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Welcome to the Commission Queen podcast. Commission queen is for women real estate agents that are craving success and want to do things differently. We talk all things manifesting money, and of course, real estate. I'm your host, Bekkah, Marie. And just like you, I'm a real estate agent, I went from struggling to get clients to making over six figures consistently, while working 15 hours or less each week. And now I coach women like you on how to do the same. Listen for real life examples and tips in every episode on how to massively increase your income and find your freedom with ease. You're here because you're ready to change your life, your business and your financial status. So let's do it. Hello, hello, Queens, welcome to another episode of the commission Queen Podcast. Today is a little bit different of a topic. I want to talk about taxes, tax season is here, it's upon us Tax Day is coming up. And I think it's important to talk about, especially for realtors, because we have a lot of options with our taxes as independent contractors or LLCs, or wherever you are. And I just want to encourage you to do your own research. And let you know I am not at all a tax professional, this is not professional tax advice. This is just what's helped me I want to talk about it. So that you start to think about it so that it does get you on the path of research. Throughout your life taxes are going to be your number one expense, more than anything else, you are going to spend the majority of your money on taxes, and it's something that we cannot avoid. So I believe it's so important to know what to do know your tax laws, and really use them to your advantage. And I say that in a very, like follow the law, do the thing that's legal. But make sure you know what the laws are so that you can follow them correctly, and save the most money that you are legally able to say. So this is going to be a quick little episode of some tax tips that have really helped me over the years. Tip number one, do the taxes and do the taxes on time. Don't just avoid it. Every year I talked to agents about you know, are you getting your taxes in, and I would say 90% of the agents I talked to are like Oh no, I'm gonna file an extension, and then pay later on. And there are always fees involved in that. And so I just think, Why pay for all the fees, and just get it done. So the first thing is, getting it done on time is going to be just something simple, but you're going to save on those fees, you don't have to extend it. And plus, that just prolongs your having to think about and do the taxes. So it saves you the stress as well. Tip number two, get a tax professional, like a CPA, somebody that really really knows the taxes, unless you feel so confident doing your taxes, and you absolutely love it and you feel so prepared in knowing all of the laws and all of the deductions, get someone to help you, at least for the first couple of years. So they can give you an idea of certain deductions that you may be missing. Even if it costs you a little bit extra, this is going to be so big for you in the long run because you can save so much money if they tell you deductions you may not even be thinking about you want to have somebody that will go through all of the expenses that they see and are able to say hey, I don't see your cell phone on this or I don't see blah, blah, blah, you know, pointing out some things that they see are missing, that could be deducted when you have a deduction it's able to be taken off of your gross income to create your net income and you pay your taxes on your net income. So if you have little to no expenses that you're putting in, you're having to pay tax on that full amount of income or a large portion of the income. So you want to make sure you are getting every single tax deduction possible for you you know that his legal and I see a lot of questions around should I get LLC as realtor should I get incorporated and having a CPA in your corner around tax time or all year round? is so good because they are the person that you want to ask that question to the answer isn't super black and white for realtors that
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yes, you should get incorporated or whatever. I know I okay again, not a tax person. But I know that it has to do with your income level. So if you hit a certain threshold, like six figures or beyond, it may make sense to get incorporated for the greatest tax savings. And again, all of these things are things that you can ask a CPA and get the best possible answer for you. Tip number three is to either get a software that makes it super easy for you to do your profit and loss to track your expenses. Or get a bookkeeping service, a bookkeeper that will track everything for you, and categorize everything. So at the end of the year, it's so simple and so easy for you to just give your tax person, your profit loss and all of your expenses all itemized throughout the year, if you've hit that six figure or beyond mark, it would definitely help you to get a bookkeeping service or bookkeeper. If you're below that, getting some sort of service like QuickBooks, or I really loved into it, I n t you it as an app. It's like a QuickBooks app where you can do everything, hook all of your credit cards up to eight bank accounts. And you basically like swipe left for business and right for personal. And so it's kind of fun in that way. And it's super easy as you can do that every week or every month to keep all of your expenses organized. I think that app is about $15 a month right now. And it also tracks your driving. So it'll track your mileage, and you can upload your receipts, makes it super, super organized and really easy. If you want to get even more scrappy than that, if you want to just do it completely yourself and not have to pay for anything, create some sort of spreadsheet, so that you're able to easily do that every single month, it'll help if you can do it every week. But even if you do it every month, just make sure that you're keeping up with it, so that you're not having to do it all at once. Tip number four is to read up on the tax laws. So even if you do get a CPA, don't just rely on them and what they tell you to do. You want to do your own research, and know what the things are that you can do to get more deductions, there are some awesome books that help with tax deductions and just organizing your money. Three that I would recommend is one is called tax free wealth, make sure you're getting the most up to date version, because tax laws are always changing. So make sure you're getting the most up to date version of all of these. So there's tax free wealth, right off almost everything or anything, and profit. First, those three books are so good for understanding how to organize your money and knowing what to write off. They have great tips in there like how to write off a home office and what to write off for the home office,
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how to have different deductions if you are contributing to an IRA or an HSA and different investment vehicles. And if you have kids, what can you do to pay them and write that off? What kind of travel can you write off? All of these little things? It's so important for you to do your own research. And then you'll at least know what questions to ask your CPA even Profit First is a great book for talking about, you know, opening different accounts so that you have an account where you keep money that you're saving for taxes. So when tax time comes and you have to pay money in that you're not wondering like oh, shoot now how am I going to get this money, that you set that money aside and you don't touch it until tax time comes? Tip number five, get an investment property. Okay, this is just a biased opinion. But I think real estate, especially as a realtor, can truly help you build wealth, get an investment property for you and your family. Whether it be a long term investment for long term renters, a flipped property, or having short term rentals having Airbnb. Find out the tax laws around that, especially as a realtor, what you can write off in those things, and how it helps you with tax savings. I can't explain all of it in this short little episode. But there are so many reasons why wealthy people have real estate investments and a big part of it is the different tax laws around real estate investments, you're able to have that tax savings, which is sometimes even greater than getting cash flow on the property. So yes, having that cash flow for a rental investment is great, but also having the tax savings at the end of the year will help You even more, do your research on that and find out what I'm talking about and see if it's the right move for you. Last thing is a bonus tip. As Realtors we very often have to pay into taxes every year or you know pay or quarterly taxes or whatever it is. And that can feel a little heavy. And knowing that that's a big payment that you have to pay. But just when you're seeing the amount that you have to pay, or when you are actually paying that amount to the government, give gratitude for it, because that means that you made money, especially if it's a big amount that you're having to pay and you're like, oh my gosh, what the heck, that means you made a lot of money and give gratitude for that, that you are one able to make that money and to be able to pay that money. Don't hold yourself back from making more money just because you're afraid to have a bigger tax payment. Be grateful that you can make that money and pay that money. Remember, money is abundant. And there is more where that came from so that money is always going to be coming back and recirculating to you. And by the way, one of my favorite things about being a realtor being an independent contractor where you are able to have these different tax deductions as a business owner is being able to tax deduct becoming the best version of you. So you are able to use coaching or courses and things that are helping you learn and grow in your business as a tax deduction. So that is also just a little bonus tip. That's my favorite thing and you are able to tax deduct anything that is helping your business grow. Again, I am not a tax professional and always consult your own tax professional. These are just a few tips that have helped me over the years to feel confident when tax time came around. screenshot this episode and tag me at commission clean and let me know what help gratitude and abundance Queens thank you so much for joining me today. If you love this episode, hit that subscribe button and share a review I so appreciate every one of you. If you're not already following me on social media, you can find me at commission clean and go to commission clean.com To browse products and get more free content
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
