Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Linda Jensen, Principal and Owner of Heart Financial Group Discussing New Website Loweryourtaxestoday.com

Episode Date: April 8, 2024

Linda has been self-employed for her entire life. A successful financial advisor since 1994, she has enjoyed all aspects of entrepreneurship, especially problem-solving, sizing up dilemmas, and working through complexities with creative solutions. She is a lifelong learner. In addition, she has a passion for establishing a good rapport with business owners and clients helping them access a wide range of resources. “Business owners are in a lonely place,” says Linda. “I want to develop a relationship with the business owner, offer counseling and serve as a referral service.” Linda began her career in 1994 with Prudential Preferred Financial Services; for three years Linda was an agency leader in Tacoma, Washington.Since starting her own firm in 1997, Linda has enjoyed working with individuals and business owners helping them achieve their financial dreams and goals. She is an expert in all aspects of retirement planning.Linda has lectured widely on financial topics to both the general public and business professionals. She is passionate about helping business owners leverage corporate cash to create benefits for the owner(s), and key employee(s) and to identify estate-planning solutions.Linda calls the Pacific Northwest home. She married her college sweetheart. She and her husband Brad have two children and five grandchildren. Linda loves learning, reading, hiking, sewing, and cooking.Learn More:https://www.heartfinancialgroup.com/https://www.LowerYourTaxesToday.comInvestment advisory services are offered through WealthWatch Advisors, an SEC registered investment advisor. Wealth Watch Advisors and Heart Financial Group are independent of one another. Please note that the registration with the SEC does not guarantee the success of investment advice.Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-linda-jensen-principal-and-owner-of-heart-financial-group-discussing-new-website-loweryourtaxestoday-com

Welcome to influential entrepreneurs, bringing you interviews with elite business leaders and experts, sharing tips and strategies for elevating your business to the next level. Here's your host, Mike Saunders. Hello and welcome to this episode of Influential Entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us Linda Jensen, whose principal and owner of Hart Financial Group and will be talking about her new website, Lower Your Taxes Today.com. Linda, welcome back to the program. Thanks so much, Mike. Hey, so I want to talk about this because I think that anyone that hears the word taxes,

they get the pit in their stomach. But then when you're talking about lowering your taxes, now we're talking. We want to hear about how to lower your taxes. So what is the overview, the overall benefit of this new website and new service that you're providing to business owners? Well, Mike, we're all about increasing the profitability and the valuation of businesses. and the main emphasis is through tax strategies. It can actually lower taxes.

I'm really excited about this new website because what we have done is compiled all of these strategies into one website. And we've outlined just the basics of a whole lot of strategies. You know, I think that when you hear a whole lot of strategies, people go, oh, I'm going to get confused. So is it something where a business owner can come to and understand, you know, let me tell you a little bit about my business, and then you can tell me some of the top strategies to focus on.

Exactly. And so at the top of the website, the very top is a video of me, only taking a couple of minutes to give you the highlights. Right underneath that are three graphics that rotate. One is about a wellness program where we can save $5 to $600 of payroll taxes for every employee every year. We can lower workers' comp and medical insurance premiums. provide benefits paid for by the government. That's one strategy. The next one that rolls through

is about capital gains tax. And so capital gains tax is going to be paid on the sale of a business or highly appreciative real estate. And we have several strategies in that space to basically eliminate capital gains taxes. The third one that's highlighted is for businesses that are privately held, have at least a dozen non-related employees. And the owners are paying a minimum of 500,000 in taxes, and we can reduce their taxes, Mike, by 80%. Wow. Like literally, um, the taxes that a business would pay, you know, throughout the year, you're just able to find a little bit here, a little bit there, but it's totaling up to

80%. Exactly. That's a pretty substantial discount. It's a very substantial discount. And most businesses in that space are paying taxes monthly. So we can actually start to eliminate those taxes the next month after we implement the program. And by the way, because they're doing like, you know, they're sending money to the IRS every month. But if they now know that they don't need to send as much, that increases cash flow to their business immediately.

Absolutely. And the wellness program where we can save payroll taxes, you know, this is, this is not a big burden for the business because folks actually come out and enroll the employees. And so we're really excited about launching this website because, to be honest, Mike, I don't think there's another website in the U.S. that outlines so many tax strategies in one spot. Yeah. So when you hear about, you know, big reductions like this, what is the sweet spot for a business listening to this to go, would this work for me? Meaning, what if it's a solopreneur? Would all of these work for solopreneurs? Maybe, maybe not.

What if you have 437 employees? Oh, well, it only helps if you have this many employees. What is that sweet spot that is going to be the most beneficial? Okay, on the wellness program for payroll taxes or FICA taxes, we need a minimum of 50 employees to make that work. For the strategy to save 80% of income taxes for businesses that are paying at least 500,000 in income taxes annually. we need at least a dozen non-related employees. For the capital gains tax strategy, there's none of those requirements. It'll depend on actually the parameters of what the business is doing,

what the basis is for the sale, what the capital gains tax would normally have to be. So we have to go through kind of a feasibility study to be able to make a recommendation to that business owner on the capital gains tax side. But Mike, depending on the situation, we can get those taxes, the fee, down to as little as 1% and the business owners will not pay the taxes and the airs won't either. So for the capital gains tax strategy, that absolutely depends on this specific situation. You know, and when you start hearing, you know, percent and 1% and 80%, you know, that sounds wonderful, but where the rubber meets the road is in the example of like the 500,000 annually.

Obviously, a business can, you know, make three million, but let's just use that 500,000. The savings there is like $400,000 in savings. So my question would be if you've got that much money of an increased cash flow, at that point, now the business is going, what do we do with this? Yeah, well, you know, that's where we're also helping. helping with that planning because, you know, everybody's situation is different, Mike. There's no cookie cutters for this type of planning. Every business is a little different spot.

And so we customize the plans and we're providing options to clients. And I will tell you, I think the number one Bernie question to anybody listening to this is, is it legal? That's really, you know, that's really, that's really at the heart of this. And I will tell you, I have been licensed for 30 years. I have never had one complaint for any recommendation. that I've ever made. And what our audience needs to understand is every one of these strategies is actually

based off the IRS code. And IRS code means that, you know, you've got something where you can kind of rely on the fact that this isn't someone's crazy hairbrained idea. This is allowable. Yeah. And we defend it because every one of our clients, we offer audit protection. and the auto protection we're offering is actually by a firm that the IRS hired to fight businesses that were using abusive tax strategies. They worked with the service for 12 years and had 100% track record in prosecuting those businesses.

And this particular firm is providing our auto protection for our clients. So we stand by everything that we are outlining. That's pretty huge. So if someone is going, okay, you're pointing to the tax code, you're showing me where it is in the tax code that this is allowable. And then you guys have the legal background to make sure that if there was a question, that the business owner wouldn't have to fend for themselves with the IRS, that someone in your team would be able to help them answer and respond to that. Right. Yeah, we've had lots of audits over the years. Every one of them have resulted in no changes. and no additional taxes paid by our clients. Wow. You know, one thing you mentioned, too, about medical or benefits, this benefits the business owner,

but also would there be some trickle-down benefits to the employees? So as the owner is going to their team and saying, hey, we've made some changes, and here's where you guys are going to benefit from. Is that something that is also part of the equation? Well, yes, I would think, you know, if there's tax savings, that allows the business owners maybe to increase salaries for some of the employees.

And the wellness program actually provides benefits paid for by the government. So the business is not writing that check. And one of those benefits is permanent life insurance, meaning that's cash value life insurance for that employee, which is really an enormous benefit. Yeah, that's, well, and I think that's something that a lot of times people don't realize is if it's something that is being provided by the, the employer and its extra coverage for the employee, that gives them some job satisfaction

so that maybe even the work being done for the business is going to improve as well. So there's all kinds of facets of benefit, right? That's right, Mike. And I will tell you a couple other quick things here is that businesses that work with us, if they employ all these strategies, what we're typically seeing is their profits doubling within two years. Wow. So obviously this is not overnight.

This takes a minute or two. It takes some time. You've got the track record and the legal and the precedent to show that this is compliant with IRS. That's excellent. What if a business, what I would ask is if a business is listening to this going, how would this benefit me? Is there some type of an assessment? Like I know you mentioned some things on your website, but where would they start to be able to go, okay, you're just totally fine. in this area. There's no opportunity here, but in these several areas would be where there would

be some opportunity. What would that look like there as tools on your website? Yeah, well, you know, I think, you know, first of all, the website is lower your taxes today.com. You're going to see these three main strategies highlighted at the top. If you scroll down, you're going to see an awful lot of content there, just quick paragraphs on these different strategies. And Mike, I also didn't get into R&D tax credits. So that's an area where a lot of businesses are actually qualifying for tax credits and they don't understand that. And then there's some accounting measures also. And that if you scroll down, we have some risk assessment tools that I think are very helpful for a business. One is a business barometer where the business can actually get a score and then understand

how well they're doing or it'll kind of assess what sort of assistance will be beneficial for them. there's a business valuation snapshot tool estate planning. There's different tools on the website as well and some information about exit planning. So would you recommend that a business go through each of those assessment tools, get the report and then see what is available to them? Well, you know, I would say sometimes it's easier just with a quick phone call. So we offer the ability to schedule an appointment on the website. And, you know, for a lot of businesses, we can have a conversation that's maybe 15, 20 minutes to see if they're a candidate for something we could do that could save them tax dollars. Yeah.

I think that would be a lot quicker than trying to go through the assessment tools personally. Yeah, that's a good point because it's nice to know they're there. But if you can have someone to hold your hand and guide you through the process, then that sometimes is so much more clear. that way they know they're doing the right thing. So that's awesome. So let's get back to R&D tax credits. I think that that's interesting because certainly there's some businesses that go, I don't do R&D.

What are some of the cases that you've worked with where someone thought that they wouldn't qualify and yet they actually did? Well, I will tell you, even a dentist office could qualify usually. The way this works is pretty broad. obviously manufacturing, technology, software, you know, there's a lot of businesses that would qualify. And, you know, if somebody connected with me, we could have a quick conversation and I could email them details and they would understand if they're going to qualify. So we take our clients through a process, Mike, to see, you know, what strategies would work for them, how they would implement it, how they would benefit. What we'd love to do is show them basically, this is what we're.

where you are, and this is where you could be if we helped you, and we outlined those savings. And how complicated would it be? Because I know that business owners might hear this and see, that's fine and good. I understand the, it's legal and it's compliant to the tax code. But is this going to take me, you know, eight hours a day for the next three months to try to wade through? No. Well, the wellness program, like I said, I back to have an appointment tomorrow with the business. They have 600 employees. Mike. Just the payroll tax savings is $300,000 a year, every year. Just the payroll tax savings, right? And so we have a meeting tomorrow with the owner and the CFO. And if they decide to go forward,

it's really a simple process where we'll have the enrollers go out and sign them up and get started. Now, for the income tax savings, that's a little bit more complicated because then we're usually involving, you know, know, their CPA, obviously their CFO. We want to do a feasibility study. It's a very complete analysis of their taxes that will outline their benefits. But then when it comes to implementation, it really isn't taking much time. We're doing the heavy lifting. On the capital gains tax side, again, it's understanding that particular situation, all the parameters and the factors. And then we just take it from there. So I would say that the tax savings far outweighed. the investment of some time and energy.

Yeah, and especially if you have someone that's walking you through the process asking, okay, here's the next step, here's the next step. You know, I also see one of the sections on workers' comp, and I know that for businesses, that can be a massive expense. What are the types of opportunities that are there to save on workers' comp? Yeah, so for workers' comp, part of the wellness program is to save as much as 50%. and then for a medical insurance premiums as much as 20%. And then in addition to the benefits paid for by the government, Mike,

we also have some added benefits for the employees. So they've got the employees have more support. And none of these are paid for by the employer. So they're really a nice value add. And I think today businesses have found it tough to keep really good employees. So all this is tied into helping them, you know, hire the business. best and keep those employees on the payroll. Yeah.

And, you know, that's a really big piece that I think a lot of people are going to, they're going to fully understand it once it sinks in. But if you have people that are more happy at their job, they're not looking to leave. Well, if they do put in their two weeks notice, that means that they've been thinking about leaving for months and months and months. So how much has production or work quality gone down in that time frame? And then if they do leave, then there's the HR nightmare and then there's the actual cost of finding the next person. So there's a huge dollar figure that would be assigned to when people leave.

So if a business owner is doing these kinds of things to make the employee happier at work, all of a sudden, it is going to have a trickle down effect to the business and the deliverables, even to their customers and clients. Yeah, absolutely, Mike. It's all really tied together. I mean, and these strategies, by the way, have a 20-plus year track record. So these are not recent things. And over the years, my partners have actually, we've saved over $3.5 billion in taxes. That's a big number. Yeah.

And I would suspect you mentioned exit planning, so we'll wrap up with this thought. with all of this kind of filling in the gaps and making sure nothing's falling through the cracks and lowering taxes and all of these things that we're talking about, that's going to polish up how a business looks on their books. So talk a little bit about what position that puts the business in when they're thinking of valuing and selling or moving on or whatever regarding exit planning. Well, these strategies help increase the business profits, the business valuation, and the multiple for when they will actually sell that business, Mike. And so it's really very much all tied together. And exit planning, I think every business should really think about exit planning anyway

because things come up. You know, if you've got a partner, a partner could die. Unfortunately, you know, a business owner could become disabled. There's just so many things that could happen. And so I think having, you know, a plan in place is important. A lot of businesses have partners, they've created buy-sell agreements, for example, and they haven't funded those buy-sell agreements. And so having these tax strategies and having the reduction in taxes can actually help on that front as well. You know, that it's almost like, you know, oh, we probably won't ever need that until you do, until the time comes that we actually do need it. And then you mentioned funding it. Well, if you have to scramble around and try to.

try to find how to fund a buy sale agreement because some emergency happened, that's not a good, that's not a good position to be in. No, it isn't. Well, Linda, I'll tell you,

it's really powerful to hear some of these, um, opportunities that businesses have and you've put them all in one spot on one, uh, website. I think that is just spectacular. What's the best way that someone can then learn more about these and then also reach out and connect with you.

Well, I would say to go to the website, it's lower your taxes today.com. And yeah, you connect with us through there. You can schedule a quick appointment to see if you're a candidate for us to help you. Well, Linda, thank you so much. It's been a real pleasure chatting with you, and I really appreciate you coming back on the show. Thank you so much, Mike. You've been listening to Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saunders to learn more about

the resources mentioned on today's show or listen to past episodes. Visit www. www. Influential Entrepreneursradio.com.