 started and we'll just let everyone in when they hop up. But good morning. My name is Carla. I'm with the City of Columbia's Office of Business Opportunities. We want to thank you all so much for joining us today. We are going to go ahead and start the presentation and let me see. I'll tell you a little bit about our office and the Office of Business Opportunities. We have a few different areas that we serve it. We have the Commercial Lending Department, which is our financial assistance to start up and existing businesses for growth, expansion, retention, and the creation of new jobs and assistance in the redevelopment and commercial corridors. Also, we have the Contractor and Supply Diversity, which is training and support for city initiatives designed to increase local contracts capacity and compete for government contracts and other procurement opportunities. Some of the programs included would be subcontracted outreach, mentor protégé, local business enterprise, and Columbia Disadvantage Business Enterprise. The city manager has established a 15% MWE go for all city of Columbia departments. And we also have our Technical Assistance and Education Advocacy, which is a business development assistance and courses for startups and existing businesses looking to grow and expand. Topics covered there would be like marketing, use of social media, business plan, arm development, finances, legal issues, and a few more. If you'd like to know a lot about what we have going on and what our partners have going on, we actually offer a newsletter. I encourage you to sign up for that. We have, we let you know what's going on in the area, funding opportunities. If you'd like to sign up for that, just go on our website, and which is obo.com.com. Here's our contact information. We're located downtown on Main Street. Our number is listed there. If you have any questions about what all we do in our different areas, please give us a call. And our email address is located at the bottom as well. I'm going to turn it over to Ms. Cheryl Sallie. She's with SBDC, and she's going to tell a little bit about what they offer. Recording in progress. Good morning. Good morning. Thank you so much, and thank you to the City of Columbia, the Small Business Administration. I am Cheryl Sallie, and I currently serve as the Community Navigator Business Consultant with the South Carolina Small Business Development Centers. Next slide. A little bit about the program, the Community Navigator is a pilot program. It's part of a $100 million American Rescue Act initiative to help reduce barriers that underrepresented and underserved entrepreneurs face in accessing the programs and services needed to recover, grow, or start their businesses. We have a lot of information, a lot of training, a lot of wealth of knowledge and experience, but still yet to 2023, a lot of individuals, entrepreneurs, small businesses don't know about the great resources that are here in South Carolina to help them. Go ahead. Next slide, please. So this program is established by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. The Small Business Administration, known as the SBA, Community Navigator Pilot Program, uses a hub and spoke model to help small businesses with the focus on those owned by veterans, women, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, which includes rural and urban communities. The South Carolina Association of Community Economic Development, we call it SCASE it for short, received funding, they received a grant to serve as the state's hub organization. And SCASE it leads a network of eight spoke firms who deploy experienced advisors to assist small businesses during economic recovery. And the Small Business Development Center, SBDC, we are one of those spoke firms, along with other great business development resources here in South Carolina. Go ahead. Next slide. And a little bit about the South Carolina Small Business Development Centers. Our mission here is to advance South Carolina's economic development by providing entrepreneurs throughout the state no fee, I'm going to say that twice, maybe three times, no fee consulting, affordable training programs, and access to an array of resources that can help them expand or create a thriving small to meet medium size business. So the wealth of knowledge, like I said, with the in our network of experience advisors, there are probably 50 or more advisors and 20 plus offices in the SBDC network, including myself, I'm 35 plus years of experience as a consultant and a business owner. And so is a lot of the advisors in the network, former business owners on franchises, sole businesses, procurement officers, retired procurement offices, officers, retired bankers, and the list goes on and on. So at no cost, that's such an invaluable service. Next slide, please. What what we who we help go back a little bit, the individuals or groups of individuals that we help entrepreneurs go back to the previous slide, veterans, African American, Asian Americans, so on and so forth, Latinos, Hispanics, and I'm kind of doing it from memory. That's okay. There you go. And I think I got all of it pretty much rule entrepreneurs socially and economically disadvantaged businesses, women on businesses, micro businesses. So we help just a full array of entrepreneurs to start and or grow their business. Next slide. The services we offer, you know, oftentimes entrepreneurs, individuals, they have a passion, they have a gift, they have a craft, and they're really, really, really good at what they do. But they oftentimes don't know or don't get the knowledge about how to run a successful business, you know, what business systems do I need to have in place? How do I really develop a sound foundation, great infrastructure, so that I can realize long term sustainability in my business and success. So the services we offer include financial management, cash flow management, and you know, cash is the little king, access to capital, long packaging, how to position yourself to get the funding that you need to start and or grow your business, accounting and bookkeeping, growth and diversification strategies, business and strategic planning, marketing, marketing plans and strategies, marketing is the big elephant in the room when all is said and done. Market, market, market until 95% of your customers are coming to you by word of mouth. So business startup assistance, just just answering just a an array of general business questions and about business operations and everything you need to know to grow a good business, successful business. Next slide. And here is my contact information. You can click on the QR code that goes straight to the database, if you want to connect with us, or we'll have this information, I think in the chat room, I'll put it in there. But this is my contact information C Sally at sc.edu and my phone number, myself and David Darity are the two navigator community navigator consultants that cover the state of South Carolina. He takes care of them. Pretty much we cut the state in half. He has the top portion and I have I covered the lower portion, those counties that are in the lower portion of South Carolina. So thank you so much again for allowing us to come on and just take up a little space in time here this morning. And I am going to turn the Zoom podium over to Angela Brewer from the SBA. Thank you. Thank you, Cheryl. Good morning, everyone. As she stated, my name is Angela Brewer. I am one of three business opportunity specials here in the South Carolina District Office of SBA. And when I tell people I work for SBA, they have this funny look on their face like what is SBA? SBA is a federal agency and we were instrumental or we provided the funding for the PPP. Not everybody know who we are. PPP. That's the only thing I know what I do here SBA is the PPP. But SBA offers more than just the PPP loan. We offer access to capital, contracting, counseling and disaster. SBA do not do dot red lending unless it's during a pandemic like we're coming out of or just came out of or during a natural disaster. We go through banks. SBA would back a 30% to 75% to 85% to 80% of that loan. So it makes it more inclined for a bank to lend. So if you can't get a traditional loan, SBA, you can get SBA loan and SBA would back 75% to 80% of that loan. We do federal contract. Well, we don't do federal contracting. We get you certified to do federal contracting over the past couple of months. We've been breaking it down. SBA has been breaking it down. We talked about SAM and our four preferential programs with it, which is the AA program, which is for social and economic disadvantage, the Hub Zone program, which is historically underutilized business zone, Women on Small Business, Self-Explanatory and Service Day with Veteran Program. So we talked to you about why to get certified and how to get certified. And then we have, we provide access to free counseling. And Miss Sally is one of the people that we have for counseling with the SBDC. And she's one of the employees or the consultants for SBDC. So we have three women's business center. We have one in Greenville, Columbia and Charleston. We have a score in the SBDC located around the state. So we have access to free confidential counseling. So if you need some assistance, getting your business plan, getting your business started, preparing for a loan, please reach out to one of our resource partners that can assist you. And SBA steps in like when we had, I don't know if it was a hundred year flood or the thousand year flood back in 2015, SBA steps in when your home, when your home insurance does not cover the cost to get you back into your home as well as business. So those are the things that SBA provides. So we are more than just the PPP. We offer a lot more. Next, I think I got a little bit more. These are, we have here in Columbia, here in South Carolina, we have nine employees for SBA hit in the main office, which is in Columbia. We have seven employees, but we have two alternate work sites. We have one in Charleston and one in Duncan South Carolina located on the campus of Spartanburg Community College, I mean technical college. We are still working from home. So if you are interested or you need assistance or you want to talk to someone from SBA, please reach out to us by phone or email. And we will sell an appointment. We cannot handle whatever it is that you need over the phone or through team. We will do it in person, but we are still working from home and we go into the office twice a pay period. So you never know when we're in the office. So please make sure if you need some assistance or need to talk to SBA, you call our office number or you email us for assistance next. And that's it. Thank you all. All right. Good morning, everyone. I'm Aisha Driggers over here in OVO along with our great staff is on the call. And we have some wonderful partners that you've heard from Cheryl and Angela. We just have a great ecosystem to help build up our small business community. So it's my pleasure now to introduce our friend, Shealya Tutwiler Dawkins. She's an experienced enrolled agent since 2013. She's also a QuickBooks Pro Advisor. She has previous international tech subject matter experience. And she's been a team lead for one of the big four accounting firms. She lives a graduate of Liberty University, where she received her bachelor's and MBA degree. And Shealya, now in my notes I had that you were a doctoral candidate. So what is that status now? I am a doctor now. I'm a doctor to recognize this Dr. Shealya Tutwiler. Doctor. Yes. So we are so excited for her. We love working with Shealya and she's a great asset to the team that we work with. So congratulations on that, Dr. Tutwiler Dawkins. We're so proud of you. She's also the principal and owner of Tutwiler Dawkins LLC. She's a financial strategist and tax accountant. So now we're going to turn it over to Dr. Tutwiler Dawkins to start our workshop. What's going on with the slide? Yeah, you should have my screen there. Yes. Yep, we see it now. Okay. Thank you so very much. I finished my dissertation on these, no, January 17th. So I am official now. And it's amazing because this is the first time that I'm actually speaking to you guys from this platform. Today I'm going to just be talking about for the most part taxes. We're going to cover just a few items as it relates to what's going on in the current year. And then the balance of this presentation will deal with what you need to prepare for in 2023, getting ready for your 2024 taxes. One of the things that I say always is that taxes start at January the 1st. It actually ends December the 31st. There is nothing that we can do after December the 31st with the exception of some retirement and some other manipulations of depreciation and those kind of things. But for the most part, you are creating your tax return throughout the year. I wanted to start off the scenario for me. These are fun facts. They may not be fun facts for everyone else, but they are fun facts. Why and when did the United States begin to use paper money? And I gave you three options, 1690 as bills of credit, 1861 to finance the Civil War or the Federal Act of 1913. And I will give you the answer to that. The answer is we actually started to use paper money in 1861, and this was to finance the Civil War. Another fun fact, what led to the creation of the federal income tax, although the Boston Tea Party started of the process and then there was an estate tax in 1797. And the real reason why we started using the federal income tax was because the United States needed money. The real reason is the federal income tax of 1913 was the creation of the federal tax law now. And most of that law is pretty much what we follow through as of today. Another fun fact is that when we first started off, there was a flat 3% rate over $800 for all income over $800. And believe it or not, in 1965 through 1981, the highest tax rate was 70%. So there was quite a difference in the tax rate as it stands today. The actual law that governs the federal tax law is Title 26U as the U.S. Code. Whenever you see Congress come in and create a tax law, it typically takes about 68 weeks to get it codified and put it in some kind of regulatory statute. The tax and dub, the tax cut and job act in 2018, 2019, that was the first time there was a major tax overhaul and your state and local politicians actually govern your state tax law versus your federal tax law. All right. New changes for filing in 2022, for 2020, 2021, and I'm sorry for 2019, 2020, and 2021, and even 2022, when we filed taxes during that period, there were a number of tax laws and I think it was like five tax changes that were effective and had a lot to do with the pandemic. Most of those changes will revert back. Last year for child tax credit, you had up to $3,600. Now it's only $2,000. Of course, the earned income tax credit has been lower. Also in the last two years, if there were charitable deductions, even if you took a standard deduction, you were able to take $300 for singles or $600 for married filing gently. That is gone away. One of the good things about the new laws is that you can make more money and still qualify for the premium tax credit. That was done last year and if you are in the marketplace, it was, it did significantly lower, of course myself, my insurance payment. Also, if you receive $600 from a third party, you will receive a 1099K. That's treated pretty much the same. You'll use the gross, so you'll have to deduct any expenses from that as well. If there are any questions, I guess one of you guys will let me know. Yes, we'll let you know. So, pretty much the preparing for your tax returns, if your CPA, your tax preparer, your EA, whoever is preparing your tax return, you want to ensure that you provide them with good documentation. You'll form W-2, your 1099s. If you are doing capital gains, your 1099Bs, your 1099, miscellaneous, your source documents, and when we say source documents, those are documents that directly go towards your tax returns, such as your mortgage statements. Also, on your, back in the day, the bank used to send you a 1099DIV or 1099 interest. They probably don't do that as much now. So, my suggestion would be to make sure that you look at your bank statement that you received in January or in December to see if there is any interest or dividends that are paid. If it's paid to you, typically you need to claim it. Record-keeping systems are incredible, and I actually don't care if it's on an Excel spreadsheet, QuickBooks, your ledger, but if you have clear documentation to state that this is what I made and this is what I spent, those are very helpful to your accountants. Now, if you bring your shopping bag, I will go through it. I will organize it. I will make sure that it is applied in the right place. I will also charge you for going through your shopping bag. So, it typically makes it better for you as well. And then the, and I will talk about that shortly, having good documentation allows you to remember what you're doing. For me, I keep a running tally with the mileage that I use on a weekly basis. So, I know what my mileage is. It does not require you to say that I started at 16165 and I ended at 16167. If you take the trip, I use my GPS. If the GPS says I want 22 miles, that's what I write down. But over the current, over each month, I am able to assess what I spend in mileage. And one of those things that happened in 2022, from January 1 to December, I mean, to June 30, there was a mileage charge or a mileage expenditure that you can deduct. And then from July 1 through December, the first they, through July 1 to December 31, they raised that amount. And if I don't know how much I drove from January to June, did I don't know how to allocate those mileage? Sheila, excuse me, you have a request to go back to the previous screen. I don't know if there's a question about that. But, and just to let everyone know, we will send an email out with the slides later today so that you'll have access to it. But we did have a request for that. And then there was also a question about, she said the screen that said they're preparing your tax return screen, that might be, that's what the screen she was on. Okay. Yes. Okay. And then Cheryl Asif will touch on the employee retention credit. Yeah, we will. Okay. Great. Yes. Knowing your business status is important, whether you are a sole proprietor, where you're 1120S, 1120C or non-profit, 990, those will directly determine how your tax. If you're a sole proprietor, then it's a Schedule C. If you're a partnership or 1120S, then you should have a K1, 1120C, there's double taxation. And of course, if you're a non-profit, it's not taxable, but it is reportable. And there's a difference between reportable, non-taxable, and tax exempt. If it's non-taxable and non-reportable, you don't have to put it on your return. One of those three things would be if you get a standard deduction and you get a refund. Standard deduction, refund, it's not reportable. If it is exempt but reportable, then you need to include that on your return. An example of that is tax exempt interest on your 1040. I want to say it's line eight. There is a place where you put your taxable interest and there's a place where you put your non-taxable interest. So based on the previous screen, we talked about the organizational structure. We've had a lot of classes on the organizational structure. It's important to understand how you fall in that category. There are two requirements that are involved. One is how you are recognized by the state. And the other is how you are recognized by the IRS. So if you're a limited liability corporation or a company, single member, then you will have a schedule C. Even though that is a state designated structure, it goes on your schedule C. If you are a partnership, meaning that there are two people walking in line to receive the income and pay the expenses, then you should have a form 1065 that's prepared by your accountant. And then they give you a K1 that goes on your personal return. The 1120S is slightly different because you have to inform and request that the IRS treat you as an 1120S. That's what we call shareholders. That tax, that tax, that's a tax designating designation and not a state designation. Your 1120C is a state designation as well as an IRS designation. However, it does not affect your personal return, meaning that if I have a corporation, the only way that I would see that in my return if I get a W-2, meaning that or 1099. And then that flows to my return. I know I'm giving a lot of information and I get excited about it because I enjoy doing it. So I hope it does not sound like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. All right. So really, there are things that we need to actually pay attention to in 2020, 2023. If you own a business and you are a sole proprietor, if you make more than $400, you have self-employment tax. So let's say that I made $1,000 and I'm taxed at 10%. I owe $100. In addition to the $100 I owe and I'm rounding for the lack just so I can put in my it's 15.35 and there's some additional adjustments behind it. But typically you owe $153 and $154. So in addition to the $100, you know, owe $254 if I'm calculating that correctly. And typically for most profitable schedule C personnel, the marginal tax does not become the problem. They are not aware of the self-employment tax. So you want to always pay attention to the money that you're making. And if there is a requirement, I do a self-checkup every quarter. In April, I'm going to look at doing my just a standard of how much did I make in April? Do I have a possibility of having taxes? If I do, then I should be making estimated payments. Also, if you owed in the prior year, if you owe for 2022, then your accountant, your tax preparer, if I think it's if it's over $1,000, they should give you estimated tax vouchers that are due April, July, September and January. Qualified income deduction. We'll talk about that in a minute. Mills and entertainment expense. Mills and entertainment, and I wanted to bring that up, and I'm going to talk about mallets and just prior to me getting to the qualified business income deduction and the employer tax credit. Excuse me. Sheila, we have a question in the chat. Kalina, you want to read that question for her? Yes. This question is from Tammy and also from Valerie. They want to know regarding form 1120C. You said double taxation on form 1120C, and what did you mean by that? So with your schedule scene, your partnership and your 1120S, those are what we call pass through entities, meaning that if I'm taxed at 10% on personally, then I will add that in my tax return. So I'm only filing one tax return. It's included in my 1040. So it takes your W-2, your interest and dividends. If you got deductions and then whatever is on those three entities, those flow on your 1040 means that I'm taxed one way. When I look at my 1120C, that's a separate tax return, and that's taxed separately. I think the lowest rate is 25% to 29%, I want to say, but then that's a separate tax. Whatever, if I have a profit with my corporation, then I pay taxes on that. I still have to file my personal tax return, my 1040, so I'm taxed on that. So when I say double taxation, you're taxed both on the corporate level and your tax on the personal level, with all other entities, you're only taxed on the personal level. Good question. All right, so let's get to the Mills Entertainment, and I don't have auto on this one, but I will bring that up as well. Let me just check my time. Okay, we're good. So Mills Entertainment. I am self-employed, of course. I drive from here to, let's say, I have a meeting, and on my way home, I want to stop and get a McDonald's. That McDonald's is not tax deductible. Let's take a whole different scenario. I meet a client at McDonald's, and it's inflation, so we got to do McDonald's now. Can't take you to, what's my favorite place? Olive Garden, because I'm running the loop. Got it. That nine percent, six percent, so we're going to McDonald's. Oh, you know what? I can't take you to the Panera Breeze, or we could go to Starbucks and get a cup of coffee. If I'm taking my client, then that is deductible as well. So you have to make sure that, oh, and then if I have a meeting in my office, that is 100 percent deductible. So you have to look at the purpose for the meal, and why I am taking you guys to lunch. If we decided that we wanted to go and hang out at Applebee's last weekend for the Super Bowl, that is not deductible. Entertainment meals and mileage or anything you deduct has to be what the IRS consider as necessary and regular, meaning that it's in the field of doing business. Speaking of which, you want to make sure an IRS is cracking down on entertainment. Typically, I don't use entertainment as a write-off, unless it's for a particular engagement, the museum or something like that, where I know that it is definitely, I'm definitely going there because it is a way to generate business. Malage, car. Most people ask me about cars. If you want to deduct your car, you can do it one or two ways. You can deduct it by mileage, or you can depreciate it based on the percentage of usage. If you are deducting, if you are driving your car only one time a week, take the mileage. One of the reasons why I go with the mileage is because as of this year, the mileage rate is 0.625. That's a pretty good chocolate change if you do it by mileage. Also, you can pick up parking fees, you can pick up tolls. There are some other items that you can pick up. Typically, it's a reasonable amount to deduct. The disadvantage of deducting your car or depreciating your car, in theory, if you sell that car or abandon it, trade it in. In theory, you have to recapture depreciation. That means if you depreciate your car over five years and it was $30,000 and you sold it for $1,000, in theory, you should be recapturing it or adding that back into your income. I'm simplifying it. Adding it back into your income and then your tax on that as well. For me, I typically use it. There are times when there is an advantage. For instance, if you have a food truck and the food truck is the reason for your business, that becomes a whole different scenario. Or if you, I don't know, your limousine service, then it becomes a whole different scenario. The last thing I'm going to talk about before we get to qualified income deductions and employer tax credits, ordinary and necessary is always the key. I always use a lemonade stand if I got to have lemonade, sugar, ice, cups. That's ordinary and necessary. Air freshener may not be ordinary or necessary. If I am running an office business and I have laptops, those are ordinary and necessary. Theoretically, with most large purchases, you can expense it all, but you want to be careful about how your federal tax deals with your state. We don't talk about state a lot. We typically stay in the federal line, but your state tax return is also critically important. Decisions that you make for your federal return has to be within the framework of how this is going to affect my state return, in addition, how it's going to affect my current year. Note to self, if I write off everything in the first year and I make a large profit in the second year, then I don't have anything to write off in the second year. Note to self, if I need to take out a loan, I need to be able to show that I can pay that loan back. If I write off everything and I don't owe anything, then when I get ready to go to the bank and they ask for my three-year tax returns, I'm showing a negative, a negative, a negative. The lender is looking at you and going like, you don't make any money. We always want to pay attention to that as well. The qualified business income deduction, and I would suggest highly that if you operate a business that you have a tax preparer that is educated on business returns, look at your return. I can't remember anyone who's done their personal tax return and did not take advantage of a qualified business income deduction. Basically, it's a 20% deduction of the income. There are some other pieces that fall into their place, but in the Tax Act, then the Job Tax Act that came into play, they lowered the corporate returns. What they wanted to do is to put entrepreneurs such as partners as corporations and trust accounts on a lower playing field. They gave you an adjustment that you have. It's critical that you have someone look at your return. At least go through the consultation. It may be $150, but at least have someone take a look at your return so you're making good sound decisions when you're looking at, maybe this year you didn't make a whole lot of money, but the expectation is that you make a lot of money, so having a good background in the beginning is always important. Let's talk about employer tax credits, and I do not, one second, and I do not have the employer retention tax credit on it because you need to have been in business in 2021. That's number one. You had to make within the threshold a lower of 25%. It deals directly with the number of employees that you had, meaning that you had employees on staff number one. You did not fire those employees doing that position, and basically it's not a difficult calculation, but you may want to reach out to someone to where they can actually do an analysis on your prior year 2020 and your 2021. I do that analysis as well, so before you get into creating that big rush of, at that big expense, how someone do the initial background to make sure that you qualify that, and then at that point, it's just a matter of filling out the calculations. The one things that I did want to bring up to date which are things that are always in play is as entrepreneurs, how many of us have started tax retirement plans? There are a number of retirement plans that allow you to reduce your tax liability. So retirement plans for yourself, the self-employment, for those who are lower income, there's a resaver's retirement plan as well. So not only are you saving for your future, but you're reducing your taxes as well. There are credits for those who want to offer small employer health insurance premiums. You can reduce your taxes by providing your employer with health insurance. Also, there are other credits that are in play. With South Carolina, South Carolina is one of those that give a number of business credits. There's a small business job credit, the apprenticeship credit, and a lot of times we don't as employers look at those things. If you hire someone that's from a targeted population, I won't go into all of the detail, but those who may be economically or socially disadvantaged, those who may have been incarcerated, there are some tax credits as well. So in your process of engaging whether or not you want an employee, look at the credits that are offered, that allow you, that are consistent with doing business every day, that allow you to not only save on your taxes, but benefit your employees as well. All right, preparing for 2023 taxes. I did say your taxes start January 1st through December 31st. Keeping accurate records are critical. QuickBooks, Excel, QuickBooks does have a self-employment app that you can use. It's, I want to say $17.50, it may be $19 now, but it does allow you to use that as well. The next level, if your business is operated in a good place, I typically advise that one. That allows you to automate your banking. QuickBooks is a standalone product. It allows you to sync your bank account to QuickBooks. So every transaction that's coming through your business account can be automatically, automatically synced in, meaning it does, it eliminates you having to go in and enter that information in. I take one day, a week, to go through what I've done since either Friday, Friday, eating a Monday morning, just to balance my books to see where we are, understanding my financials, what is my income, am I making money? Do I have a profit and a loss? What's my cash flow? Do I owe more than I have? And if that is the case, what is my business plan for that as well? Doug Lindum says, the biggest mistake people make with taxes is poor bookkeeping. And that is so correct. When I'm working with a client who needs to go back years to file after file their taxes, it is very difficult to go back and say, okay, what did I do in 2020? What did I do in 2021? Keeping accurate records is critical. Filing your taxes in a timely manner is also critical. I know we know about the pandemic, but some of the reasons why our entrepreneurs weren't able to take advantage of the PPP, the EDIL, or even the unemployment for self-employees, because they did not have accurate records and accurate taxes as well. So keep accurate, keep track of your expenses throughout the year to make sure that you don't miss any deductions. Establishing a retirement account. The inflation has cost interest rates, which affects our credit, which affects how much it costs us to have credit. On the flip side of that, the interest rate allows us to save money in the bank, meaning that you get paid. I mean, your interest rate on your savings account is higher. I'm not saying it's going to take you, you know, you can go to Fiji on a trip with it, but there is a range of the difference in interest rates. So establishing a retirement account, making sure that you, whenever you get ready to retire, that you're able to do that as well. So keeping your business up to date for the day, but then also having to establish an exit plan, which includes a retirement account. Hiring your child if age appropriate. And let me say if age appropriate. Don't have no four-year-old baby walking around with broke. Just say it. If your child is 14 and 15 years old or 16 specifically, and I'm not going to even get into the rules or what the age is, but look at into hiring your child. This is a way that you can save money as well. Determine if your worker is a contractor or in four-year. Now, this is where the IRS is actually where the rubber is hitting the road. And yes, I am a dog lover. So I decided to make this a little user-friendly. When you have someone that is working for you, you need to make a determination as to whether or not it is an employee or a subcontractor. And employee means that you need to withhold your federal, your state. You, as an employer, you need to pay federal unemployment, state unemployment. You also need to have worker's compensation. And I know that's a lot, but it does allow you to take care of someone else. And also, it allows you to reduce your tax liabilities if that's what you want to do as well. The rule for the IRS is typically behavioral, financial, and the type of relationship. With that being said, what is the purpose and how do I control the person versus the product? If I control the person telling you, let me go back to my script here. If I control the result, meaning that I won't show you to do my tax return, I'm not going to tell her that I need to be there eight to five. I'm not going to tell her how I needed to have it done. If I want her to do my tax return, she is going to provide me with a finished product. I'm going to pay her in the simplest form than that is an independent contractor. And employee means I'm controlling the person. The person I am going to say to you, show you I want you to do my tax return, but I need you to come in Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 8 to 12. I am going to provide you with the software, and I am going to tell you when you can have lunch. I mean, maybe not have lunch, but you're controlling the person versus the product. So the question always in mind, and I am simplifying it, the question always in mind is, am I controlling the person or am I controlling the product? The implications behind that on the back end, if you are an employee, you should receive a W-2. Taxes should be repealed. If you are an independent contractor, you should be, you are responsible for the taxes. And then we get back to the $600, where you are subject to self-employment. There are two types of employees, statutory, which is basically everybody except limo drivers and those insurance providers. So typically for the statutory employee, this is where we go back to the federal state, we call it fluid, suey, workers' compensation. And then a lot of times we think about the withholding piece, but then you got your garnishments that involve as well as your workers' compensation. So if I am controlling the product, I only need to give you a 1099. If I'm controlling the person, then that person is expected to, then you are expected to withhold your taxes. I think I'm pretty much getting close to the finish line. Other areas of concerns this year is payouts. I know everyone heard the big boo-ha-ha blah-blah-blah about Zell, Cash App, PayPal. I'm sure I'm missing a lot of them. Who? Google Pay, Apple Pay. Google Pay, all of those. So it's pretty much taken the same position as your 1099. If you give your person or your daughter $600, your daughter will not get a 1099. If you are running transactions through Cash App or PayPal and you sign up as an organization, PayPal or Cash App will send you, I don't even think they call the name of it as of yet, but it's going to look like a 1099. And it's going to say to Tubwater Dawkins LLC under my IEIA gross amount of transactions. It may even list them by the month. It will not affect, I mean, it's a reporting mechanism. So if you are doing it properly today, there is nothing to fear. If you're not doing it properly today, then my suggestion is if your business is using Cash App, PayPal, Google Pay, start keeping track of that, document it, and then keeping expenses with that as well. If you're a salon, a hair salon, et cetera, and you have a cash business, basically this is what is going to track. For most of us who use those type of apps, they are attached to a bank. Nobody sends me a Cash App and it comes to my payment. It goes to my bank. So the transaction is going to be how easy making it to my bank. Is it making it to Tubwater Dawkins LLC or is it making it to my personal account and keep track of that? I'm going to go back to cryptocurrency. Let's go to business and personal expenses. The IRS does not require that you have a separate bank account. That is not a requirement. It does require that you keep separate documentation of your business expenses. I try to keep all of my business expenses going through one credit card and one bank account. Now, if I have to, and y'all know I love my shoes, if I happen to be at DSW and I see these amazing pair of shoes and I only have my business credit card, I'm subject to use it. I'm just saying. Now, what I do, however, is transfer those funds back to my business account so that I can account for it. There are other times when you are in, I don't know, target and you realize, oh my God, I need paper. I put it on my personal card, but I actually transfer that money or write it down in my business expenses. So keeping accurate records that can identify that that's associated with, so if this is your income, your business income and the expenses are associated with your business income, then that should be on one side. Your personal expenses should be on the other side, keeping it separately. My final wonderful piece of the world is cryptocurrency. Now, cryptocurrency is not as prevalent as it was, I don't know, a year ago when that guy kind of walked out of here with like billions of dollars. So it's kind of laying low, but it is important and there are still people who are using it and you still can use it for borrowing, for selling, etc. The IRS treats cryptocurrency as a stop, meaning that I purchase a Bitcoin and so that's my basis for a dollar. I sold it for $10. That is my, my basis, my cost is my dollar. I sold it for $10. That is my sales price. The difference between the two is considered capital gains or losses. If you've held it for a year, it's tax lowered. If you've held it for less than a year, it's tax higher. It's treated the same way. On your tax return, I think it's like right after your name, it asks you, did you sell or trade any cryptocurrency? If you have, please check that yes. The IRS now is starting to express, especially those who trade in the U.S., they are requiring brokers to report that. A lot of us, including Shilia, and yeah, I can be transparent with that, forget about Robin Hood. Robin Hood came along in the middle of the year after I had filed my taxes and said, hold on, wait a minute. Now I had a loss, so it didn't affect me. But it was something that I simply forget. So keep up with those records as well. We talked about the pay abs. We talked about cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is a thing. Unfortunately, it's not a thing that's going away. So as you move into that market or as you figure out that you're invested in that, please talk to a professional because it can get tricky. There are what they call hard forks and soft forks, and whether you trade it in or whether you cash it back. One of the things I am going to mention before I close is if you have a dividend and you sold that dividend, yeah, and you sold it, and you said, okay, I want to invest it back in, you're still taxed on that sales price. So remember, and that's the other piece with cryptocurrency. A lot of times we look at games and say, well, I sold it, but I allowed them to keep it. It's still considered a recognized game. So making sure that you understand what's reportable, what's nonreportable, what's exempt, what's personal, and what's business. And keeping good records, those are my party words for today. My website is www.TWDtax.com. You can always contact us for existence. In the middle of the screen, there is a subscribe to our website. We are starting that this year. I tried to put a little tidbits, especially with new tax tax laws that are coming down the pipe. I'm definitely keeping up with state requirements because there are some changes relevant to the state property taxes and the PT100. A lot of times we file our personal taxes. We file our state taxes, but we don't properly file our business personal taxes. So we want to keep up with all those taxes that are involved. It has been a pleasure talking with you guys. So if you have any questions, and that's my fur baby. That's Paco that runs the house. He wants to know if you have any questions or needs any additional information, you can always contact you. And that is my website. So I'm going to stop sharing. And if you have any questions, please feel free to ask. Chilia, we got some questions in the chat. The first question I'm going to go back a little bit is, I'm sorry, when you were discussing, I think it was about business accounts and taking someone to the neighborhood, taking a client to the neighborhood. This person wanted to know what about business trips, meaning airlines, mills, local transportation? So no, okay. So let me let me let me do the theory and then the technical no one is going to be in your pocket going like I went to Atlanta. I had a meeting on Friday. I stayed there Saturday and Sunday. So I'm charging all that off. You can't you can't do that. So what you should be doing is if you have a your so if you have a conference that's going to from Monday to Friday, and you're there on business expenses, even if you you're you can use your PDM or those expenses are legitimate expenses. If you decide to stay over Saturday and visit your family, those are not legitimate expenses. Typically, if you're traveling, I always try to make sure that I segregate the part of my trip that's truly business expenses, your airlines are aren't as well. One of the things that that come into play is if I drive to Augusta, and I decide to go to Atlanta, Augusta is my business trip. Atlanta is where my family is. So I decide to go to Atlanta. Once I leave Augusta, that makes everything else personal, keeping good business records. Now, I if you give me a receipt that said that you went to, I don't know, Fiji, and all of that was a business trip, then I will question it. I will make sure that it's legitimate. I probably want to see because I need to keep my license. I probably want to see why you went. If you went to Milwaukee, I probably won't question it. Keeping good, accurate, accurate records. And I hope I answer that. It can be tricky. So talking to your professional is when you need it. I mean, that that that is a very general question. But theoretically and technically, any business such as hotels, hotels, meals, those are tax deductible. Next. Okay, the next question is, and this one, Shilia, this is I'll leave this up to you whether you want to answer this question or not. While watching the Alex Murdoch trial, the accounting for the firm indicated that at the end of the year, the firm divides out end of year bonuses to have a zero balance earnings at the end of the year to prevent paying taxes on business earnings for the year. The short answer is the hold on the short answers. That's not really a good idea. That's the short answer. Okay, I mean, there, there, there, that, you know, you can, you can, there is nothing wrong with you giving your, your, your employees bonuses. There is nothing wrong with your making cap, you know, typically what you want to look at is, is, you know, taxes at the end of year. Can, do I, can I make capital expenses? Okay, should I make capital and expenses to buy a new computer to mitigate taxes? There is never anything wrong with mitigating taxes ever. There is something always wrong when you're trying to zero it out and evade it. Mitigated, yay, evaded, uh-uh. Okay, the next question I have is, how can contractors receive an a 1099 lower their taxable income? The first, the easy answer to that, how are you, what, what are you doing as it relates to your expenses? That's number one. Number two is, are you truly an employer, you, or, or you are a contractor and you as the subcontractor, if you are receiving a 1099 and you have no expenses against it because the employer is picking up the expenses, then I would, that I would question that as well. Carita, what was that question? But the, the answer to that is keeping good, good, good records. And there are times when, you know, there are times when I've done, I don't know, a training or something for a organization and they gave me a 1099. That's fine. But then when I put that 1099 against all of my business expenses, then that, that, that becomes equal. If you do not have a business of any kind and you are working for one person and they continue to give you a 1099, I'm not saying that it's incorrect, but I would definitely look into it. Next question. Before we get there, have a tax account and look at your prior year return to see if you can do some retirement adjustments and to see if there are other areas that you can reduce your, your return, reduce your taxes as well. Next question. I'm going to go back to before you do that, I'm going to go back to what piggyback on what you said, Sheila, the documentation, document, document, document. I think Ms. with Jareena asked about the, to reference the murder. When you have your operating agreement, right? So you got rules, processes and procedures, standard operating, you know, you have an operation agreement for your company. Do you have that bonus? What you're talking about is that a part of your standard thing that you do every year? Is it documented in your bylaws or in your operating agreement for your company? Is it documented that this is what you do in your HR management and performance management system? Okay. So I just wanted to put that out there too. Any more questions? Okay. I don't see any other questions. Cheryl or Angela, do you have any final words before we let Sheila wrap it up? Oh, no. I'm Sheila. I think Sheila just said a great made a great point. See an expert, get with an expert. If it's not with Dr. Tyler Dawkins, make sure you are getting with someone who is an expert in taxes, accounting, bookkeeping, know the difference, understand the difference and all of that. That's one thing because this part, taxes and financial management, all of that is crucial to the health, welfare and success of your business. And just the final note, your tax return is the final finalization of your business for the year. Your tax return is a synopsis of what happened and basically it is a reconciliation of what you've done throughout the year. Your business starts with your business plans, your operating agreements, what you do operationally, practically, your processes, your strategies. That's how you create your tax return. Your income statement, your balance sheet, your cash flow, that determines your tax return. So when we're looking at, and I think this is really a great question, I mean a great time to start because we're just, we're in February right now. So even though we're talking about what, like we, whatever we did, December the 31st, all we're doing now is reporting what we did. So let's take that, look at your prior year return once you get it done. Taxes are due April the 18th. We are not doing an extension this year. All the tax accountants are tired. We want it to be short. April the 15th, we're going to take our normal rates from May-ish to June-ish, July-ish, and then we're going to get back in it like a normal tax season. So it's not going to stop then. Your state returns are due as well. Your PT 100, your business personal taxes, those are due May 1st. So if you are not, or if you don't have documentation, and you're not ready yet, and for those who are late, I'm not managing at all, who are late every year, go ahead and reach out to your accountant if you have one, and let them know that you will be filing an extension. We can go ahead and file your extension and wait until everybody else. Go ahead and do that. However, the extension gives you time to file, and you have up until October the 15th. Whatever you owe as of April the 18th, you will start collecting interest. If you have not paid, I believe it's up to 90% of your taxes, you may incur a penalty. So if you know that you owe, and you owe for the last three years, first of all, talk to a professional to see if you can mitigate. That's number one. Number two, go ahead and get your records together. And number three, let's go ahead and file extensions, because what you don't want to have is the late filing penalty, because that's 25%. So then you get hit with the 25%, you get your penalty for not paying, and then your collected interest. And the IRS do what we call compounding, is interest on top of interest on top of interest. So it's much cheaper to use a credit card, even though it's not cheap at all. My goal for you today is number one, let's get ready for April 18. And then let's look at what we've done over the past year, and let's try to make it a better year by keeping good records, and preparing yourself for 2023, because if I live in the Creek Gun Rise, April the 15th, 2024 will be a back around before you know it. Thank you guys for your time. We have a late question. Could you explain quarterly taxes, prepaying quarterly taxes is what the question is? Yes. Now, that's a great idea. So if you are self-employed and you have not had your taxes repaid, and you owe from the prior or if your income has increased, you should pay your quarterly taxes, your 941. No, it's the 1040, okay, so you got two quarterly taxes. One is if you are in an important year or year, you have to file your 941s and your 940s, and I don't know what the state calls it. I don't remember what the state calls it. So that is every quarter you should be reconciling your employees withholdings and what you owe based on a percentage. For state unemployment, there is a formula or a paper that you should receive. I want to say late December that says your percentage amount is x. For the federal, I want to say is 0.06% up to $7,000. So that's just a standard calculation. That is for the 941. If 941, 940, if you are self-employed and you owe taxes in the prior year, then the suggestion is that you pay up to 90% of the previous year. For the clients that I have that are paying more than $1,000 and do not have withholdings, then I am giving them vouchers that are due April. It's April, July, September, and January to split the taxes over the quarter. You are not required to make estimated taxes. However, depending on how your income falls, there are penalties for not paying enough. When you are doing your taxes, even if you are doing them personally, if you always receive a refund, which is a whole other class that can do on refunds, if you are receiving a refund, then that means you have had enough with hell. Basically, the estimated taxes in the nutshell is you basically withholding your own personal income. So at the end of the year, you don't always have enough. Angela, did you have any last words? No, I didn't have anything. I'm sorry. I forgot I was on one note. No, I don't have anything. All right, good. Well, this was wonderful. As always, I mean, anytime Sheila does a workshop on taxes, I have a page full of notes. I've already done my taxes. So I understand about realizing those changes that reverted back to 2019 levels. It does impact your taxes. So just be prepared for that. And definitely one of the things she touched on on the impact of all those write-offs as the City of Columbia does lending. So we do look at what your income is if you're coming to us to request a loan. So you definitely want to be mindful of that when you're considering all those write-offs on your taxes. Then the importance of bookkeeping is always something that we stress. And the team that's on here will definitely address that through some upcoming workshops. And then I like that mitigate versus vade. And there's a difference. And I appreciate that. I know that was going to be a touchy question, but you handled it well as you always do. So that was wonderful. I would like to tell everyone watching to be on the lookout. The ladies on here, we're going to talk about a workshop maybe during Women's History Month coming up next month. So we'll make sure that you are a part of our newsletter so you get access to those workshops as they come up. I will send you out a survey just to make sure that we get your feedback on this event and also any future trainings that may be of interest to your small business. That's why we're here. We want to make sure we're offering workshops that are of interest to you. And all of the ladies on here want to be a resource. We're very easy to talk to, so if you have any questions, please reach out to us. That's why we're here. Also, share the slides with you and a link to the recording so you can go back and watch it or share with your colleagues as you see necessary. So we appreciate your time. We did great with Tom, ladies. I love that. That's amazing. So yes, good job. So everyone have a great rest of your day and we look forward to seeing you soon.