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Practical Tax with Steve Moskowitz

Practical Tax with Steve Moskowitz

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Join tax attorneys Steve Moskowitz Liz Prehn for Practical Tax, a weekly podcast filled with tips and tricks for navigating taxes in the United States. Learn the laws, learn your rights, and file your taxes — practically.Moskowitz LLP Economics Leadership Management & Leadership Personal Finance
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  • #57 | Green Tax Initiatives and Side Hustles for Businesses feat. Congressman Jared Huffman & Chris Westfall

    #57 | Green Tax Initiatives and Side Hustles for Businesses feat. Congressman Jared Huffman & Chris Westfall
    Dec 8 2022
    On this episode of Practical Tax, Congressman Jared Huffman joins us to discuss green tax initiatives and Chris Westfall joins us to discuss side husltles for businesses. Episode Transcript Intro: Welcome to the Practical Tax podcast, with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. The Practical Tax podcast is brought to you by Moskowitz, LLP, a tax law firm. Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is based upon information available as of date of recording and will not be updated for changes in law regulation. Any information is not to be considered tax advice or legal advice and does not form an attorney/client relationship. Further, this podcast may be construed as attorney advertising. You should see professional consultation for your individual tax and legal situation. Chip Franklin: Hello and welcome again to another edition of Practical Tax with tax attorney, Steve Moskowitz. Steve, hope all is well. Steve Moskowitz: All is well and there is so much going on in the tax world. It just keeps us happy because we're getting back so much money for our clients. For example, this ERC program, employee retention credits where the federal government is giving away their grants, they're not loans, up to $26,000 for every employee that you have that qualified is tremendous and is helping out so many small businesses. Chip Franklin: We have been talking about this for four years, right? That's been going on for a while. Steve Moskowitz: It hasn't been that long. It may seem that long, but it hasn't. And the bottom line is that... The important part is you have to know, and there are some real differences of opinion, who qualifies and who doesn't. There are two tests. One test is a certain drop in gross revenue. That's easy. It's math, either above or below a certain number. But there's a second test called full or partial closure. And that's really a facts and circumstances test. For example, even an essential business like Safeway could only use 25% of the inside of their business, as was mandated by the state of California for all businesses from the beginning of the pandemic until 6/15/21. That may qualify them supply chain disruptions and so on. But it takes some work to figure that out and a lot of firms are ignoring that. If you don't meet the math, they say no ERC for you, that's wrong because the test is either/or. On the other hand, the IRS is warning that there are a bunch of fraudulent firms just making stuff up and like anything else in your tax, obviously, you want to take everything to which you're legally entitled, no more and no less. You'd never want to put anything on any tax return or anything you give to the government is fraudulent, yet some companies are doing that. And there are these popup companies, they just came into existence to file ERC and then they're going to be gone when the IRS is asking questions whereas we're a law firm and we've been around for over 30 years. Chip Franklin: Well, all of these trails lead to Washington DC eventually, right? I mean- Steve Moskowitz: Yes, they do. Chip Franklin: ... [inaudible 00:02:28]. And we're nice enough to be joined today by US representative from California, Second Congressional district since back in 2013, Congressman Jared Huffman. Congressman, good to have you here. Jared Huffman: Good to be with you. Chip Franklin: I understand- Steve Moskowitz: Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. Jared Huffman: Thank you, Steve. Chip Franklin: And you're in the neighborhood just a little north of us and enjoying again, California. Whenever I hear about people saying, "Oh, we're moving to Texas." I'm like, "Don't let the door hit you on the way out." I love it here, right? Jared Huffman: Yeah. Yeah. California is still going strong despite the detractors out there who don't wish us well. Steve Moskowitz: You know there are always detractors for everything. You can have the greatest product in the world and somebody is saying it's horrible. But I live in California, the weather is great, it's so much physical beauty, there is so much here, and I know the taxes are high. However, as a tax attorney and one of the things that you do in Washington, I tell everybody that when we talk about the tax code, there are two purposes. One everybody knows is to collect money from us to run the government. But the other thing is, in a democracy, the government can't order us to do something, even if it's good for the economy and the government wants it. So how does the government get us to do something that they can't order us to do? They pay us and they give us tax incentives. And that's what tax planning is all about. When you see sometimes the Fortune 500, they're making billions with a B in profit and not paying taxes because they're doing something else that's worthwhile for the country through the form of tax incentives and that's why I went to law school. I was a CPA first and I said, "Hey, I want to be able to do those secret things that I see ...
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    35 mins
  • #56 | The Cost Of Poor Health and Tax Advantages of Philanthropy feat. Dr. Gregg Larivee & Les Winston

    #56 | The Cost Of Poor Health and Tax Advantages of Philanthropy feat. Dr. Gregg Larivee & Les Winston
    Dec 6 2022
    Dr Gregg Larivee gives their insight on the cost of poor health, while Les Winston discusses the business philanthropy. Episode Transcript Intro: Welcome to the Practical Tax podcast, with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. The Practical Tax podcast is brought to you by Moskowitz, LLP, a tax law firm. Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is based upon information available as of date of recording and will not be updated for changes in law regulation. Any information is not to be considered tax advice or legal advice and does not form an attorney/client relationship. Further, this podcast may be construed as attorney advertising. You should see professional consultation for your individual tax and legal situation. Chip Franklin: All right, welcome to Practical Tax with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. I'm Chip Franklin and Steve, boy, I tell you, I'm excited about today's show because we cover a wide variety of areas, all which have at some heart of it, like most things, to do with the taxes we pay and what that means about our quality of life. And I mean, obviously with the extensions and the tax, even this has been a really busy time for you, this time of year. When you see people that are filing these extensions, I mean, I'm one of them. Well, what happens to people that they would file this late in the year? Steve Moskowitz: Oh, that's very common. And for example, we oftentimes tell clients, we advise them to file extensions because you know how I've talked about retirement accounts and how that's such a benefit? Cash flow. So what happens is you have with a lot of the accounts, you have up to the time of filing the return plus extension to set them up and fund them. So I suppose you have this situation: you're a business person, and this is a tiny little bit technical because it gets into the accounting and the tax. You've made a big profit on your taxes, but you don't have any cash because you spent your money on inventory, which is an asset on the balance sheet. So they say, "Well, wait a minute, I've made all this money on my tax return but I don't have any cash because I reinvest it in the business," and that's sitting there in inventory. So you say, "Well all right, that gives me an extra half a year to earn," and then the money that I earn, I can put into the pension plan on or before the due date, including extension. Again, that date varies depending on the form of entity and the plan you have. But that's a good reason to do it. Chip Franklin: Yeah. Steve Moskowitz: And then you legally greatly lower your taxes with money you've earned three quarters of the way into year two, that you're deducting from year one where most things you have to write the check in year one. This is an exception, that's one of many. Chip Franklin: Yeah. I think I've filed an extension for 20 straight years now. And it's not for any of the reasons you said, it's most- Steve Moskowitz: A lot of times you're waiting for documents from others. Chip Franklin: Right, and that happens too. All right. One of the biggest issues facing not just Americans but almost everybody in North America and in Europe, is healthcare and how it affects not only obviously businesses and individuals, but our society as a whole. Our first guest today is Dr. Gregg Larivee, I almost messed his name up, Dr. Gregg Larivee, and he's created the Integrated Medical Center in Florida and he's been treating NFL, MLB, PGA, and NBA athletes, plus people from all sorts of life for more than 20 years. And he is nice enough to take the time to join us here on Practical Tax. Doc, good to have you here. Thank you so much. Dr. Gregg Larivee: Thanks for having me. Chip Franklin: We had a great conversation before we came on about sports and I think sports is for many Americans, is an escape, but for many of these athletes, obviously it's something they can't escape as when they leave the sport later on and the injuries that they've had. But I think you can draw also a slight parallel for Americans too with the way we, and how we don't exercise and the things that we carry throughout our lives and in some cases, shorten our lives. I guess I want to ask a question, start out with a question for both of you. The societal costs that poor health inflicts not only on a personal level but to society as a whole, it's a problem for both individuals and of course businesses. Let me start with you Gregg, in your opinion, how serious is our national healthcare establishment and also the way that people eat and maybe don't exercise enough? Dr. Gregg Larivee: Yeah, I mean, I think as a society and as a workforce, we're unhealthy as a whole. We sit too much, we eat a lot of unprocessed food, we consume too much alcohol, and we don't exercise enough. The cost in terms of dollars, managing unhealthy behavior is astounding. The cost in terms of dollars, in terms of lost productivity is monumental, so all these things have an effect and a trickle down effect, which ...
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    36 mins
  • #55 | Learning To Manage Growth and Productivity feat. Meghan Watkins

    #55 | Learning To Manage Growth and Productivity feat. Meghan Watkins
    Nov 18 2022
    Meghan Watkins of CEO Coaching International joins us this week to discuss the intricacies of managing your businesses growth and productivity. Episode Transcript Intro: Welcome to the Practical Tax podcast, with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. The Practical Tax podcast is brought to you by Moskowitz, LLP, a tax law firm. Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is based upon information available as of date of recording and will not be updated for changes in law regulation. Any information is not to be considered tax advice or legal advice and does not form an attorney/client relationship. Further, this podcast may be construed as attorney advertising. You should see professional consultation for your individual tax and legal situation. Chip Franklin: Welcome to another edition of Practical Tax with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. I'm your co-host Chip Franklin. That would be the host to my left or right there. You get it. I love talking about productivity because I know that there's a lot of different ways to measure that, right, Steve? I mean- Steve Moskowitz: Absolutely. Chip Franklin: Yeah. And as a business grows, obviously they want their people to be more productive. One of the things though about coaching and training employees is, are you ready for success? I mean, a lot of people, they're worried about what's coming around the corner, of the bad thing, but sometimes successes then comes, and you find out that you're just not ready for it. Well, joining us to start this show is somebody that does this for a living. She's a CEO of Coaching International with more than two decades in building cohesive teams, and she's very passionate about this. Meghan Watkins, it's nice enough to join us. Hello, Meghan. Meghan Watkins: Hey, good afternoon- Steve Moskowitz: Hi, Meghan. Meghan Watkins: ... [inaudible 00:01:14] Steve, nice to see you. Steve Moskowitz: Pleasure. Chip Franklin: Good. Thank you for being with us. Let's just jump right into that. I mean, because you both have a lot of experience in this. Steve has had many employees over the years. Your job has been to try to get employees to be top producers. But there's another caveat that too, you want to be happy. How is that, how do you achieve that balance, Meghan? Meghan Watkins: Yeah, I mean think it's really, I think that a lot over the last couple of years has really encouraged leaders to understand that really knowing their team, and taking the time to really understand what motivates their team, is really vital to the overall happiness. And for some that are looking for maybe the opportunity to work from home, that could be really something that's really important to them. And others really actually want to have the ability to work together in an office. And so what we found is typically that hybrid model is usually the most optimal, and sort of allows the ability to have a level of accountability with their team, but also give them that level of flexibility that a lot of people are really demanding at this point. Steve Moskowitz: That's what we have in our office. Prior to the pandemic, as a traditional law firm, everybody was under one roof. With the pandemic, we all had to go home initially for three weeks, we were told. And then when the pandemic dragged on, a lot of people got used to working from home. And a lot of clients said, "Wow, you mean I can just talk to you on the phone or your computer?" Just like we're doing now. Physically, where are you? Meghan Watkins: Physically, I am in Dallas, Texas right now, and I'm in my home office, but I also do have a shared workspace that I go to as well. And that really speaks, I think to, at the root of it, what we're all craving. We're all ability to have flexibility in our day to day. But we're also still humans that crave the ability to connect directly with others, and be able to interact with others face to face on occasion as well. So for me, it kind of gives me the best of both worlds. Chip Franklin: Have you ever read the Peter principle, you guys? Steve Moskowitz: Yes. Chip Franklin: Okay. Meghan Watkins: I am not familiar. I'm very intrigued. Chip Franklin: It's a book that's 65 years old. This is, it says that person will rise to their level of incompetence. And in essence, here's the perfect situation. You have a great group of salesmen, really sales people, really good people. So you want to promote one to a management. Well then they're no longer selling. And because they're so good at selling, and they see the ins... And everybody knows a great salesperson, the people that are not as good as the others, well they just become, they're a poor manager. They're no longer selling. So what they end up doing is they promote the people who aren't great salespeople, who are inferior, who aren't as good, to management positions. And then the salespeople resent it. And so you have this thing, and it seems to me it's like for you guys trying to understand this and define an ...
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    21 mins
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