SMALL BUSINESS FINANCE – Your Guide to Business Tax Planning & CPA Tax Advice

A year-end bonus can lower your S corp’s profit and still raise your total tax bill. So when does paying yourself more make sense?

Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, walks through a business-owning couple’s $30,000 salary adjustment. Learn how to review reasonable pay, count payroll taxes, and protect the cash your business needs in January.

This episode connects tax planning, business finance, and retirement dec...

A lower tax bill can still leave your business short on cash. In this episode of Small Business Finance, Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, walks through a hypothetical S corp example involving $67,000 in year-end decisions.

Using an assumed 30% rate, she shows how moving collections, paying eligible bills, and reimbursing business expenses could reduce this year’s estimated income tax by $20,100. That doesn’t me...

Are your kids helping in your business while you pay their spending money from your own pocket? You could be missing a chance for tax savings.

Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, explains how to pay family members for real work, set fair wages, and keep the right records. Learn why your business structure and your child’s age affect payroll taxes, how wages can support a Roth IRA, and why hiring your spouse has differen...

A full business bank account feels good. But your December cash decisions can affect your tax bill.

In this episode of Small Business Finance, Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, explains five year-end choices S corp owners should review: collecting invoices, paying bills, taking owner distributions, accepting customer advances, and reimbursing business expenses.

Follow an example showing how timing $67,000 in income and dedu...

Selling a rental could leave you with a bigger tax bill than you expect. A 1031 exchange may help you postpone that bill and keep more money invested, but the planning starts before closing.

Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, walks through Travis’s $400,000 rental sale and explains the deadlines, property rules, and cash decisions that shape an exchange. You’ll also hear why Kelly’s $30,000 withdrawal creat...

Can a rental property help you keep more money and qualify for a business loan? It depends on the full picture. In this episode of Small Business Finance, Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, explains how rental cash flow, depreciation, debt, and reserves work together. Through hypothetical examples featuring Dan and Joyce, you’ll learn why higher income doesn’t always lead to better loan terms, why a tax loss isn&...

Selling a rental for $100,000 more than you paid could create nearly $191,000 of taxable gain. How? Depreciation changes the math.

In this episode of Small Business Finance, Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, explains how rental deductions affect your tax bill when you sell. Follow two simple examples to see why similar sales can produce different results. Learn why 25% is a maximum rate, how cost segregation can change the ...

Could your health plan help you keep more of what you earn? Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, explains how an HSA can offer a deduction, tax-free growth, and federally tax-free spending on qualified medical care.

Learn who qualifies in 2026, how the family limits work, and what S corp owners need to get right. Two business-owner examples show how age, coverage, and reporting affect contributions.

You’ll also hear how ...

Tax worries can follow you home after a long workday. In this episode of Small Business Finance, Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, explains three mistakes that can hurt your cash flow: treating workers incorrectly, missing expense records, and falling behind on estimated tax payments.

Through simple teaching examples, you’ll learn why a contractor agreement doesn’t settle worker status, what records help support...

Already maxing out your 401(k) but still facing a large tax bill? Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, explains how a cash balance plan may help profitable business owners put much more toward retirement while reducing current taxable income.

Through two simple examples, learn why a bigger deduction also means a bigger cash commitment. Tiffany covers employee costs, funding duties, hiring plans, and what happens when business ...

You can pay your full tax balance in April and still owe an IRS underpayment penalty. The problem may be when you paid, not whether you had the money.

Tiffany Phillips, CPA and tax strategist, explains estimated tax safe harbors through two simple examples. Learn how to compare payment targets, check earlier shortfalls, and understand why December payroll withholding works differently from a late estimated payment.

You’ll als...

A tax problem does not always start with bad intentions. Sometimes it starts with messy records.

In this episode of Small Business Finance, Tiffany Phillips explains five recordkeeping problems business owners should clean up before year-end. You will learn how payment apps, cash deposits, mixed accounts, home office records, and contractor paperwork can create problems when the numbers do not match or the documentation is weak.

Ti...

You spent years building your business and saving for retirement. But a large pretax retirement account can create a tax problem later if you don’t plan how that money comes out.

In this episode, Tiffany Phillips explains how one business owner’s retirement tax plan created a projected $212,000 difference in taxes and Medicare surcharges. You’ll learn how required minimum distributions, Social Security taxes, IRMA...

A Solo 401K and SEP-IRA can look similar, but the tax savings can be very different.

In this episode, Tiffany explains why an S-corp owner's December payroll decisions can determine how much retirement contribution room remains for the year. You'll see how a $75,000 W-2 can create about $18,750 of employer-only contribution room or more than $43,000 when the employee and employer Solo four-oh-one-kay buckets are combined.

You'll al...

SHOW NOTES

A living trust can own your business and still leave your family unable to run it.

In this episode, Tiffany explains why your trust, operating agreement, buy-sell agreement, bank authority, insurance, and tax planning all need to work together.

You'll hear two real client examples showing how business owners can lose control, create valuation problems, or put an S corporation at risk even when they already have a trust.

...

Having a will doesn't mean your family will avoid probate.

In this episode, Tiffany Phillips explains how probate works, why a revocable living trust can help, and the funding mistake that can make even a well-written trust useless.

You'll learn what assets may pass outside probate, why business owners need to coordinate their LLC interests and accounts with their estate plan, and how poor planning can create major costs and delays...

The QBI deduction is permanent, but that does not mean every business owner automatically gets the full benefit.

In this episode, Tiffany Phillips explains how taxable income and W-2 wages can limit your Section 199A deduction and why Q4 tax planning matters. You'll follow a real-world example of an S corporation owner with about $300,000 in qualified business income and see how year-end decisions affected a potential $60,000 deduc...

You may already have capital gains this year, but that does not always mean the tax bill is locked in.

In this episode, Tiffany Phillips, CPA and Tax Strategist, breaks down how one client used tax-loss harvesting to offset $47,000 in capital gains before year-end.

You'll learn how the 61-day wash-sale window works, why automatic reinvestments can create problems, and how specific-lot identification can change your tax savings. Tif...

Your business can look successful and still be losing money.

In this episode, Tiffany Phillips, CPA and Tax Strategist, breaks down the accounting and finance basics every business owner should understand. You’ll learn what your income statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement actually tell you, and why revenue is not the same as profit.

Tiffany also explains cash versus accrual accounting, profit margins, break-even ...