The Schulte and Company Difference
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At other accounting firms once your tax return is filed it is never re-visited unless the IRS comes calling. That isn’t how we do things.
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Every year we identify items that may have been missed during busy season, conditions that may lead to future IRS audits and/or opportunities to save more taxes. These after-care items generally are conditions that could apply to multiple clients’ tax returns.
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We data-mine every tax return we previously completed that year to see if any of the after-care items/conditions are present and in which tax returns. After identifying tax returns that meet the criteria, we then re-examine each of the identified tax returns to see if any follow-up activity is warranted.
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Examples of prior After-Care efforts include;
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Education Credits - Several years ago, colleges and universities stopped mailing Form 1098T (amounts paid for tuition and fees) and only published them in student portals. A prior year comparison showed that many clients with college age children had taken education credits in the prior year but not in the most recent year. We data-mined and identified the impacted clients, directed them to the student portals to obtain the 1098-T, and many client received an unexpected refund thanks to our after-care.
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Small Business Retirement Plans – The passage of SECURE Act 2.0 in 2022 resulted in the federal government subsiding both the administrative cost of new 401(k) plans as well as up to $1,000 per employee. Our data-mine of completed tax returns revealed businesses that potentially could benefit from this new law and subsidies. Further analysis of each potential business revealed that many of those businesses could implement a 401(k) plan and contribute to their employees’ pensions without any net cost of cash. Moreover, for several of these businesses, it was cash positive to start a retirement plan and fund their employee’s retirement; all on the government dime. Who wouldn’t pay their employees more if all the money came from the government?
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S-Corporation Owner Wages – The IRS has been cracking down on small business owners not paying themselves a reasonable wage and thereby subjecting themselves to incur FICA/Medicare taxes. To prevent future IRS audits, our data-mine identified clients with owners’ compensation below reasonable levels and we provided guidance to correct the issue before the IRS came calling.
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