With tax codes getting more complicated, it’s easy for everyone to feel overwhelmed. Thankfully, the team at Altland & Harris Financial Group combines the knowledge, experience, kindness, and guidance that individuals and small business owners need to navigate complicated tax laws. Henry Harris III, owner and CEO of Altland & Harris, took time to answer some questions about how individuals and business owners can shift their thinking to help their financial future.
How do you help business owners with their tax efficiency?
First of all, we look at what's on your mind. What's going on with you this year, and what are you thinking about for next year? We work to find out what the business owners’ overall goals are--before they just tell me they want to pay as little as possible on taxes for the year. Perhaps they are planning on building their business. Are they going to need funding? If so, then minimizing their taxable income may not be what they want to do right now.
At the end of the day, we're focused on being more of a consultative financial partner than just a transactional place that can prepare your tax return for you. I don't want to find out after you've done something, so most of our clients have been "groomed" to come to us before they make major decisions. For example, if they want to pass the business on to the next generation, we like to know beforehand.
One of the goals that we have at our firm is to get to know your particular business. We take field trips to client sites to see the client in their element. It helps us know what we're accounting for, ask more intelligent questions, and have insight into their actual business.
What is Committed Benevolent Interest (CBI) and why does it matter?
CBI is a philosophy that speaks to preferring to help others by what we do. The very nature of what we do is to help other people and look out for them by assessing and aiding others in achieving their dreams and desires--whether it be investment planning or tax planning.
People have a lot of needs, and what we do isn't necessarily restricted to just tax returns. At first, I didn't realize how much people relied on us for different things at different times. For example, when a loved one gets ill and goes to a nursing home, we sometimes get calls to help. When someone passes, a surviving family member may need additional hand-holding. When these events happen, people need somebody that they can trust to help them navigate the process. And a lot of times, we offer to be that “somebody.”
How can the SBDC help small business owners during tax time?
The SBDC provides an array of classes and resources designed to get new businesses off to a good start. We started with SBDC, the Small Business Development Center, a number of years ago in order to offer a small business tax workshop. Most people go into business because they have a passion for a particular thing, whether it be photography, cooking, or something else. The last thing on their mind is accounting and taxes. So, we offer the class to say, “Here are some major things that you need to be aware of.”
Small business owners may start out thinking, “You know what? I'm going to try and do this myself.” Go ahead and deal with it is what I say! You'll get smarter about some things, and at some point, you will get to a place where you say, “Okay, things are taking off, and I don't need to be spending my time doing this.” And when that time comes, we'll still be here.
We're focused on being more of a consultative financial partner than just a transactional place that can prepare your tax return for you.
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