By Jason Watson, CPA
Posted Sunday, December 29, 2024

* Start of Section 199A qualified business income phaseout for small business owners.

By Jason Watson, CPA
Posted Sunday, December 29, 2024

Conversational Tone

This book is written in a conversational tone. If you like perfect prose and editorial exactness that you would expect in a book on brain surgery, then we will be disappointing. We make jokes, some of which are only funny to ourselves. We don’t have the best punctuation. We might even have a missing word or a misspelling. We are nerdy accountants who did everything possible to avoid English literature and writing classes. Yuck!.

Duplicate Content

You’ll see about 15 pages of duplicate content. We did this since everyone jumps into a book at different places, especially with our online Knowledge Base version. Time is all you have on earth to sell, and it cannot be inventoried nor is it refundable; just do a Bob Seger and turn the page if you’ve seen it before.

How Did We Get Here?

How can I avoid self-employment taxes? This simple question was the inspiration for creating an article describing the benefits of an S Corporation. That original article, which was about four pages long, quickly became a series of Knowledge Base articles on the WCG website. The articles touched on basic topics such as how to elect S Corp status, S Corp vs LLC, shareholder payroll, reasonable salary determination, retirement planning, health care, fringe benefits and liability protection.

Those broad topics demanded much more information, both horizontally by spanning into more related issues, and vertically by digging deeper into the granular yet riveting levels of the tax code. The articles were grouped and relabeled as the Taxpayer’s Comprehensive Guide to LLCs and S Corps which grew to 39 pages in its first edition. Sorry, all the good titles were taken (remember, the longer the title the less important the material is. Bible, Beowulf, Caddyshack… short and sweet). The Hunt for Red October is one exception, yet we digress.

Time marched on, and more information was added to the first edition such as expanded retirement planning concerns, health care options after the Affordable Care Act and business valuations including exit strategies. Boom, we now had our second edition at over 100 pages. At that point it was suggested by some clients and colleagues to convert the PDF into an eBook as well as paperback.

After a consultation on her LLC being taxed as an S Corp, she said, “Hey, make these articles into a book.” All we could do is envision pallets of stale outdated books. Thanks to Amazon and their print on demand service, we can update as often as necessary. And of course, Thank you Cherie!

So here we are on our eleventh iteration, or the 2025 Edition. Unlike Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 and COVID and the three major pieces of tax law which was the basis for the Ninth edition, these changes are primarily focused on the little things. There are also several examples and little comments that come from the hundreds of consultations we do each year (over 1,600 to be exact in 2024, yes we count, yes we are business owners too). Nothing tests your bad idea like the public, and people are full of wonderful stories and inquiring minds. All this leads to more fodder for the book!

Each week we receive several phone calls and emails from small business owners and other CPAs across the country who have read our Taxpayer’s Comprehensive Guide to LLCs and S Corps and praised the wealth of information. Regardless of your current situation, whether you are considering starting your own business or entertaining a contracting gig, or you are an experienced business owner, the contents of this book are for you.

While this book’s origins were based on reducing self-employment taxes through an S Corporation election, it has dramatically expanded to sound business advice from entity structures to operational considerations to business tax deductions and retirement planning.

This book is written with the general taxpayer in mind. Too many resources simply regurgitate complex tax code without explanation. While in some cases tax code and court opinions are duplicated verbatim because of precision of the words, this book strives to explain many technical concepts in layperson terms with some added humor and opinions. We believe you will find this book educational as well as amusing.

Enjoy! And please send us all comments, hang-ups and static. This book is as much yours as it is ours, except the tiny royalty part- that’s ours. Stop by and we’ll buy you a beer with the pennies.

I Just Got A Rental, What Do I Do?

I Just Got A Rental, What Do I Do? is our second book and is written for rental property owners and real estate investors. Many of our small business owners are also real estate-minded and we felt like another book would be helpful.

Purchasing a rental property is certainly challenging, but operating one to build wealth and find tax efficiency is equally challenging. Our rental property book starts with entity structures and moves into asset management such as acquisition, cost segregation, rental safe harbors, repairs versus improvements, accelerated depreciation, partial asset disposition, and 1031 like-kind exchange. From there we discuss various rental considerations like passive activity losses, short-term rental loophole, real estate professional status, and material participation including what time counts, and what time doesn’t count.

Finally, the good stuff! Rental property tax deductions such as travel, meals, automobiles, interest tracing, home office and common expenses. Fun!

WCG has a team of real estate CPAs ready to assist you with your rental property and real estate investments. Very few tax professionals and CPA firms specialize in real estate to provide you solid consultation, tax planning including tax reduction strategies, and tax return preparation.

Similar to our first book, I Just Got A Rental, What Do I Do? is written with the general rental property owner in mind. Too many resources tell you the general rule but don’t bother to back it up with Internal Revenue Code, Treasury Regulations and Tax Court cases. Our book lays it all out, explains the madness, adds some humor and various conundrums.

We encourage you to visit our website for more information, how to purchase and periodic updates-

wcginc.com/book

WCG CPAs & Advisors
2393 Flying Horse Club Drive, Colorado Springs CO 80921

719-387-9800 office

support@wcginc.com

By Jason Watson, CPA
Posted Sunday, December 29, 2024

This book originally was a collection of Knowledge Base articles that were written to help small business owners. The unintended benefit was helping our own small business, WCG CPAs & Advisors, grow and thrive through educational marketing. As we turn towards 2025, we have 6 partners and over 80 tax and accounting professionals.

Since you probably paid some money for the privilege of being bombarded with shameless self-promotion, we hope you take our comments with a grain of salt (and perhaps some tequila and lime to go with the salt). Our primary focus is to-

• educate you,

• minimize your tax consequence,

• maximize your wealth and

• keep you out of trouble.

If you read this, arm yourself with knowledge and then ask pointed questions of your current accountant and other professionals, we are completely happy. We have done our job with this book.

Having said that, if you want WCG’s assistance in whatever capacity necessary, from quick second opinions to full-time service, we are also happy to provide that. Want more information? The Epilogue in the back of this book has all kinds of continued self-promotion and supportive material.

By Jason Watson, CPA
Posted Sunday, December 29, 2024

The information materials and opinions contained on the WCG CPAs & Advisors website and in this book are for general information purposes only, are not intended to constitute legal or other professional advice and should not be relied on or treated as a substitute for specific advice relevant to particular circumstances.

WCG Inc. and Jason Watson make no warranties, representations or undertakings about any of the content of our website and this book (including, without limitation, any as to the quality, accuracy, completeness or fitness for any particular purpose of such content), or any content of any other website referred to or accessed by hyperlinks through our website and this book. Although we make reasonable efforts to update the information on our site and this book, we make no representations, warranties or guarantees, whether express or implied, that the content on our site is accurate, complete or up to date.

Please contact us for additional information or seek the advice of other professionals as it pertains to your unique situation.

By Jason Watson, CPA
Posted Sunday, December 29, 2024

The tax law is continuously changing from the acts of our government, from the decisions by the Tax Court and Federal courts, and through notices and private letter rulings from the IRS. In addition to changes, other topics of interest pop up in various trade journals such as Journal of Accountancy, Tax Adviser and Kiplinger’s Tax Letter. As we discover other issues concerning LLCs, S Corporations and self-employment taxes, we want to get the word out right away.

More importantly, the frequent business consultations we perform and the questions we field provide a steady stream of new ideas that are worthy of being wormed into this book. So here’s to you- the curious small business owner helping others.

More importantly, the frequent business consultations we perform and the questions we field provide a steady stream of new ideas that are worthy of being wormed into this book. So, here’s to you- the intellectually curious small business owner helping others.

Currently this book is our 2025 Edition and includes little tweaks here and there. Nothing too crazy like we had the last two editions- between the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 and COVID, there were plenty! One of the biggest changes to the paperback version is the removal of the two chapters for Section 199A and the Qualified Business Income deduction. The book was getting too darn thick like Ms. Riley’s glasses in My Cousin Vinnie.

We encourage you to visit our website for information on updates-

wcginc.com/book

In addition, please check out our blog from time to time for discussion of current tax issues-

wcginc.com/blog

Note: As much as we attempt to update our book periodically throughout the year, our blog posts allow us to provide more frequent updates. We encourage you to visit. We are a tax and consultation firm first, and a book-writing firm second; we kindly ask for some patience.

By Jason Watson, CPA
Posted Sunday, December 29, 2024

Jason Watson is a Senior Partner for WCG CPAs & Advisors, a progressive tax, accounting and consultation firm located in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He has owned two small businesses in the past and holds both a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin – Madison.

Aside from carrying the one in accounting class, his desire is speaking with small business owners and creating a dynamic map for the future. Jason enjoys talking about business planning, corporate structures (for elegance and efficiency), S Corp vs LLC concepts, self-employment taxes, health insurance issues and retirement planning. He is quick to point out that while 70% of all situations can be covered with the basics, every business and person is truly unique. One of his Jason-isms is “every house has four walls and a roof, but inside, the things that are personal to you, are different than your neighbor’s.”

Ask a question and have a dry erase board handy, and you’ll see the true passion of a person who not only wants to educate but also wants to see small business owners thrive. While this book on LLCs and S Corporations can be labeled as shameless self-promotion, it truly came from Jason’s heart to help small business owners everywhere. And No! He doesn’t unnecessarily complicate things; while complication is great cocktail party fodder, most often it is the illusion of precision.

Other than sharing a beer with other Colorado Springs CPAs and drooling on the latest IRS Publication, Jason likes dirt biking, boating in Wisconsin, watching the Packers own the Bears (it never gets old), and running trails in Colorado.

Lastly and most importantly, he is a father of three mostly good adult children and is married to WCG’s founder and Senior Partner, Tina Watson, CPA.

You can contact Jason at 719-428-3261 (direct) or jason@wcginc.com

By Jason Watson, CPA
Posted Wednesday, October 18, 2023

* Start of Section 199A qualified business income phaseout for small business owners.

By Jason Watson, CPA
Posted Wednesday, October 18, 2023

* Start of Section 199A qualified business income phaseout for small business owners.