Las Vegas Accounting Services - Business Planning

I want to take a minute to talk about Las Vegas accounting services that you receive from your CPA. Las Vegas CPAs often provide what we call "compliance services" such as: financial statements that are required for banks or other lending institutions, or tax returns which, of course, our government requires. But the accounting services that really mean the most to clients are those that aren't required, but that really add value to you and your life. Those services we call "value-added services".

And so when you're looking for a CPA and trying to decide how you're going to employ someone to do those things that have to be done (those compliance services) also find out from them if they have an interest in, or a history of, providing these "value-added services". These accounting services include: helping you plan for retirement, helping you look for ways out of your business, exit strategies, succession planning, those kinds of things, as well as how to take the money that you make in your business, in your life and retain it so that you can live the life that you like through your retirement years.

The important thing is to make sure that your accountant is offering you the services that are most important to you life. Keep this in mind the next time you meet with your CPA to discuss possible Las Vegas accounting services.

One of the biggest concerns that we have with our Las Vegas business consulting clients is, "How do I succession plan for my business?". In other words, 'How does the business owner build his business, grow it to a substantial size, and either have his children take over the business, have key employees take over the business, or just sell it to a third party?'. Business consulting in Las Vegas in an important first step, because typically it takes from 5 - 10 years to be able to transition the management, the style, and the culture that you developed in your business, as well as to make sure that the next generation wants to participate in the business in that way, or that there are key employees that have been trained and nurtured to operate the business and that they have been given sufficient control prior to you wanting to retire or transition out of the business completely.

Often times in Las Vegas it does take the management and the owner a few years where they may work closely with that replacement party (whether it by a child, or an employee, or even a third party). So they may have an employment contract for 2 or 3 years subsequent to the actual sale of the business. A successful business consulting plan is important because it provides for the continuing of the business, it allows the employees to feel secure and safe - that they have a job that will last for many many years, and it also allows the owner to feel good about the methods that he has used in preparing his business to meet the demands of the future.

One of the things my Las Vegas clients ask me often is, "How can you help me more with my tax planning?", and I think the best answer to that is "I need to talk to you". Whoever your Las Vegas CPA is, if you let them know what you're doing before March of the next year, they can often do a lot of things with entity structure, or just planning the deal to make it more tax efficient. Communication is the key with Las Vegas tax planning, but if you only talk to your CPA once a year, in March, you're missing the boat, and he or she isn't able to help you as much as they could.

For example: I had a client come to me once that was doing a land deal; they owned some land and they were going to build a building on it. And by talking with us, and letting us understand their particular tax situation, we were able to structure another entity, take the advantages between a partnership and a corporation, and capture most of that gain as long-term capital gain, instead of all as ordinary income. But it's one of those things that we couldn't have done if they had started construction and talked to us after the fact.

Make sure that your CPA understands your business and tax situation as early as possible. Give them any information that they might be able to use during the tax planning process, and make sure your Las Vegas accountant really gets to know your and your business.