of the Energy Summit I went to a few weeks ago. When the guy work on hydrogen power source said, “Many people leading policy that don’t understand how the grid works. They think a few solar panels will fix everything.”"
“Catching things ahead of time is easier than trying to mop it up later. “
Your customers’ data is your responsibility..
You can politely, professionally tell the IRS you need them to come back net week while you work on preparing your content. Often this stuff is not an instant rush.
Many times you’re getting contact, it’s a scam. Just cause they say they’re with the IRS, you can’t believe it’s real. Question them. They should have lots of info on you (or be incredible private eyes!) There are many fake phishing emails.
Business trips vary. Keep records of what are business expenses. “Networking” may count as “marketing”.
Did you pay money to make money? Does your business need these things to survive?
Ronald Regan famously said, “Scary words are, “Im’ from the government and I’m here to help” but we’re not like that. We’re really here to help.
Come to the in person offices for an appointment. You can pay back pennies on the dollar if things go wrong.
Meet with us about your problems. Use our resources
They will meet with you, help you, work with you to find tax credits. They’ll help you follow the rules and play fair.
This sounds great… let’s see if it’s true. I do think there are many changes coming for the IRS potentially here as the presidential administration changes and this “DOGE: Department of Government Efficiency ” takes over a bit more potentially. Time will tell.
Conference “Overall Rating” Further Elaboration:
VENUE - 3.5/5
Room for Improvement: It got pretty cold inside, but when the heater was on, it was extremely loud. I think this takes getting used to (like when no one is in the room, prepare ahead of time and head the place up.). I was thinking about this, during the event… anything can go wrong when you get an office. You never expect things like this (like super loud heating), etc. There's so much room for mistakes to be made in your environment (with heating/noise pollution) so those who successfully avoided it are lucky! Venues that can heat without the sound. I feel a bit connected to it, because I went to the opening of this place. Their kickoff party last year. Besides that, the room was very bright. They left all of the lights on for the presentation so there was a strong glare on the screen for the whole time. It’s also a bit messy in general… I like the idea of this office and I hope it’s really useful for the community (I’m not often around this area), but this speech was very long and the room was cold. But also, there’s a price room/office right inside, next to where everyone is sitting and listening, so when someone is in there having a meeting (which they were during the first part of the speech), it’s hard to ignore. The door is pure glass while they’re in the meeting right near you, so it’s just like, setting the tone that someone is right there, not paying attention. Also, creating noise/distraction, just a few feet from you.
FOOD - 3/5
Room for Improvement: They advertised lunch and learn, so I arrived very hungry. Then, I thought it was a little odd how they asked “is pizza okay?” when I got there, like he was about to order it, because you couldn’t really say no. Of course you could say “no” but that’d cause so much trouble. I think it felt a little unprepared - but also, why not! It’s also smart, too - if you planned it. I’ve juste noticed Dominoes is really overpriced if you don’t use their deals. For events (or anytime, almost) its smarts to order the two-topping or one-topping pizzas in bulk. They go further with a crowd. Even though there was pizza left over, I think people felt uncomfortable to get up and eat more - but I’d prefer to serve myself (though I ended up doing that, but it still felt a bit disruptive, though it was a 2 hour presentation advertised as lunch, so it was okay/appropriate.)
SPEAKER CONTENT - 3/5
Room for Improvement: This speech seemed a little long for the small audience. Also, there were a number of times that we got just example, after example, after example. Examples of the spam emails, examples of people in tax trouble.… at the same time, a lot of extremely useful info came out of it - but I think this presentation could have been half as long, leaving the other half for Q&A. Break it into smaller segments - more flow, and then leave Q&A for earlier to keep things engaging. Many people had questions that went unanswered (myself included - but by the 2 hour mark I had to get going).
NETWORKING OPPORTUNITIES - 2/5
Room for Improvement: This event allowed no time for anyone to talk or meet. Many people arrived or arrived late, but left early. At the most about 10 people were there, by the end only 3. I was surprised they didn’t have anything else planned except for this one long speech. I think it’s part of why I like to go to these events, I like to hear from many people and also hear about what other people are doing. So, that just seemed like a missed opportunity too.
LIKELINESS TO RETURN - 3/5
Room for Improvement: There are many good events held at this location. I’ve seen them advertised before. I’d like to keep giving it a try, dress warmer next time, maybe eat a little before (fix what I can control), and then keep learning. I like how they offer lots of help and a location for people to meet, though I’d like to see how other events go. This location does take over an hour for me to get to… so I’d really like it to be well worth my time. At the same time, even today’s event was worth my time - just plenty of room for improvement, too.
Kelly’s Remaining Questions:
What are some recommended strategies for keeping track of your taxes?
What content can we keep making to help people stay more easily educated to avoid tax problems?
Is there any worry/consideration to the IRS potentially being cut back in funding (and relevancy) a lot in the future due to new leadership?
How are taxes spent to help businesses?
What are smart strategies for businesses we may not think of?
What are the different categories you can deduct with?
Until next time, I wish you the motivation and success to search for opportunities around your area. Search and explore: Who is out there giving talks? There are new things happening all of the time
Find relatable or interesting topics you like and check them out! Maybe even something hosted at a cool venue, if there’s no other reason to go. Let’s see what you can learn and discover not too far from home. 😊
