#57 - MM - The tax man cometh

Hello, hello, hello. Happy Monday, guys. Hope you're geared up for an amazing week of being an independent used car dealer. Luke, the year is winding down. It's coming to an end. What do we need to have on our radar?

Man, I'll tell you, it is so crazy that this year is ending already.

I feel like we just left tax.

Season and, you know, and it's just, it's here. Yeah, it can be, it can be stressful if not done properly. And, you know, I put a lot of stress on myself at the end of the end of the year to make sure that we, we do what we need to do tax wise, because we can, throughout the year, create a ton of, of taxable income. And if we don't treat it properly, there's a, a big. Oh, that's going to happen in a couple months when we get that tax bill. So, you know, these last two months, the biggest thing that a car dealer can do is to play the tax game, right?

Yes. You need to get your accountant. You need to first get a good accountant. Right. And then get them on the phone and have some conversations.

That's number one. And we've seen so many people reach out on the Facebook group and talk about their accounting or their accountant and who should they use and this, that and other. And again, Jeff and I are not, we are not beholden to anybody on this podcast. We don't get paid by anybody to do this. We, you know, Jeff and I use Clifton Larson Allen, and we've had Dave Keller on here before. So go back and maybe check that episode out. And you know, here in the next couple days when we'll have a guy from hhm. Those are the two best people in the used car area, in my opinion. And if you guys aren't using one of those groups, you're probably leaving something on the table. Again, we've said this before. Don't let your buddy who's in your small town do your tax planning for our car business. It's a completely different business than most businesses.

Absolutely. And that's going to be our advice for you guys this week. Get your accountant on your calendar. Make a schedule, if you haven't already, sit down with them. Get, get a game plan for the last couple weeks and how you're going to tie out the year and try to reduce that tax burden that's coming.

Down the road that's so important. We've got, let's say, what do we have, 50 days to get this done? And a lot of these things can't be done after that 50th day, guys and girls, you got to make plans today. You got to stick to them. You've got to write off those bad accounts. You've got to reduce your, your inventory cost. You've got to do all these things. You got to write down those cars so at the end of the year, you're not paying more than you should. This is time value of money. It's a big deal and it could really put you in a bad position if you don't do it properly.

All right, guys, we will talk to you on Thursday.