Ahh, tax season is now approaching for the year of 2023. This can conjure up a mixed slate of emotions and feelings for all involved. I view the approaching season as being similar to walking through a haunted house. Options include walking through with our eyes closed, or just embrace the highs and lows of the experience as a whole. We can collect our receipts (or not if you forgot to) and take them to the local tax professional, we can evade them (this is not an advisable option at all), or we buckle in and try to play the game. If you so choose to saddle up this edition of the Island Land Companies Blog is for you.
I am going to go out on a limb and assume that taxes are nobody's favorite thing, but I am sure we all enjoy the roads that we drove on this morning and we did enjoy public pools, parks, and other government funded amenities. The list goes on and on. Taxes are such a polarizing topic, are we taxed too much? Are our tax dollars landing in the right places? Is everyone taxed fairly?
I am not here to answer any of these questions today, but if you want an answer consult your tax professional and maybe write a letter to your local legislature? I am just here to offer my two cents on the situation. To paraphrase a quote from the book Rich Dad Poor Dad, written by Robert Kiyosaki. ‘Taxes are a game,’ this may seem like I am minimizing the concept but hear me out. Taxes are a game with real consequences and real benefits. The game has a rule book that is written out across 6,871 pages (IRS tax code). That is a lot of reading, take it from someone who had a reading level of a 6th grader at the time I graduated high school (according to my standardized test score).
Don’t worry I have since made considerable efforts to increase my reading level since.
But, this game is one that some are willing to play and some are not. I am not saying that you should make it a point to read through the entire tax code, but I also am saying not to avoid it. I understand that I myself am new to the tax “game”, but that should not stop me from trying to “play better”. My recommendations are to consult a CPA, on top of that, consult more than one CPA. Initially this will cost money, but in the longer play this may result in payback that is much greater than the cost initially.