Friday Apr 01, 2022

Attention Entrepreneurs: Payroll and Taxes with Charles Read

“Anytime you get a letter from the IRS, answer it, and if you don't understand what they're saying, ask for clarification.” Charles Read

In today’s episode, we welcome Charles Read to the podcast. He is the author of three books including Starting a New Business, Small Business Short Course, and the Little Black Book of The Beauty Biz. Charles has also written numerous articles and blogs throughout the years. He is a licensed CPA, and he has held Series 7 in Series 66 securities licenses. Charles has 50 years of financial leadership and experience.

Today Charles talks to me about how he was able to successfully start and run his business, and also provides tips on how to deal with payroll and taxes.

Listen in!

After the military, I found out my military experience wasn't valued by business, so I went and got my credentials then went to work in corporate world for about 15 years.
Over 30 years ago, my wife Ruth and I, started our business and I'm still running it today.
I was working as COO for Financial Express, which was a franchise organization which we bought in 1991.
We later just changed the name and then got rid of the mobile aspect of it and kept going.
10 years ago, I sold the accounting side of the business to my partner who wanted more autonomy, and I kept the payroll.
We're now in exclusively a payroll provider providing services all across the US, to small and medium sized businesses.
Our biggest unique selling proposition is compliance, and we help our clients stay compliant.
Our clients outsource their payroll issues to our company because we are the experts with the most experience and knowledge.
I tell clients not to talk to the IRS themselves, because it's personal and will likely upset them and make them do things they shouldn't.
The first call from our clients doesn’t cost anything, and that's the nice thing about us as compared to our competitors.
My book titled The Little Black Book of the Beauty Biz is about all the back-office things that relate to the accounting and payroll.
70% of all US businesses misclassify employees one way or the other
There are some huge advantages to being an independent contractor and it is important for people to learn all these things about deductibility.
You can legally deduct anything that is business related whether you have a receipt or not, you just may not be able to prove on an audit but that doesn't mean it's illegal.
The IRS cannot penalize you for a simple mistake.
Anytime you get a letter from the IRS, answer it, and if you don't understand what they're saying, ask for clarification.
Send everything certified so that you can be able to prove you sent it when necessary.
One of the tips as we are approaching April is to make sure that if you've got stimulus payments, they get reported because they are not free, they are a part of your refund up front.