Why You Need to Find the Right Tax Advisor Strength In Business

Are you struggling to find the right tax

advisor? You’ve worked with different accounting and tax advisors, you’ve

outsourced this task to bring it back in-house again after being let down by

different tax professionals and agencies and now you feel disappointed,

disillusioned and clueless where to start looking for the ‘perfect’ fit.







If you’ve been in business for a few years, you

know this is one of the most common problems small business owners face. If

you’re just starting out, fasten your seat belt and make sure you take some notes.







Not so long ago I wrote an article about the importance of having written contracts in place. Today I’d like to focus on another major hurdle for a lot of small business owners: accounting and taxes. More specifically, it’s about finding the right tax advisor.







You see, working with the wrong tax advisor

will not only cost you tons of money and energy but on top of everything, it

can lead to long-term damages that are directly correlated with negatively

affecting your reputation and brand.







On the other hand, you can have the world’s

best tax advisor on your team but if that person goes into the financial

playing game as an individual, not as a team AKA isn’t willing to work

hand-in-hand with your legal counsel (attorney) and the other players on the

team, you won’t succeed.







Remember, business is a team sports. Indeed,

putting together an amazing team is challenging but you need to strive for it,

if you’re playing to win.







Common Mistakes When Hiring a Tax Advisor and

How to Avoid Them







Honestly, I could write an entire book about

mistakes I made when hiring and working with accounting and tax advisors.







During my corporate career I had the

opportunity to work with one of the ‘Big Four’ accounting companies. Big 4

refers to the four largest accounting and auditing firms in the world. These

are Deloitte, PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Ernst & Young (EY) and KPMG.

These guys know the ins and outs of the game as they created the loops and

holes in the system. This is one of the major reasons why corporations and enterprises

prefer to work almost exclusively with one or more of the Big 4.







Therefore, if you have the necessary cash, you

might want to pick one of the above-mentioned accounting firms from the

beginning and avoid all the trouble that comes from working with smaller and

less sophisticated entities.







Below is a small sample of mistakes you might

encounter along with some practical advice from the trenches:







1. MISTAKES: Tax advisor doesn’t

understand your business; he/she applies single rules or a small set of rules

instead of the entire tax law to reduce your taxes; he/she cares more about

his/her paycheck than yours; hiring tax professionals who aren’t willing to

teach you the tax rules.







PRACTICAL ADVICE: Clarify priorities. Make sure he/she knows your specific situation and is fully

educated and committed to saving you the most taxes in accordance with the tax

law. This implies that your tax advisor invests time into getting to know and

understand your business while using creative strategies in applying the entire

law, not just a single rule of law in your favor.







2. MISTAKES: Hiring tax professionals

based on a handshake; hiring without proper understanding of how tax advisors

will charge you for their services; hiring based on recommenda...