Medical professionals like doctors, physician’s assistants, nurses, dentists, chiropractors and technicians: Attention! This blog is especially for you. In fact, we think you will profit from our entire upcoming series of blogs which highlight our skills as medical tax accountants. Gavrilov & Co is dedicated to helping our Covid-19 healthcare heroes with their financial and tax strategies.
Last fall at Gavrilov & Co, we began to respond to the voices of medical professionals who demanded more fiscal assistance than simply seasonal tax assistance. We could not help every doctor in fiscal trouble, but we helped many of you in the healthcare industry in 2019.
This year we pledge once again to care for the caregivers with large doses of financial and tax wisdom.
COVID-19 and Kudos for Physicians
Also last year, in spite of our special training in accounting for healthcare professionals, we were amazed at the complexity of physicians’ financial lives. We confess, we asked, “What more could possibly complicate the bookkeeping for medical offices?”
You guessed it. Then COVID-19 struck. It further obscured the taxation, savings and financial practices of medical professionals.
Gavrilov & Co is proud to announce that we have sharpened and updated our skills in medical accounting and tax strategies. We know our tax planning and business advice will save doctors and healthcare professionals both dollars and stress.
We are often asked about the most important accounting lesson never taught in med school. Read on to discover the surprising answer.
The Most Important Accounting Lesson for Medical Professionals
Gavrilov & Co wishes to recognize the valor and energy of our healthcare workers’ fight against COVID-19. We also feel there has never been a more important time to encourage you to learn about the business end of your medical career.
That is what we do. So our most important basic accounting lesson for healthcare professionals is to reach out and get expert help in managing tax planning, business endeavors and accounting strategies.
As we have said previously, “Many physicians are too exhausted, too busy or too in debt to pay attention to their fiscal lives. What’s more, most doctors have not had much financial training. At Gavrilov & Co, we are here to help.
Lesson Number One: It is No Weakness to Reach Out to a Specialist
We know, we cannot teach you volumes about your fiscal life in a few blogs. However, as you read our financial tips, our goal is to encourage you to seek assistance in strategizing your taxes and finances.
Just like the specialists who help diagnose patients’ problems, we are here to diagnose and treat physician’s fiscal problems. The most essential lesson is that you learn a little about personal finances. We urge you to accept some strategic tax and business planning advice before your “case” becomes critical.
Lesson Number Two: Medical Professionals: We Watch Your Fiscal Heartbeat
Medical professionals teach us to watch our hearts with a healthy lifestyle. Likewise we must advise you not wait until the tax deadline to start tax and financial strategies.
In the physical world, that would be like waiting for a cardiac incident before becoming aware of the value of diet and exercise.
(Oh, wait, people actually do that, don’t they? Well, likewise, some people, many in the medical field, also neglect their fiscal health–until they have a serious financial setback.)
At the famed medical resource, Kevin MD, we find we agree with their discussion of the duties of a tax coach. They say, “Tax planning starts as early as January and continues throughout the year. The sooner you start putting the dozens of ideas into action, the sooner you’ll put money into your pocket.”
And that is our second lesson. We are not like the tax man you see once-a-year. Tax planning takes place over weeks, months and even years. We focus our eyes on short-range as well as long-range financial goals.
Proactive Planning for Your Money and Your Life
Many accountants will tell doctors and medical professionals that taxes are their largest expense in business. Likewise, such accountants often add that there is no cure for this condition. They say, “Just accept it; pay that giant tax bill and move on.”
We disagree. We are your proactive tax planners. As such, we help you plan for the big picture. Time is on our side if we want to be proactive.
The Key to this concept, if you are a healthcare professional, is that you can save money on your taxes. It only requires that you put plans and strategies in place long before the approach of your tax deadlines.
A Taste of Tax Treatments for Your Fiscal Health
We all learn from examples. Melanie Kramer-Harrington who is a family physician and is on the advisory board, Physician Tax Solutions, LLC. She gives us a couple of good ones.
- Her accounting expert, she said, “helped me renegotiate my W-2 contract last year with my hospital to become an independent contractor…” The wisdom behind this plan was that she kept “all my most important benefits (and allowed me to replace some of them with better ones).
- Then her accounting expert “created a strategic tax blueprint with specific recommendations…” She set up “a couple of LLCs. One was an S corporation to provide medical services and the other a C corporation to provide consulting/management services.” Why create two, you might ask?
- She explained, that each type of LLC “had certain tax strategies and benefits that allowed me to take advantage of deductions and loopholes under the tax law that helped me pay a lot less tax.”
Terrific Take A Ways for Medical Professionals
The above examples might not fit your plans for financial success. However, you might never know if you do not try to be proactive in planning your fiscal health and taxation. And to do that, your challenge is to make financial plans and tax strategies throughout the year, not just during tax season.
As always, Gavrilov & Co thanks you for visiting this blog. We hope you return for our next blog when we bring you an informative list of physicians’ favorite deductions, and more tax-planning prescriptions.