Episodes

  • #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
  • #54 | Thinking Outside The Box and When Personal Injury Business Meets Tax Law feat. George Nagle & Gregg Goldfarb

    #54 | Thinking Outside The Box and When Personal Injury Business Meets Tax Law feat. George Nagle & Gregg Goldfarb
    Nov 16 2022
    George Nagle is a former Global Executive Director of Marketing with responsibility for a portfolio of over $352 million. He’s joined by Personal Injury Attorney Gregg Goldfarb who discusses where injury and taxes intersect. 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: Well, welcome to another edition of Practical Tax with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. Steve, it seems that every week we have a couple guests on, and we're always trying to find a way to help viewers and listeners understand taxes. And as you've said so many times, and so well, taxes are a part of our life. As Ben Franklin once said, that and death are unavoidable. But it is unique the way that we find that they do come into our lives. Steve Moskowitz: It really affects every aspect of our lives, because money is so important. It affects, literally, the food you eat, the place you live, how you- Chip Franklin: Stress? Yeah, try not having any of it. Steve Moskowitz: That's when it's a real problem. Chip Franklin: Yeah. Steve Moskowitz: And taxes wants to take a big chunk of that away from you. So the amount you pay is directly going to affect not only your life, but how your family lives as well. Chip Franklin: Well, let's just jump into our first guest. Again, that's Steve Moskowitz. I'm Chip Franklin. This is George Nagle. He's a former global executive director of marketing. His portfolio had a responsibility of over 352 million, and he used a lot of creative innovative ways in a business to drive profit and loss. And we're always interested in profit loss, right? Steve Moskowitz: Absolutely. Chip Franklin: Yeah. Joining us right now is Mr. Nagle. Hi, George. Where are you right now? What part of the world? George Nagle: Hi. So I'm out of Lansing, Michigan, so the state capital here in the wonderful state of Michigan. Chip Franklin: Great state, yeah. Let's talk about this right out of the get-go, and talk a little bit about the idea of profit and loss, and how- Steve Moskowitz: I prefer profit. Chip Franklin: Right, right. Although it's nice to have losses on paper at the end of the year as well. Steve Moskowitz: The sweetest thing in life is a positive cash flow with a tax loss. Now you're talking my language, Chip. Chip Franklin: Let's talk a little bit about ... this goes back decades ... but the idea of positive thinking, and the other one too, thinking outside of the box. When you hear that phrase, I'm kind of curious from both of you ... Let me start with you, George. What does that make you think of when you think of thinking outside the box? What does that mean to you? George Nagle: So to me, that really means that people recognize that they may be a little stagnant and they feel a need for change. And Chip, the funny part about that is when you say that to people, they're like, "Yeah, yeah, we need to change." And then as soon as I say to them, "Great, who's going to change first?" Dead silence. And a lot of that comes down to ... When organizations are usually saying that, what they are lacking isn't necessarily a need for change; it's a need for better execution within the field that they already play in, and then they can bring in some different thinking, some breakthrough thinking, not necessarily thinking outside of their box. Because, Chip and Steve, the best present you can ever give a kid is a box, because they can make it anything that they want, and companies miss that. You can make your box whatever you want it to be. You don't have to be outside of it. As a matter of fact, being inside of it gives you structure and allows you to execute. Chip Franklin: Yeah. Steve, what do you think? That's a really interesting point. What's your take on that phrase? Steve Moskowitz: That's so important, because the whole idea of being an entrepreneur is you think things up. If you're in a box, somebody already did that; there's really not any money in it. Thinking outside the box, when you think of something that somebody doesn't, that's where you make the money. And how many times have you heard a friend ... somebody thinks up something simple. When you and I were infants, the pet rock came out, and how many people came out and said, "Oh, why didn't I think of that? My God, you take this little stone and people are paying you so much money for it." Because nobody else thought about it. And when you go to business school, they don't teach you, "Create a ...
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    29 mins
  • #53 | Understanding Profits and Guiding Your Business Through a Recession feat. Rocky Lalvani & Stephen Patterson

    #53 | Understanding Profits and Guiding Your Business Through a Recession feat. Rocky Lalvani & Stephen Patterson
    Nov 10 2022
    Rocky Lalvani joins us to discuss the ironic twist that businesses need to focus more on profits and Stephen Patterson tells us how to guide your business through a recession. 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: Well, welcome to another edition of Practical Tax with Tax Attorney Steve Moskowitz. I'm Chip Franklin, and this is where we talk about issues surrounding taxes, and obviously that's a wide area, and it covers everything from individuals to multinational corporations and everything in between. And also, of course, you'll find this on our Ask a Tax Attorney segments, there are spaces in between that we try to fill in the cracks on the show, and Steve does a great job, and we love having great guests. Our next guest today is someone who can talk a little bit about what we love to talk about, which is profitability. And he's taught this to business owners for years. He teaches them how to ensure how they get paid and make a profit a priority. As a certified profit first professional, he implements these profit first systems and we'll talk about that coming up in just a second. Rocky Lalvani joins us here on Practical Tax. I'm laughing because I hope I got your name right. I didn't ask you in advance. Did I get it? Rocky Lalvani: You did wonderful, Chip. Thank you. Chip Franklin: Well, that's good because I took me a while for Moskowitz, but I don't mess that up anymore. Steve Moskowitz: You did perfect, Chip. Chip Franklin: All right, so let's talk about, you said the profit answer, man. Let's kind of jump in with a question, and obviously profit comes first in business. You can't stay in business long without a profit, but there's also growing pains, hard times and salaries. How do you balance that? How do you balance the need for profit with the people and everything else that goes alongside that? Rocky Lalvani: We have a simple saying, profit is a habit, it's not an event. And I think too often for business owners in the back of their mind, it's always I'll be profitable when, right? I'll be profitable when I hit maybe a certain dollar amount in revenue or I'll be profitable in three years. But if they don't have a plan to get there, then I think that's a major, major problem. Yes, we have to pay our bills, we have to pay our employees, but we also have to pay ourselves. And I think this is much more of an emotional issue than it is sometimes a numbers issue because the business owner wants to pay everyone else first and they kind of leave themselves to last. And that's one of the things we're trying to say, "Hey, you as the business owner also need to get paid and you need to get paid well for your efforts. You took the risk to start the business. You put probably in more time than anyone else into your business. And yet, why are you leaving yourself to last?" Chip Franklin: Huh. Steve, when you get small businesses approaching you for help and consultation and tax, obviously advice, are they usually starting out or are they switching from another firm? Or did they just decide to you bring in money and grow? Steve Moskowitz: All over the map. People that are just in every phase that you've mentioned and then some. Chip Franklin: And obviously that's a great point you made because some people just love the business so much. And I think of restaurants, they love having their friends. Steve Moskowitz: Yeah, that's where you really have to be careful because most people go into business to make a profit greater than they would make in wages. But the ones that go in, because here's what I've seen, somebody says, "You make the best souffle in the world." And he said, "I just love making those souffles." And they open up a little restaurant and they're making souffles and they're losing all their money. And I remember I had a client that, fortunately they asked me before they signed anything, and I looked at the restaurant they wanted to rent and the rent and I said, "Well, assuming you do multiple seatings in a night and assuming you work seven nights a week and assuming every seat is filled, this restaurant is so small that you won't even cover your rent. You can't sell this product in this space. It physically doesn't work." Chip Franklin: You guys ever see- Steve Moskowitz: You can't put a gallon of water in a pint [inaudible 00:04:27] container. Chip Franklin: There's a great movie, if you haven't seen it, called...
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    34 mins
  • #52 | Paying for College and Tax Effects on Divorce feat. Derrick Kinney & Sharon Ramage

    #52 | Paying for College and Tax Effects on Divorce feat. Derrick Kinney & Sharon Ramage
    Nov 8 2022
    Financial expert Derrick Kinney discusses 529’s and how to prepare for a child’s education and Sharon Ramage joins us to discuss how you maneuver the taxable side of divorce. 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: Well, welcome to the Practical Tax Broadcast with tax attorney Steve Moskowitz. I'm Chip Franklin. We've talked about this in the past. If you had a kid that was five or six years old, would you jump in and start saving for college right then? Is that the best- Steve Moskowitz: No. I would save on the day he was born. When he or she were born, I would be making the first deposit. Chip Franklin: Yeah. Let's get into that too. In fact, let's start with our first guest. Derrick Kinny is a financial expert, author of Good Money. You've seen him on Fox News, Fox Business, Bloomberg, CNBC. Right down the line, everything. He's one of the top financial experts around the country. Nice enough to join us here with Steve Moskowitz, tax attorney Steve Moskowitz, on Practical Tax. Derrick, hello. Steve Moskowitz: Hi. Derrick Kinney: Hi, Chip. Hi, Steve. Great to see you both. Steve Moskowitz: Great to see you too. Thanks. Chip Franklin: So, you probably heard what Steve said. Would you agree that as soon as you start to think about having kids, you should start that savings? Derrick Kinney: I agree with him completely. Steve Moskowitz: Yeah. Actually, Chip, I agree with that. When you start thinking about it is when you start making the deposits. Don't even wait til the birth. Chip Franklin: Okay. Well, let's back up a little bit, and talk about the different ways to do it and the tax implications. The 529. If I understand that correctly, a lot of states, if not every state, has an option where you can ... Well, Steve, why don't you explain it to me so I don't mess it up? Steve Moskowitz: You were doing just fine, Chip. You never messed anything up. Basically, this is an incentive. The government gives all kinds of incentives for people to do things, because if you don't, eventually people look to the government and say, "You pay for it." So what you have here is an opportunity for people to put money away, and you can save some taxes. Not on the deductibility, but on the income tax you would've paid on the earnings. And then what they do is, in a recent change in tax law, they got more generous. Because it's not just for college anymore. It's kindergarten on up. So this is a way that parents, grandparents, interested people can set up an account for the child, and then you take advantage of the education. And education is so important to so many people, and this is something to help pay for it. Derrick, what do you think about that? Derrick Kinney: Yeah. I agree. It's interesting, because you want to think strategically. You mentioned the 529 now being able to use K through 12, and you can pull out to $10,000 per year. Whether it be private school, a charter school, it gives parents more options. But what I like about it is, is people work with someone like Steve, or they work with an estate attorney, et cetera. And they recognize that, "Look, I'm going to have an estate problem. These are ways people can use to help solve that problem and be the good person in their family." In the 529, they could give $16,000 per student per year, which reduces their gift tax. So picture, when the second spouse passes and there may be gift taxes due, this can reduce that. Plus, if you're married, the spouse can give 16,000. That's like $32,000 a year, that you can really stockpile a nice college savings fund very, very quickly. Steve Moskowitz: Also, you can even throw in a bigger payment, if you want, on some special deals. So I won't get too much into technicalities, but grandpa and grandma says, "Boy, we'd like to put some money away." You can put away even more than that if you want. Chip Franklin: Oh, well, that's an interesting point. So I wasn't fortunate to have grandparents leave us money, but a lot of my friends did, and their kids. If the money- Steve Moskowitz: That's why you made your own, Chip. Chip Franklin: Yeah. Kids or money? Steve Moskowitz: Both. Chip Franklin: What if the amount the parents give exceeds what the child spends in college? Well, how do you treat that money then? Derrick Kinney: Well, in terms of the 529, if it's used for college and education, then there's no penalties. If it's used for other things,...
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    Less than 1 minute
  • #51 | Salaries for Small Businesses and Business Coaching feat. Andi Monet & Jay McDonald

    #51 | Salaries for Small Businesses and Business Coaching feat. Andi Monet & Jay McDonald
    Nov 4 2022
    On this episode, we speak with expert on salaries and discuss how small businesses can compete for employees by offering more than just money. Also, an experienced CEO and coach to Fortune 500 companies joins us and discusses guiding individuals and teams to success. 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 another edition of Practical Tax with Tax Attorney Steve Moskowitz. Steve, this is funny. I have a good friend of mine I do a podcast for. He's a former major leaguer and he hates the idea of everybody knowing the salaries that major leaguers make. In fact, there's one story about this kid, Lindor, who now plays for the Mets from Cleveland. And he wanted to make 340 million guaranteed, because it was a million more than another major leaguer he didn't like. And we were just talking about- Steve Moskowitz: Who could live on 339? Chip Franklin: I know. But in an office place, having salaries and talking about salaries around other people, it doesn't make for a very good, I mean, I'm sure you wouldn't want people going around and comparing salaries in the office. Steve Moskowitz: It's something that's very personal. And there's all different motivations and people do different things and do different work. And sometimes somebody may have a difference of opinion as to what their work is worth as opposed to a coworker, as opposed to the company. And again, we were talking about the divorce area. This is a volatile area. Chip Franklin: It's very volatile. Well, that brings us to our next guest. And Andi Monet, she's an expert in this area. And she's been talking about salaries and she joins us here on Practical Tax. Andi, hi. Thanks for being here. Andi Monet: Thank you. Happy whatever day of the week it is today, gentlemen. Steve Moskowitz: It's Friday. Andi Monet: Friday. Chip Franklin: It's always Friday if you have the right attitude. That's my thought. I wanted to talk to you and Steve and I wanted to can kind of go down the road of salaries as it applies to small businesses trying to recruit top employees and top administrators to come and work for them. It's kind of like I talked about with the sports. In baseball, you have the New York Yankees, the Boston Red Sox and the Los Angeles Dodgers. And since there's no real cap, they can get the best players. So the other teams have to battle and show a different reason. What are some of the alternative things that small businesses can do to attract people when they can't match these humongous salaries? Steve Moskowitz: Well, first thing I would think of is, what state are you located in? Because if you're in a non-tax state, that can save you a lot of money. California, you're giving away 13.3% of your income, where if you're in Texas, or Florida, or State of Washington, or Nevada, or a number of other places, then the answer is your state income tax is in that state, zero. Andi Monet: And that's a really good point, because I lived in California. I was born in California, but I also lived there. But I live in Texas now. And the reason we moved, not me, but actually my ex-husband, who's my best friend, speaking of divorce, we do everything together still. Chip Franklin: That's definitely not the norm. Andi Monet: It's very unusual, but there's a whole reason for that and I value him. But we moved to Texas. Steve Moskowitz: That would make a great podcast, Chip. Andi Monet: So many people have asked me to actually write a book about it. It's really funny. Steve Moskowitz: The good thing about that is if you have children, that is such a benefit to the children. Andi Monet: We do. And that was the reason. Having a safe, stable, loving relationship for our child in common was much more important than what we had agreed on. Chip Franklin: It's a tribute to the two of you. It's a tribute. Steve Moskowitz: It really is. Andi Monet: Thank you. But we decided- Steve Moskowitz: And support for the other spouse rather than bad mouthing him. Andi Monet: Yes. No, I would never do that. Even if felt that way, because you're bringing in a child into an adult discussion and that's not appropriate. But that's another talk. Steve Moskowitz: Okay. I say we have to do more podcasts with Andi, here, Chip. Chip Franklin: Our last podcast, it's not part of this podcast, we talked about divorce. But it's not that different than really what we're talking about with salaries, ...
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    38 mins
  • #50 | Integrating Startups and Technology & When to Invest in Real Estate feat. Steve Gilman & GP Theriot

    #50 | Integrating Startups and Technology & When to Invest in Real Estate feat. Steve Gilman & GP Theriot
    Nov 1 2022
    How do startups navigate the integration of technology with old world business models, and how do you know when it's a good time to invest in real estate. 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. Steve, as you always say, there's so many ways you can look at a subject and somehow taxes creep in there. And this is one of those cases today, I think that when we look at it, our first guest is a leader in training and business development, but it gets even more interesting. Listen to this. He was a Yale grad and a grad from Columbia Business School. He also was a closer drafted in 2008 by the Detroit Tigers, a major league baseball coach. Anyway, interesting stuff. After baseball, he was an intelligence officer for the Department of Defense. He co-founded a thing called Block Party, which changed the way tailgating partnerships are developed in division one colleges and got a direct commission into the US Navy as a reserve intelligence officer, where he currently serves as a lieutenant. But we're talking to him today because he moved back to New York City after the pandemic and started OneRange, which is an early stage workforce development tech company. That's a big intro. And his name is Steve Gilman. He's here with us on Practical Tax. Steve, thanks for being here. Steve Gilman: Hey, thanks for having me. Happy Friday. Chip Franklin: First of all, thank you for your service. Steve Gilman: Indeed. Chip Franklin: Yeah, really indeed. It's interesting too that I wonder if any of the acumen that you've picked up in the intelligence areas of your service have paid off in business? Steve Gilman: Yeah, I'd hope so. But I'm finding new ways every day to translate some of the skills. Intelligence is specifically interesting within the military and civilian world, because you meet a diverse group of individuals with diverse thoughts. So a lot of what we're doing has to do with cross-functional teams, getting different ideas into different stages and then doing a lot of analysis, which plays into every day, every little piece of what I do in the business world. Chip Franklin: Sounds a little bit like what you do as well, Steve. I mean, obviously analysis is a big part of it. Steve Moskowitz: Thank you. Chip Franklin: Yeah. Well, let me ask you both this question, before we get into the details here. What is the future of work as we see it today? Let me start with you, Steve. Steve Moskowitz: Work has a lot of aspects to it. There's obviously the business aspect, the personal aspect. This is the personal society. That's what a lot of people don't realize and they think of work just as the business part. They don't realize how much socializing goes on. They don't realize how much it's all part of your life. And a lot of times when people retire, they find out they're so empty because all their social contacts are gone. And a lot of people, if they identify themselves through their work, they just feel empty. And a lot of times healthy people, when they retire, they start becoming ill because there's just no purpose for them anymore. So there's an awful lot to work. Plus, besides making money, there's a lot of good you can do in the world. Chip Franklin: Mr. Gilman, since you're both Steve, Steve one Steve and Steve two, when you look at the future of work and everything from learning and development and where that's headed, do you see a lesson we've learned, I guess, in the last two years from working remotely and having to deal with... It's kind of conversations we're all having right now? Steve Gilman: Yeah, I do. I think over the past 10 to 15 years, we've seen this huge spike, especially with knowledge workers and the use of software and technology and the information age where people can be really productive with a few clicks of a button if they're doing the right thing. I think over the past two years, it's been accelerated. And we've been separated, so technology's become more of a mainstream instance. There's also been new technologies in the market. Most of the trends that we see as it pertains to future of work have to do with companies better empowering their people and the managers at the working level, the engineers, the sales, the marketing, and throughout. And so we've seen a rise in technology that allows them to do what they need better, easier...
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    31 mins