Death and Taxes

Death and Taxes

Jeff Hobbs Jeff Hobbs

Jeff Hobbs

Published Apr 15, 2016
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Inevitable. Unavoidable. At least for many.

Death, yes, for all. Enjoy what God has blessed you with and share that with your family.

Taxes, no, not for all.

There are two camps for taxes; those who earn enough to pay and those who don’t. For those who earn enough, be grateful. Consider the alternative. Which camp would you rather reside in?

I’m guessing most, if not all, prefer to pay taxes since that implies you earned enough to owe them. Now, being a conservative, I don’t mind paying what I rightly owe. In fact, I celebrate the fact I live in a free country where I have the privilege of working in what I love and earning a good living doing it. That means I owe taxes. However, while I am grateful I earn enough to pay them; I don’t want to pay more than I legally should.

I own commercial property as, I am sure, many of you do. The IRS allows me to depreciate my commercial property to reduce the amount of taxes I owe. Raise your hands, all you who ask your CPA to help you pay as little in taxes as you can! You, me, we all do! Our CPA then goes about accelerating depreciation on those assets he knows qualifies. That would be assets like furniture, fixtures and equipment (FF&E). They qualify for 3-, 5- & 7-year depreciation periods.

However, did you know there are other assets that qualify? Building components such as dedicated electrical systems, specialized plumbing components, decorative items like lighting and wall treatments, carpet and vinyl flooring. There are assets outside that qualify too…like landscaping, parking lot and sidewalks, fencing, site lighting and more.

Those assets qualify for the same accelerated depreciation treatment as FF&E. The IRS says it requires those who have construction knowledge (architect or engineer) to identify those assets correctly so they can be depreciated over those short periods too. Would that reduce your taxes owed? Yes, it would. This process is called cost segregation. I recommend you consider it today.

So, be a good citizen of these great United States and pay the taxes you owe…but don’t pay too much! Learn about cost segregation and pay only what you should, but not more than you should.

Do it today! www.GetYourTaxRefund.us

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