Tax Planning with Sabrina Cook, CPA

[00:00:02] What you want when you want it, where you want it. This is the MESH. We're going to do some research on the MESH podcast network. A monthly conversation about startups and small business with ideas, tools and advice to operate. You're business more effectively.

[00:00:28] On today's show, it's a new year. And like the Boy Scouts, we want you to be prepared. So we're going to do some early in the year planning for taxes with our guest, CPA Sabrina Cook.

[00:00:41] We'll also have some small businesses that you should be checking out the end of the podcast. So stay tuned to hear about some interesting businesses that we'll be sharing. My name is Jeff Nouvell on your co-host. I'm Director of the Manufacturing Solutions Center in kind over North Carolina.

[00:00:57] I'm joined by my co-host Gary Muller, who is the executive dean of economic development and corporate education at the College. Fantastic. Okay. I'm your leaders. And my title. You're looking at me like I'm going to Mr. Tyrell. No, it was perfect. Okay. We're starting 2023 on a high note.

[00:01:19] Okay. Not that I worry about what you call me anyway. You go, you answer to many things, Gary, which is what makes you lovable. Well, thank you. So I answered. So I don't get any trouble. Everything going okay with you. So far so good.

[00:01:33] A basketball team's been pretty good. But we lost a few years from the frame we're trending down. The way it for us, demon decas. Okay. Well, it's better than I thought they'd be, so that's a good thing. You know, it's, it's, we're in here in late January.

[00:01:48] I don't even know if I want to talk about college basketball as well. So I want to wait until it gets closer to March. I'm, they're rolling toward the end. I don't know. I don't know. I'm not going to talk about it.

[00:01:58] You know, I'm just happy that we have a guest at you on a today. I want to welcome Sabrina Sabrina Cook. How are you doing today? I'm good. Thanks for having me guys. Well, we're right here. Sabrina owns her own business. Sabrina Cook CPA.

[00:02:13] You're in Hickbury, North Carolina. Sabrina's worked for several accounting firms, including Deloitte. She's taught accounting classes at Catau Valley Community College. Maybe other colleges. I do not know. As well as I know you, you were for Du Bois. So did I. Oh, that's so cool.

[00:02:29] What did she do there? I was an auditor. Nice. We're going to have a really, exactly when. You got a lot of accounting people here. It could be in Crabway, besides Piotr. Yeah. It is. Where does real life account instead of that? We're having normal person.

[00:02:43] And it's right. How's that? Well, we'll see. We may have to be seen. But anyway, Sabrina, thank you very much for joining us today. And you know, taxes are not exactly what everyone embraces. But like that we have to deal with the taxes.

[00:03:02] They do come around on a list and annual basis. Sometimes more often for some people. And a lot of our listeners or people that might run small businesses are getting ready to open their own business. They probably don't like to think about taxes.

[00:03:15] They're thinking about, I want to sell stuff. I want to do creative stuff. Yeah, taxes is probably not their favorite topic. But like their vegetables. They need to eat your vegetables. You got to do your taxes. That's right, Jeff.

[00:03:28] And you know, the other day I was telling my clients and our newsletter that me and my team are a little weird because Unlike them, tax season is about our favorite time of year. It's kind of our time to shine.

[00:03:39] And the really cool thing is that, you know, our clients come in and we get to kind of catch up here about their vacation. See pictures of their kids and grandkids.

[00:03:47] That kind of thing really kind of catch up in touch base if we hadn't touched base with them lately. So that's always fun too. Well, you're seeing a touch of shoes. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. You might not say this.

[00:03:58] But you're sort of an entrepreneur too. And then you started your own business. And you've had to deal with the trials and tribulations of starting a business and running a business. You started your own firm in 2018. That's right.

[00:04:15] And, you know, what sort of drove you to do your own thing as opposed to doing it for somebody else? Right. Well, I was really, you know, I've always enjoyed what I've done. I've done kind of a lot of different things.

[00:04:28] I mean, when I was at Deloitte, I was working in multi-state and really wasn't doing tax returns at all. You know, people would ask me if I could do their 1040 and I said, I don't even know how to do my own 1040 that point.

[00:04:40] But, you know, at the time I was working with very large businesses that filed in every single state and we were kind of trying to minimize the crunch of having the file in every state.

[00:04:50] And so it was a team of attorneys and CPAs and we really worked together to kind of like look at the tax law and see how that kind of broke down. Which was super fun. So much fun as accounts can have.

[00:05:02] But then I moved to Hickory and there's not a whole lot of need for someone who has that skill set. So, but I found that I really liked working with small businesses. I really liked small business owners. I really liked kind of that hands-on.

[00:05:16] You know, it wasn't a faceless corporation. It's, you know, our friends and neighbors and really getting to help them and dive in and see their business thrive and kind of celebrate their successes.

[00:05:28] And so, you know, after kind of gaining that skill set and kind of honing on those skills, I really kind of wanted to go off on my own and do it my own way. And, you know, there's been a lot of learning and growing pains along the way.

[00:05:43] I had a lot of early success which is awesome but the flip side of that is scaling is really hard as I'm sure you've seen. Well, and you yourself have a finite capacity.

[00:05:55] So, bringing people on to increase capacity and scale and finding the right people I would think would be a challenge. I think definitely is.

[00:06:03] I mean, getting the right people for CPA because you're working with people's lives and you want to make sure you bring on the right person, right personality but also the right skill level.

[00:06:14] And one thing, because when a certain thing gets it all the time, you know, your CPA everybody thinks you know. Taxes, audit, financial, all the things and quite awesome to be good. We have to be specialized in certain areas. So, what's your area special? I don't know. Okay.

[00:06:34] I haven't figured that out. Financial analysis. Fine, okay. Well, that's right. Well, you're still a CPA. I am. Okay, because I know all you're having a set of time for. Trust me. During the case of Saturday, I'm finishing up my CPA requirement.

[00:06:51] Okay, well, you know, having for a bid to do it ahead of time. No, I'm every year and I'm going to do it this year. I'm going to do it throughout the year. Another new year's resolution. Another new year's resolution.

[00:07:02] We'll talk about next year and say how to do. Okay. You talked about scaling. You started your business in 2018. In 2020 we had a pandemic. You know, for some businesses that was devastating for certain businesses that created opportunity. How did that impact the you and your business? Right.

[00:07:24] So initially it was terrifying. My daughter was eight at the time, and so all of us and it was March. So, you know, it's my busiest time of year. And suddenly I have to homeschool my eight year old.

[00:07:36] So, you know, my office didn't really close because of the time it was just me and one other employee. So we just kind of hunkered down in war masks and cleaned everything. We didn't allow our clients to come into the office.

[00:07:46] But I did just bring my daughter to work every day and she just, you know, had her little laptop from school and did her school work while I did taxes. But it ended up being really an opportunity to shine because these PPP loans were announced.

[00:08:01] And the idol and, you know, everybody was like, is this true? Is it a scam? Can I get this money? And I'm like, it's true. There's a lot of paperwork and I can help you with it.

[00:08:12] And so it was really our time to shine and our time to, you know, help our clients in a time of major uncertainty. You know, they don't know if we're going to be able to keep their doors open.

[00:08:22] I know Jeff, you spent a lot of time working and guiding people through that process. I just would guide them the people like some brand. We know that when I was at that was a good thing to do because they didn't know where to go.

[00:08:32] You need to have somebody to get them to the right people. And it was, it wasn't big benefit to those people that were able to take advantage of it. And I guess regardless of pandemics people also have to file their taxes.

[00:08:45] Correct, yes. And they did give us a two-month extension that year. Not even extensions, just the deadline was changed. It was pushed out two months, which was awesome.

[00:08:54] It really kind of took the burden off of our team in terms of like the hours we were working towards just normal tax work. So we could focus a little bit more time on the PPP and idol.

[00:09:05] Hopefully as we move post pandemic and you know, you're, we hopefully are starting to get into more normal routines. You know, are there working with your customers or clients, small businesses or there are certain common issues that you run into that they're facing where they need accounting assistance.

[00:09:27] Sure. You know, the tools out there such as QuickBooks and TurboTax really kind of give this false sense of everyone can do with themselves. And I encourage people to do with themselves and save themselves a buck where they can because you know, these startups.

[00:09:46] They've got to save every dollar that can. So I'm not trying to take away from anyone, you know, trying to save a dollar. But, you know, people get into QuickBooks and they get overwhelmed very quickly and they can create a mess very quickly.

[00:10:00] So I encourage people to really kind of take advantage of free tools like, you know, tools at the small business centers that that kind of give people leg up on teaching them how to use this.

[00:10:13] And maybe get started with an accountant to figure out if they're using this correctly, if it's the tool for them.

[00:10:19] But I see a big, I see a big mess in a lot of QuickBooks files and if I don't find out that it's a mess until March, you know, you're going to have to go on extension because I don't have time to clean up a mess in March.

[00:10:32] Well, I've always been told and maybe you can, you can put some, shed some light on it.

[00:10:38] QuickBooks is a, I would assume still the most common small business accounting platformer or software out there but the key to using it is getting it set up properly with the appropriate expense and revenue accounts and so on and for if you can get it up set it up properly at the beginning.

[00:10:58] That's going to save you much partner and is that sort of the, is that a fair statement or other issues in using QuickBooks that you run into that people should be aware of. I think getting it set up correctly is going to give people a huge leg up.

[00:11:12] My clients that have come to me initially and just, you know, sat down with me for two hours to kind of get a crash course and make sure they understand what they're doing and have their sort of account set up by me and my team.

[00:11:23] They do a lot better with it than other folks that just kind of try to wing it. Are there, are there platforms out there that are pretty common that the small businesses are using?

[00:11:33] I think QuickBooks, you, when if someone comes to you and ask her recommendations is QuickBooks to go to or you have some others out there that you might correct them towards. I'm seeing fresh books and zero is out there as well.

[00:11:47] I don't have a ton of experience with them, but I'm hearing really good things about fresh book that's the one that I really want to start looking into after busy season to kind of get a feel for how it works because I'd really like to give my clients other alternatives.

[00:12:01] And it sounds like QuickBooks is pushing hard to go from the desktop version to the online version. I mean, I guess the desktop version is still out there but not as it's prevalent as it used to be. That's correct.

[00:12:14] They're eventually going to phase out all support for QuickBooks desktop unless you're on the enterprise version. If you're on the enterprise version that's for more larger companies that have more robust needs, maybe like large inventory needs.

[00:12:27] I'm still that product will still be around, but if you're a small business they're really pushing you to the online version.

[00:12:33] If I'm currently using the desktop version and they need to go to the online version any tips for moving from one to the other is it is a fairly simple operation as on more or is it just made your surgery. What have we got going on here?

[00:12:47] You know, I've always thought it was a fairly simple process, but I found when people try to do with themselves something's getting lost in translation.

[00:12:54] That may be worthy of just hiring a pro and it doesn't have to be a CPA, it can be a bookkeeper or an accountant that can help you through that process.

[00:13:04] Because it doesn't take long if it's done correctly and if someone can get it done correctly for you pretty quickly it might be worth paying them for an hour of work. I don't want to lose my history. No, yeah, that'll come over.

[00:13:16] I'd always start to get an expert to get it done. Yeah. That's your penny-in-wise hour for. Well, let's talk a little bit about getting folks prepared for their upcoming taxis. You know, we're talking here late January, so you still got some time.

[00:13:35] It's not like your taxes are doing two weeks or tomorrow or at this point in time. So are there certain steps that you recommend that your small business clients be doing now is say, or in the coming weeks in order to properly prepare for paying their 20, 22 taxes?

[00:13:54] Absolutely. That's a really good question. So if you don't already have a tax appointment, it might be a good idea to get one. I typically just, I save a spot for all of my prior year clients.

[00:14:06] If you don't hear otherwise from me, just go ahead and assume that you have a spot waiting for you. But if you don't have that kind of arrangement, like go ahead and get your spot on the calendar,

[00:14:15] it doesn't have to be soon, but just let them know that you're coming back. The other thing I would do is, I think it helps to know what your CPA is going to be doing when they prepare your taxes.

[00:14:25] So one thing I do, the first thing I'm going to do is pull your trial balance out of QuickBooks. This is a report that you can pull out of QuickBooks. You scroll down and look at your trial balance. Set the dates to your year-end, which is typically 1231.

[00:14:39] Set it to a cruel or cash basis. If you don't know what you are, you probably are cash basis. And then just go through and look at the numbers and make sure they kind of make sense. Like, does your bank account tie out? What are your thoughts, Gary?

[00:14:53] Well, I was just thinking when you say cash basis for sure, cruel. Some of our listeners may not know what a cruel means. Yeah, that's right. So on a cash basis, you recognize your revenue when you have the cash coming into your business.

[00:15:09] A cruel basis would be you recognize revenue when you write the invoice the customer. And that's revenue at that time. And so also when you are billed for services, if you're billed for your supplies,

[00:15:26] that's already an expense even though you haven't paid for those supplies or items that are going into your inventory. That's already going to be an expense in the books.

[00:15:38] So if I have a retail store and all likelihood am I going to be cash or a small retail store, like a one moment pop sort of thing, am I going to be a cash more than likely be operating under the cash basis or a cruel basis?

[00:15:52] Yes, mom and pop shop. I would say typically cash basis. I'm going to write that because I'm going to get paid when I make that transaction. Exactly. So you're going to send a point, or sit down and suggest that they sort of do some quick trial

[00:16:08] balances to make sure things look directionally correct. And the other things that you recommend that they be doing is they get ready for taxis and what do you want to see?

[00:16:18] Yeah, so I'm going to be looking at your, I'm going to look at your December bank statement for every single account you have that's tied to the business. So your business checking account, your payroll account.

[00:16:29] If you have a money market or savings tied to the business, I'm going to look at all your loan documents and make sure that your loan balance is correct at your end. I'm going to look at your interest statements if you get any interest into the business.

[00:16:42] I'm also going to want to see any major purchases you made for equipment, large assets, buildings and I also want to know about any equipment you sold throughout the year. And I need the details, the data was sold how much it was sold for things like that.

[00:16:58] And I ask a question, please, I heard that I don't know because I don't follow the tabellys where. But did I understand that Kim Kardashian or somebody bought a gazillion dollar plane? And then I'll deduct the whole thing. My son. That's the question.

[00:17:17] I was thinking about buying a gazillion dollar plane. You could accelerate that with a purchase of it. Yeah, I wonder if it was eligible for bonus depreciation. I assume that it had a big benefit. Jeff and I were talking about bonus 179 the other day via email.

[00:17:33] Yeah, I tried to explain that. We weren't talking about Kim Kardashian though, Gary. I was happy watching you continue with it. Yeah, you can bring us up to speed on what's going on in the credit. I can promise you I can't spell Kardashian.

[00:17:47] I mean, another question that Gary asked me is, you know, how do or gambling debts deductible or does that matter? That's such a good question. So, I have a lot of good things to get one.

[00:18:02] So you do have to claim your gambling income and it used to be that you could take your losses up to your gambling income. And on paper, you still kind of can, but it's an itemized deduction and it's there's limitations.

[00:18:15] And so most people don't get to deduct their gambling losses anymore. And this is very, yeah. Yeah, just keep that in mind next time you go to chair. You're right exactly now.

[00:18:26] I actually can't see motors working on trying to raise money for skills that she's doing the lottery. Yeah, before you can take those deductions, I think you actually have to have gambling income. Yeah, I was going to say that. Which I don't ever.

[00:18:37] Yeah, so that's been a lot of reminding me. Well, well, you're, you're, you're. You're making accounting and taxes fun. We're doing our best. So now we've talked about the Kardashians and gambling. And you know, I think where you were heading with with the gazillion dollar plane is

[00:18:54] I think there, I think that their change is coming in the way depreciation can be deducted And in, in, in that's exactly. So I mean, I guess, guess where I'm heading is, are there any changes in tax law

[00:19:06] That the small business owners should be thinking about as they head into the upcoming season? Sure, there's a few changes coming. So, you know, through the pandemic, we were able to, there was kind of a rule kind of to encourage people to patronize their restaurants

[00:19:23] That had been kind of suffering through the pandemic and that was that business meals, which typically It had been subject to the 50% limitation. Now if you purchase business meals at a restaurant, they were 100% deductible. And that's going to be going away starting next year.

[00:19:42] It'll go back to the 50%. That's right. So keep that in mind. But for last year when when I bought Gary dinner, I couldn't take it all. When we were talking about, you know, our podcast and the Kardashian. Right. Well, you know, that is true. We guys find mine.

[00:19:58] I'm sure you had the receipt and you wrote on the back of it, the business purpose. So yes, I'm sure it was deductible. I'll find it so. It's going to shoot back with all the other cities.

[00:20:07] The other thing and this was what Jeff and I were talking about earlier this week Is that the bonus depreciation, you know, historically it's been 100%. It's going to go down to 80% and then 60% and then 40% and then eventually phase out completely.

[00:20:23] The 179 depreciation is here to stay and with 179 depreciation for those of you that don't know, it also allows you to fully deduct the entire cost of the asset in your purchase. They're limitations to both bonus and 179. There's pros and cons to each.

[00:20:39] This is non area that you want to be DIYing. This is an area where you need a CPA. Once 79, for instance, cannot generate a loss in the year like it would have to carry forward. You can use bonus depreciation to generate a loss and there's also state implications.

[00:20:57] Some states don't allow you to take bonus depreciation. So these are all really important things that a CPA is going to consider when deciding whether to take 1.79 or bonus depreciation or neither. So lots of things to consider there. There's the things that people need to be looking for.

[00:21:13] If they're doing something out of the ordinary, right? Not even out of the ordinary. For a second, if you got something that you've gotten back this year by it, it's worthwhile going to a CPA or a tax for a pair. You can save you a lot of money.

[00:21:29] Right. And if you're already working with a CPA or tax for a pair and you haven't heard them talk about it, there's a good chance they're already doing it and just haven't thought to mention it to you. So feel free to ask them about it.

[00:21:39] You know, am I taking one $79 or am I taking bonus and why? And they'll be happy that they'll be happy that you're asking good questions like that because they like to answer those kind of questions. Here's a question.

[00:21:49] I saw my house this year and had a little bit of a game. Can I do I have to record that as game issues or is there an exclusion? I'm going to give you every CPA's favorite answer. It depends. How long did you live there? Almost 20 years.

[00:22:07] Oh, good. Okay. So if you... That's the key. If that home has been your primary residence for two of the last five years, you get to exclude and you're married, right? Yep.

[00:22:17] As a married person, you and your spouse get to exclude up to $500,000 of gain on your primary residence. We're good. You know, the only time I've come close to that $500,000 cap was someone moved here from California and he had recently sold a home in California.

[00:22:33] We got a little close there. Got close, but we still made it. Here's trying to call it. Trying to send to a call and show like a stump the CPA. I think that's a good one. I need a couple of years for that.

[00:22:45] Over the last few years, if so-and-a-house. Could be a contemplative idea. So, you know, and just some... Don't know if there's anything out there in terms of expanded child and dependent care tax credits or anything like that.

[00:23:01] I'm trying to say that, like I know and I'm talking about. But I don't. I was hoping you might. Yeah, so during the pandemic, there were a lot of things that were kind of trying to put money in the American's pocket.

[00:23:12] And one of those was the child tax credit was expanded. The amounts were increased. And it was made a larger portion of it was made refundable. And our refundable credit is a credit that you get money back in your pocket even if you didn't pay any tax in.

[00:23:28] Even if you didn't have any money with help throughout the year. You still get the credit which is really cool. And so, a lot of those benefits are going to go away and the child tax credits are going to go back to the previous amounts.

[00:23:41] And that's going to be for this year. So I tried to tell my clients last year if they got a huge refund and it was because of those enhanced Cal Tax credits. Don't expect this huge refund next year. We may need to do a test deal with holdings.

[00:23:54] So that's something to keep in mind. If you got a huge refund because of Cal Tax credits last year, don't expect that huge refund again. Don't spend that money quite yet. Right. Okay. What about the $1099K threshold of $600? What's going on with that?

[00:24:14] So there's been a lot of talk about this about a year ago. And what is it actually? Right. So about a year ago, the IRS announced that. So prior to a year ago, if you had credit card processing or PayPal transactions

[00:24:33] or any of these financial transactions that were reportable through PayPal or credit card processing or whatever, you received a $1099K. But you typically only received that to $99K if you had more than $20,000 in transactions. Well, the IRS reduced that to 600.

[00:24:53] And so there was a lot of concern from people that just casually sell things on eBay or you know, use PayPal to send Grimm on money or get money from Grimm off. You know, am I going to get a $1099K?

[00:25:03] Do I have to pay tax on that money? And there's a lot of talk about that. And so first of all, you know, personal transactions are not taxable. But you know, if you get a $1099K, the IRS is going to be looking for that on your tax return.

[00:25:16] So you know, in the IRS realized all this was problematic and finally in December backed down on this and said, well, we're going to push this offer another year. So the threshold is still 20,000. It will remain 20,000 until January of 2024. And then I guess we're going to revisit it.

[00:25:35] Don't know what they're going to do then. In the short term, we're not sweating it. In the short term, we're not sweating it. And like, you know, the kid that I'm paying to walk my dog off the book. So I need to worry about that.

[00:25:49] There's no off the books. You know, well, well, let's ask this. I'm giving it a second. I've seen that over the course of a year, he's going to make less than $600 and then it's between him and the IRS whether he reports that.

[00:26:03] So yes, we're not worried about it. Good. Yeah, I'm hoping that's less than $500, you know. Okay. So, you know, speaking of speaking of the IRS, now, you know, in the news lately has been, you know, I guess last year, funding was passed a higher 87,000 new IRS tax agents,

[00:26:26] which I don't think they're actually going to be tax agents. You know, and there's much political discussion about, you know, how intrusive these tax agents are going to be or they're going to be coming to take my gas stove top away.

[00:26:41] I don't know what these people are going to do. Yeah, well, any, you have any thoughts on, do we need more funding for the IRS? Oh, man. This is such a hot topic. So I'm really excited that the IRS is finally getting some funding

[00:26:57] and I'll tell you why. So in 2008, 2009, you know, we hit a recession and a lot of government agencies funding was cut. The IRS is funding was cut and has never been restored. They've been getting bumps for, you know, just general inflation, but not restored to the pre-recession funding

[00:27:17] and it's very problematic. And so if you've ever had to call the IRS, have either of you ever, oh, how fun was that? It was horrible. I mean, honestly, it was... How long were you on hold? Oh, forever. And I'm not a patient person. Right.

[00:27:33] But I didn't, you'd stay on because you knew. You had to get the answers. And so a year ago, it was so bad that only two to three percent of phone calls to the IRS were even getting through to a human who could help you.

[00:27:47] That's how bad it was. And that's where we are. Like that's how bad the funding is. And you may have heard that last year, the IRS had destroyed millions of tax returns that were supposedly informational and that was later found out to not be true.

[00:28:01] I had clients receiving notices from the IRS that said, we need you to send your tax return again because we don't have it. Did that happen to you? Why I was calling. Yeah, it's so wild. I mean...

[00:28:12] So make sure you make copies and have it saved in a bunch of different places. Right. And so this is why the IRS is getting the funding you guys. Like it's so important that our IRS function properly so that someone answers the phone when you call

[00:28:25] and so that your tax return doesn't just sit in a box for a year. And so, you know, the 87,000 employees, the other thing to keep in mind with that, the 45% of IRS employees will be eligible for retirement in the next five years.

[00:28:39] Well that's like all of our technical trades. Yeah. Everybody's 55 and getting ready to retire, 55 or 60. Right. Yeah. So, you know, is it actually true that the IRS is just doing, filing the laws and guidelines that are sent out by Congress, which is making noise that they're overfunded?

[00:29:01] What do you mean by that? Who says the tax laws again? Yeah, where do those tax laws come from? In this Congress it says the tax laws. Exactly. Exactly. The IRS is just to actually follow what Congress has told them to do. Exactly.

[00:29:17] There are some people in Congress yelling that they're out of control and coming to do awful things to you, which is probably not true. Exactly. And so, yeah, a very small percentage of those folks are going to be actual, you know, auditors.

[00:29:30] And the other thing, you know, I'm hearing that they're all going to have guns. No, not all 87,000 of them have guns. There are about 2,000 IRS agents who have guns. If they come to your door, you probably need to get right with the Lord.

[00:29:45] These are the people that take down Al Capone. These are the people that take down drug lords. And it is very important that they're armed, right? Because they're dealing with very, very dangerous people. The untouchables. Yes. Okay. Gotcha. All right.

[00:30:00] So, you know, as we sort of sum up here, are there any other common mistakes that you see as you're working with small businesses and taxes that people should be aware of that they hopefully could avoid? Sure.

[00:30:20] That the, you know, if you're working with a tax prep a lot of times, I get this question, oh, I just did this thing. Is this going to be taxable and can you fix it? Well, if you've already done it, I can not fix it.

[00:30:32] Just call me first. And then maybe we can be proactive about it. So that's one big thing. Another thing, I'm seeing a lot of, I saw this thing on TikTok. And I want to do it. And so a lot of the stats are the pants. Who are they?

[00:30:49] That could be a lot of things. I wish it was just a dance. You know, seeing all these crazy tax planning strategies on TikTok and these people are not CPAs that are, these people are content creators. Their whole thick is to generate views.

[00:31:04] So in my life is asking me if we can take this as a direction or do this from a tax strategy, I probably should call you. Absolutely. The bottom line is TikTok probably not the best tax advisor out there. Yeah, if you get audited by the IRS,

[00:31:19] you can't really quit the topic. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's out for you. It must be true. There is one, you know, there's sometimes like a glimmer of truth to what it's coming from. And one I saw was like, you know,

[00:31:35] I put your children on the payroll and pay them $12,000 and all this other stuff. You know, sometimes putting your children on the payroll isn't a terrible idea. But there's some nuance to it. It's not like a statement. Not when they're eight years old sort of situation.

[00:31:49] Hey, you know, if they're eight and you have a real estate business and you want your eight year old to set out food at the open house and put up real estate signs, you can pay them minimum wage for that. You can't pay them $20,000 for that though. Okay.

[00:32:02] All right. Good to know. Any other advice you want to share with or a small business listeners? Sabrina, I think they should be doing as we move forward. Yeah. I would just say, you know, gather all your tax documents and, you know,

[00:32:19] make sure, make sure things kind of look good before you give it to your tax pro. Because that'll save you some money in the long run. You know, it's better for you to put a set of eyes on it first,

[00:32:28] rather than then them get it and spend a lot of extra time on it that they're going to have to bill you for. So that'll save you a few bucks if you kind of, you know, make sure things kind of look

[00:32:38] in a way that they make sense before that you give it to your tax pro. And be proactive and ask them questions. And when you have your meeting to go over your tax return at the end,

[00:32:49] you know, ask them what are some things that you can be thinking about for next year. And kind of like, go ahead and be planning ahead, right? Like what are some things that I should be doing differently? What are some things that caught your eye that you notice

[00:33:02] that I need to be thinking about? Well, that sounds good. Well, we really appreciate you coming in to share advice with us. How many people still bring you like a shoe box or receipts and just run out of the office? We leave you with the shoe box.

[00:33:18] I still happen? I don't like trying it. She boxed. I'd become a mean CPA, I don't allow that anymore. Good. Good for you. All right. So that's not happening at your friend. It might happen somewhere but not with you. Right.

[00:33:33] Well, we appreciate you coming in and you're good to play our lightning round today. I'd love to. Okay. Well, this month's lightning round is sponsored by Ned Rao. It's sponsored by Ned Rao's and insurance. Whole life, auto, flood home. Can't have enough insurance. Gary, am I right?

[00:33:50] Am I right? You are 100% right. Stay safe with Ned Rao's and you can check it out on the internet. So we've got some quick questions for you Sabrina. Quick answers, quick questions. First question. What is your biggest pet pee you've been? Ooh, biggest pet peeve.

[00:34:05] Probably people talking of me. Okay. Gary, remember that? I've said no, not early. No, okay. Oh no, you guys are good. Yellow Fender Talk to you. Any 20, 23 New Year's resolutions that you can share with us? Um, probably to be more present.

[00:34:24] I'm spending less time on my phone and has a little tracker. You know, it tells you like how much time you've been spending on your phone. I'm like, yes, I'm spending less time on the phone. I love it. I don't like when I get those messages.

[00:34:35] I know you're being. Yeah, it's okay. Good one. Beach or mountains. Mountains 100%. Okay, and he's particular place in the mountains. So you want to be like an Asheville person or a Boeing rocker? Asheville and Boone, but for different reasons, obviously they're very different.

[00:34:51] But I spent a weekend in Asheville last weekend. That was kind of my last free weekend before I start working weekends. Okay. Um, what toppings do you put on your pizza? Ooh, this is very controversial, but I do like a Hawaiian pizza. Oh no. Yeah.

[00:35:06] It's a you're okay with the pineapple on your pizza. Absolutely. And that is, that's the most controversial thing you've touched on so far. Yeah. Last question for you, if you could have one superpower, what would it be? I would like to, I would like to fly.

[00:35:24] I just want to see like that aerial view of everything. I love aerial views. Really fine. It feels like it would be cold up there right now. I don't know. Maybe it's very popular. It's very popular. Dress appropriately. I went into flying.

[00:35:37] Well, thank you very much Sabrina Cook for sharing that. If people want to find you, where should they be looking? So I have a website www dot SabrinaPikook CPA dot com and my Facebook page is just Facebook dot com slash SabrinaPikook CPA. I'm very active on Facebook.

[00:35:58] I put I post tax tips just about every day. Okay. Look at the check and I have for tax tips. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us. We always like to end up our podcast with some small businesses to be checking out.

[00:36:12] So, where do you got anything you want to share with us? I do. So my mom's family is from Detroit. I love Detroit. Such an underrated city. Great food. Great stuff going on. But there's a business there called better life bags. I know this is kind of girly.

[00:36:28] Probably not your thing. But, you know, if you have a lucky lady in your life that you want to buy a gift for, they had these beautiful leather purses. And they're all handmade. And they're made by women that were formally incarcerated and are having trouble finding employment.

[00:36:42] And so they're taught these skills of sewing and craft and, you know, learn how to make these beautiful bags. But they're just absolutely gorgeous. Well, made, hold together really well and, you know, they're made to Troy and sold all over the world. Cool, great stir. Again, better life.

[00:36:57] Better life bags. Better life bags. I don't know if we'll check that one out. It's great. Gary, you have a small business you'd like to share. Yes. And first of all, we traveled to Charleston. Of course, you know we left Charleston.

[00:37:12] And a couple of my small businesses and months have been there like the booze truck. And I had heard, of course, I don't dream much so it's okay. But they were going to shut them down some months ago. But they're going forward.

[00:37:25] Some of them must have been in an upper were. Now, let's shut down the booze truck. What is the booze truck, Gary? It's a man and you go there and you can buy popsicles without a horn and then other types of things.

[00:37:38] Gary has a dark side to him that you're probably not aware of Sabrina. My dark side is actually everywhere. We travel with drives my life crazy. I'm looking for small businesses that are unique. Like Cali's biscuits, also as the other one in Charleston,

[00:37:52] and we've highlighted and they had the greatest biscuits in the world. They're in the market. So you're getting funding from the Charleston Chamber of Commerce or what should. And what's going on? A lot of different reasons. I have another one coming from Moore's Will.

[00:38:04] Of course it fits with a theme of food. It's the Carolina Pie Company. And I haven't been there but I've heard great reviews from my kids who've been there. And it's family owned business. Three generations have started Massachusetts and started from the family.

[00:38:21] And they moved from Massachusetts down to Moore's Will. And they make the best pies in the world. Homemade. I mean of course. And they say they don't do anything from a machine. They want to make sure hand made just like the old and days.

[00:38:34] And they're waiting for, actually before Christmas I tried to buy some before Christmas holiday for the family. And it was like a four week lead time. So when I tried to in early December I was late. But I recommended from my family and my kids having done it.

[00:38:51] First hand but I will definitely do it because it's now that I've moved closer to there. It's not that far away. Well they send me a pie to have to go pick up my pie. That's interesting. They most of the time they want you to pick it up.

[00:39:03] I mean I would think shipping a pie is a challenge. I would assume, I don't know. I've not done that. I think that's why you said that because they can get a pie. Because they can get a pie. I'm not shipping anywhere.

[00:39:12] So I'll highly recommend it through recommendations to me. I don't know. Carolina Pie Company. Okay. I came across an entertaining business. Fun business called Mo Mountain Mutts, which as I'm sure you guys know that particularly during the pandemic when we are home, many people got pets.

[00:39:41] It all looks cats, whatever. And now that we've been going back to work or many of us have been going back to work, who's taking care of those pets? And sometimes the pets get lonely.

[00:39:53] So this is actually a business that I read about which is in Skagway, Alaska and they're coming in much further than I do. Well I'm just going to my computer man. But there are combination dog locker, pet sitter, and dog trainers.

[00:40:10] But what makes them interesting is that they have a dog bus that they go buy and pick up all their dogs every day. And like the dogs also have a science seat.

[00:40:20] And they always sort of run into the bus and like they're the old dogs that are pretty calm and they go to their seats and chill. And then they're the younger dogs which are in the back of the bus, like bite each other and playing and whatnot.

[00:40:32] And they do a lot of videos and then comes sort of an Instagram and tick-tocks and say, all the on-none on the tick-tock, like you guys are at this point in time. I didn't know you were on the tick-tock. My family is. Your family is. All right.

[00:40:47] Not on that much but they send me them when they see something that's interesting and so that's how I get on the tick-tock. Okay well, don't know how many listeners we have in Skagway but even if you're not there,

[00:40:58] they have their own website and they have a lot of merchandise and cool stuff out there and you can follow them on Instagram or I guess tick-tock. But if you go to www.momountenmuts.com, you can read a little bit about them and follow them on social media.

[00:41:16] That's really cool. So we're the fun one out there. You should check it out. Probably a little far for STAs. I don't know, you know. You know, I don't know if we could expense that trip or not.

[00:41:28] We'll have to check with somebody when we travel to Alaska to check the mess. We won't be doing it in the winter. So, if you've got a suggestion for our entrepreneur exchange,

[00:41:40] small business in the month, you can email me on the bus at the peak exchange at the next country. We'll have a good friend of you and your share. I don't know what your idea is, you know. We want to thank Sabrina Cook for joining us today.

[00:41:54] Thank you so much Sabrina. Thank you for having me. We want to thank the mesh podcast network. Everyone go to the mesh.tv and you're going to see a whole lot of interesting content out there. We're having topics, so check it out at the mesh.tv.

[00:42:09] And I'm appreciate your listening. I'm forward to talking with you again next month. Take care. Thanks. You've been listening to the mesh and online media network of shows and programs ranging from business to arts, sports to entertainment, music to community.

[00:42:39] Our programs are available on the website as well as through iTunes and YouTube. Check us out online at the mesh.tv. Just go to our other network shows and give a feedback on what you just heard.