No fluff in this newsletter. We're walking through genuine moves that save actual money. S Corp elections. Depreciation strategies. Retirement accounts. Those are real tools. And they work. But only when the foundation under them is solid. This issue covers that foundation. Three pieces of content that fit together: entity selection, proactive bookkeeping, and what lazy tax planning actually looks like. Read them as a set and the picture gets clearer.
NEW ON THE BLOG
One of the first questions we get from new business owners is a deceptively simple one: "How do I pay myself?" The answer depends almost entirely on how your business is structured. Sole proprietor. S Corp. Partnership. Multi-member LLC. Each one has different rules, different tax implications, and different consequences for getting it wrong. The entity decision is not something you revisit every year. But it is one that follows you for a long time if you get it wrong up front. In our latest article, we walk through the entity selection conversation and what it means for how you take money out of your business, including the tax math behind each structure.
Read: How to Pay Yourself as a Business Owner →
FROM THE BLOG
Here's the thing about entity selection and tax planning: They only work when your books are right. You can't model the S Corp vs. sole proprietor decision without clean financial data. You can't catch a runaway insurance premium for a terminated employee if nobody's actually looking at your books month to month. That's what proactive accounting does. It keeps someone looking.
Covered in this post:
A terminated employee still enrolled in company health insurance, quietly costing the business every month. Sales tax filed to the wrong Louisiana parish, with the difference coming out of the owner's pocket. Subscriptions nobody cancelled after someone left the team. None of these are complicated to catch. All of them are expensive when nobody's paying attention. This is exactly the kind of foundation that has to be in place before any strategy conversation is worth having.
Read: 3 Ways Proactive Accounting Saves You Money →
WATCH + READ
Once the foundation is in place, it's time to talk strategy. And that's where the mistakes tend to start. The two most common tax planning moves we see? Buying equipment just for the write-off, spending a dollar to save forty cents. And defaulting to an S Corp election without running the actual numbers. Both moves feel smart. Both come from well-meaning advisors. And both represent what I call lazy tax planning.
On the S Corp: It is practically a default recommendation in the industry. But an S Corp comes with real overhead: payroll processing, additional filings, compliance requirements. If the self-employment tax savings do not outweigh that structure's cost, you have just made your life more complicated for no gain. The analysis has to come before the election.
Marcus walks through both mistakes in full, including the math. Watch the video or read the full article below. Watch: Don't Default to S Corp
These three pieces connect. Entity selection determines how you are structured. Proactive accounting keeps your books clean enough to make real decisions. And understanding what lazy tax planning looks like means you will not fall for generic advice when planning season comes around. That is the foundation we are always talking about. Once it is in place, the strategy part gets a lot easier.
Marcus Mire, CPA
MireGroup CPAs | Lafayette, Louisiana
P.S. If someone told you to elect S Corp status because "everyone does it," ask them to show you the comparison. The math should lead the decision, not the default.
P.P.S. More on these topics on the MireGroup YouTube channel. Subscribe so you do not miss it. Watch here.
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