It is — all too soon again — tax time. While April 18 is, for those of us who really owe, the most financially dreaded payday of this year, Daniel P. Vigilante views the tax-filing deadline as a prime opportunity for significant bill-reduction strategies.
For more than three decades, Vigilante, a certified public accountant with a master’s degree in taxation and a certified tax coach, has been helping small-businesses locate loopholes and discover deductions that add up to significant savings.
Vigilante, whose eponymous firm is based in Morris Plains, offers some tips, tactics and straight talk for walking back taxes.
You’re a licensed CPA with a master’s in taxation. You’re also a certified tax coach, which is not a title I’ve heard of. Why should I hire a certified tax coach?
As a certified tax coach, I have additional training, and when I work with clients, I focus on loopholes and deductions. We work year-round together, not only at tax-filing time. While a CPA’s role is to complete and file your tax return, that’s merely my starting point.
What kind of services do you offer beyond filing the return?
I teach my clients to live tax deductively by creating a lifetime tax strategy to save them money. By doing this, I save them a minimum, on average, of $15,000 per year or $75,000 over five years. With some clients who have bigger businesses, I’m able to save them $100,000 or more per year.
Wow! That’s amazing. How do I get on your schedule?
I work with small-business owners who have at least $100,000 in annual salary and profits. The people who come to me are not neutral about taxes. They hate the very idea of paying taxes, and they come to me for a game plan to save them money. Of course, I not only prepare their business tax returns but also their personal tax returns.
Is it too late to get your help with 2022 returns?
It’s never too late. Ideally, I want to talk to my clients during the year so we can plan for the next tax year. Optimally, I take on new clients from April 16 to December 31 of every year. But if it’s close to deadline, we file an extension, do a deep dive on finances and come up with a plan.
So tax coaching is all about long-term planning. How exactly does it work?
We start with a free 30-minute discovery consultation, which usually ends up being an hour-and-a-half or even two hours. After I explore your lifestyle and situation and review your previous tax returns, I lay out a personalized tax plan, implement the tax-savings strategies we have selected and then we maintain the plan throughout the year.
This sounds like a lot of work.
It is quite extensive, and yes, the clients do have to answer a comprehensive set of questions. Based on the answers, I produce a 50-page book for each client that describes tax-reduction strategies and details actual tax savings. It’s about much more than tax payments. We talk about the entity selection for the business, retirement planning, family planning for distribution of income, tax loopholes and credits and hidden deductions.
What are hidden deductions?
These are deductions that clients don’t know they can even take. Generally, this saves them $4,000 of the $15,000 every year. Over five years, these hidden deductions alone save them $20,000.
The word “hidden” almost makes them sound forbidden.
They are anything but. I’m proactive about reducing taxes. I work with the IRS tax laws that are given to us, not against the IRS. Everything we deduct is legal and 100 percent allowable by law.
So this costs more than paying a CPA for merely filing a return.
The costs vary depending on the size of the client’s business. There’s a flat monthly investment for the tax plan, implementation and maintenance. The clients like this payment arrangement because they don’t have to foot the entire bill upfront.
Clients’ investments with us will be far less than the tax savings they receive from the IRS.
What do you do to prepare yourself physically and mentally for the workload around filing time?
I’m busy all year round; people always assume because I prepare tax returns that I’m only busy in March and April. There is a little crunch around the filing deadline, sure, but it’s not overwhelming because everything has been planned for.
Find out more at dpvcpa.com.
I teach my clients to live tax deductively by creating a lifetime tax strategy to save them money.