A CPA says there's only one way to cut down your taxes
(Anything you can cut off your taxes is welcome.Flickr / Sonny Side Up!)
Everyone wants to pay less in taxes.
Steven M. Piascik, CPA, MT, founder and president of boutique CPA firm PIASCIK, tells Business Insider that the best way to minimize taxes is something anyone can do, no matter their net worth.
"Tax minimization means documenting all your expenses that can be classified into deductible categories," he explains. "Everyone asks, 'How do you save? You document, document, document.'"
Everyone should stay on top of the appropriate documentation, he says, and the more money you have, the more important it is.
"The high net worth just have more complications, more entities, more items to document," says Piascik, who specializes in tax minimization and complex tax strategies for high-net-worth individuals and corporations. "The high net worth are going to lose more if they don't document."
Once everything is clearly documented, then your tax professional can look into getting the appropriate deductions and credits. "As income rises, a lot of the credits get phased out, including the child tax credit, so getting clients' income down to an allowable minimum level is very important. We do that by documenting, and electing some of the strategies we put in place."
This is much easier when you employ the services of a qualified CPA, who keeps up with changes in the tax code and knows which might apply to you. "A lot of the responsibility falls on the behalf of the CPA," he says.
"It always depends, and it's black or white — any responsible firm does not go into the gray," says Piascik. "As CPAs, we have to have a high rate of success if we're going to sign our returns. We have to know we have viable basis if it's ever challenged."
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