The James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan - Talking to Lauren Thiel (the JDFMCP accountant)

Episode Date: July 14, 2022

Lauren Thiel is my accountant, and also the official accountant for the James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan. She's also a comedienne and burlesque dancer. I don't know how many accountancy/comedy/burlesque triple threats there are in the world, but it can't be more than fifteen.If you work in a creative industry and are looking for an accountant, I highly recommend working with Lauren at 'The Real Thiel': https://www.therealthiel.comJoin the James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan Patreon for bonus episodes and merch: https://www.patreon.com/jdfmccann Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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Be the first to know what's going on and what that means for you and for Canadians. This situation has changed very quickly. Helping make sense of the world when it matters most. Stay in the know. CBC News. Hello and welcome to this very special episode of the James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran Plan. I'm speaking to my accountant in this episode, Lauren Teal. She runs the Real Teal Accountancy Agency. There'll be a link in the description for this episode.

If you're a creative person, or even if you're just looking for a creative accountant, well I shouldn't say that. No, creative accountancy means something else I think. Well a creative person who is an accountant, hit up Lauren. She's great. She's really helped me understand a lot of the things I'm doing with money, some of which I'm enacting. It's hard to remember to take a photo of every single thing. Now, here is the conversation with Lauren Teal. Last, yes, last time we tried to record this chat, we, neither one of us I think is especially technical. No, we've got many special talents and none of them are tech. None involve effectively recording a podcast. So this time we're recording it on a number of different channels. Yes. Will you please, Lauren, introduce yourself to the people of the Catamaran Plan, say what you do and why you're passionate about it.

Oh yes, absolutely. I am Lauren Teal and I run an accounting firm called The Real Teal, which is a hilarious play on words because I'm also a comedian and I'm very excited about joining you on this catamaran. and I'm very excited about joining you on this catamaran. It's great. Hey, it's great to have you back for the second time for a conversation that will be virtually the same as the first time but expedited because I know the areas to hit. We can do it quick. Yeah. We can be in and out, and I know the areas last time

that you told me not to talk about too much because that's the sort of accounting that can get people in a lot of trouble and so we won't talk about any of that we're just talking about all the above board accounting things there's a little pun for you now are you the only comedian burlesque accountant that you know of the only one i know of yes i'm sure there are others but and of all your clients do i earn the least money i cannot disclose this okay but it's a tough competition it'll be lower quartile that's what i'm hoping it's a tough comp in the arts yeah you've been very helpful to me in the arts with figuring out how i'm moving

ahead but now with the catamaran plan so just a quick describer and an update it's a podcast all about making enough money to buy a boat. So we're looking at getting $500,000 as swiftly as possible. At the moment, the bank balance is actually around $4,000. I'm buying an ad, which I understand is claimable. I can claim the ad on tax. Yes, you actually can claim that. That would go under advertising expenses to promote your business well the more

we advertise the more we can grow the more money we can have and exactly this is one of the joys of the podcast so we are doing that so we've got a few thousand dollars at the moment what i what i would like for um for the energy of it for the impressiveness of it, and for I expect ease is at the moment this is being done under my ABN. Yes. Or an ABN that has me on it. Yes. Some of it actually might be being done under an ABN with me and my wife. Yes, as a partnership.

As a partnership, the things that she's doing as well and helping out. She's a wonderful help and assistant in the project but in time i think we've got to move towards a company yes i feel like there's a few reasons that you might restructure um so sole trader is probably fine right now and this is all totally individual you know general not advice advice don't listen to anything sorry so we should say so none of this podcast counts as financial advice for anybody including me yeah okay great so now that that's out of the way none of this is advice however so just totally disregard but now please give me some financial advice. Someone in a similar boat, pun intended. Oh, hello.

To you would be thinking, you know, at this level, maybe sole trade is a really good place to start. And often we start getting into business in that structure. And then in time, for different reasons, you might look at a different entity like a company. There's a couple of different reasons why for you it could be you know asset protection it could be like you know there's more liabilities that you or bigger risks that you're taking with something like this especially when you buy the boat but there's also

potential tax minimization things that you can do when you're in a group. So, and all above board, obviously, we're not talking about getting out of tax. We're just talking about paying the tax we have to pay, but not a dollar more. Not being overly generous with it, not volunteering to pay more tax than we are obligated to pay. So we want to do that at some point, but how, so how big, so let's say, so I know $75,000 per year,

you start being involved with things like GST. Yeah. Is that also a good realm to look at? Like if we're grossing $75,000 a year, you know, and profiting, say, $50,000 a year, let's say we're having a truly remarkable amount of profit. Say we're making $50,000 a year, grossing $75,000 a year let's say we're having a truly remarkable amount of profit say we're making fifty thousand dollars a year grossing seventy five thousand dollars here is that a realm where with this project as you understand it it might be someone with a hypothetical project like mine

so you're not giving me financial advice that might be worth setting up a company at that point or maybe sooner or maybe later i feel like that's when we would have the conversations about it in more depth um for sure so at that point you kind of you've got a bit of a proven track record you know your trajectory you know where you're going um and we could at least like then set out you know is it we're going to register it right now or are we going to register it in 12 months like we probably it's on the horizon you you know, we can see it. So many great sailing metaphors here. We're in depth. Everything is above board.

Things are on the horizon. I love it. I'm all about it. All right. So we don't want to pay tax more than we have to. No. And so we want to claim everything that we can legally. Yes.

And the program, I just want to confirm confirm it's called zero with an x yes is the program that if i have a company you would recommend i have to start keeping track of expenses correct so we as our firm where you just kind of made a rule that we'll only work with companies that are using zero only because it's a bigger deal right so like with a company it's a bit of a bigger deal there's more governance it's looked after by asic who like they expect a lot more accuracy they expect like more reporting so we're going to have more scrutiny the bigger we get and the more money that's coming in towards this boat we've got to be ready for the government to try and destroy us that's right towards this boat we've got to be ready for the government to try and destroy us that's right hopefully not but no but we've got to be ready zero is going to make sure that what you're

telling me in the numbers i have many enemies i can trust and they may try and use the tax system to bring us down we don't want any enemies um well the enemies exist there's nothing we can do about the enemies we just got to protect ourselves as best we can from the ATO. You know, Al Capone, they got them on taxes. The ATO are not our enemies. They are lovely if they're listening. Wonderful people. Love them.

No, but what if enemies infiltrate the ATO? Political enemies. That's true. So let's look at some of the things we can claim. So advertising for the boat podcast, that's a tick. Yeah. So when we look at expenses, you can claim business expenses that have a nexus, a connection to the earning of the business income.

So if you don't have a business and you don't have any business income, you probably are going to be a bit more limited. But some things that they're, you know up costs that's fine but nexus is sort of a vague yeah so a cheese platter after a long hard day making a podcast no okay none of it what okay but a what about a cheese platter while with a recording a podcast with a guest probably not still so what happens here i'll explain is there are there's sort of like two overarching rules one is did you incur this expense in relation to earning income and you'd be like yep but b yeah is it specifically not allowed and there is a rule that says entertainment is not allowed. It's not allowed.

Entertainment is basically anything fun and delicious. So food is entertainment? Yeah, like that's not technically the ATO definition. I mean, obviously I can't have a dancer here. But, all right, so entertainment is specifically not allowed. You could probably provide like sandwiches as sustenance for lunch for staff on the boat. But you can't like claim for taking people out for a big boozy dinner. It's that kind of separation.

Isn't that what business is all about? It's going out for big boozy lunches and claiming that. Yeah, it used to be. I think everyone stuffed it up and went too hard in the 80s or something so they changed the rules well it's hugely disappointing i know frankly i agree i was not aware i thought i could do that yeah so alcohol alcohol's on the out like if i'm an alcoholic and i need to drink to make the podcast which is not necessarily true but let's say yeah i i can't claim the alcohol that would no nor can

you claim the cost of therapy to help you with that unfortunately really i say yeah i i can't claim the alcohol that would no nor can you claim the cost of therapy to help you with that unfortunately really i know i know i didn't write the rules what about a gym membership so that i look good while i do it no if you became a catamaran influencer model okay and your body was part of your business maybe but it's we're in the gray we're in the gray area i like this i like that that sounds good okay what about clothing so for things that i you know like a uniform yes i would call it a uniform because in you know certainly other areas of my life i'm not walking around in a resplendent captain's outfit with some beautiful boat shoes and a captain's you could probably claim for your captain's outfit if it is a like a uniform with a logo or it's in your job description like your employment contract that you need a costume

what if i said a costume for like live shows if it's a performance yeah so oh okay now if i'm having a beer on stage as a part of the performance Does that come back into it? Entertainment again no Oh I'm entertaining the people Alright You can claim for the outfit but not the beer So how about over this financial year Because I'll set up the zero

I think that would be a good thing to do And I will just try and claim absolutely everything But then we'll go through it at the end I think that would be a good thing to do. Yeah. And I will just try and claim absolutely everything. Uh-huh. But then we'll go through it at the end. Yeah. And we'll see what we can and can't claim. It's a good way.

It's a good strategy. So what you do is you use the business card, right? That business bank account for anything you think might be related to the business that you think might be deductible. And then you hire me, your tax accountant, and I go, lol, no, James, you can't have that. So I should have a business bank account. I shouldn't just have a piece of paper with how much of the money is meant for the podcast and all the money swishes around together. Yeah, we want to have a separate bank account for the podcast. Okay.

And does that have to be linked to an ABN or I can just go to a bank account? No, because you are a sole trader at the moment. It's just you, really. Like the bank might want it to be a special business bank account, but from a tax perspective, we don't care. Wow. And, you know, I'm just thinking, because we have a podcast, maybe I could interview different banks and see if anyone will sponsor me

and then I'll give them my business i don't i'm just saying i'm just i like i like you thinking i like i'm having some ideas now as a financial advisor slash accountant slash not a financial advisor but okay good say inflation this is since last we spoke i mean to have yet another nautical metaphor for lifeboats, inflation is happening. So I have like $4,000, but that money is getting more worthless as time goes on. So it's starting to become an amount of money where I think, well, should I invest that somewhere? Should I buy some gold bars or something so that if we do have an economic collapse, we don't lose all the money? Is that something you're qualified to speak on or advise or not give advice over i have lots of opinions on but i'm not allowed to share them however one um a you could talk to a financial advisor i think

it's a good idea um to chat about where the best place is to put your money um one thing to think about is that investing in yourself and your business is an investment as well true so we just keep doubling down personally i invested in my own business and i've made far more doing that than i ever would have doing it anywhere else but yes that's not always the case so so we are saving for the boat at the moment but we should be cautious i think what i'm hearing about you know just like like better to, if that money is going to be worthless in the future, better to plow that back into the company and go a high growth model. I think what is a good way to look at it is be conscious with where you're investing the money. Yep.

And make the most of what you do have. Okay, because usually I love an unconscious investment. I love to have four or five beers and find a dog that has a good energy and pay that it'll invest that that dog will run very fast around it. Yes. I'm sure you could find a financial advisor that would agree with that. However, I'm not sure they'd still have their license so no i understand i understand you've made a good point um all right now look i think because

we've blitzed we're blitzing it this time we're going through because we've spoken about some of this before what do i what do what do you think the big mistakes that people make when they're starting out in a business like this, you know, sort of an entertainment business? What should I not do? Oh, good one. So I think some of the best advice I could give is like build yourself a bit of a structure and habit early on. So things like having a separate bank account for the business, having your and you're already doing a really good job of like building the brand of this thing and like knowing what your goal is for this business a lot of people kind of run around with their eyes closed just hoping for the best whereas you're seeking out advice and you're investing into this business with your time

and your energy and your money um and then I think like putting the effort into how am I going to generate income out of this? Because if you don't have any income, arguably, or like no plan to have any income, that's probably more a hobby and you're not going to get any deductions. We are exclusively looking for income. Yeah.

We're looking for income at all times. Yes. And, you for income at all times. Yes. And, you know, at some point employees and, you know, big growth. But the faster we grow, the more exciting and the better things happen. Wonderful advice. I wanted to just outline because I'm not sure of the answer I got on this last time. So I don't profit personally yeah right i'm we're getting the boat arguably don't even want the boat you know i is it i feel

called to have the boat i feel um it is a requirement in my life i'm being told who know i'm right going to detail but i i have to go and get the boat. But it's not something that I, you know, I wouldn't call it like a personal enjoyment that I'm looking for. So in a sense, is this a charity, you know? And registering as a charity would have to pay no taxes. Or could I quickly reverse engineer something charitable that I could do with the boat, like giving poor children a ride on a boat once a year or volunteering my nautical services for the Make-A-Wish Foundation,

could that liberate us from tax obligations? Knowing what this is for, I don't believe it is a not-for-profit entity. So a charity is an organization where they're primarily setting out for philanthropic or social well-being. Just because you've been called to do this fabulous activity. Thank you. Does not mean that it is for those reasons. And there's quite a, as there should be, quite a lengthy process to go through to become a registered charity. So what I would recommend is that you start this thing as a business because at the moment that is what it is. And while you don't feel like it's for you ultimately the profit of the business is yours it's generating income it's generating a profit hopefully right and that's

kind of its goal yeah however if in 12 24 however many months the strategy changes and all of a sudden it's somehow for you know um marine biology research rather than for entertainment and events or and who knows if that it will happen i'm not sure off the top of my head what your charitable cause might be but if something was to come up you could maybe have another arm of it that is a charity or you could change the structure then. But I think at this point in time, you're a for-profit and we want to see you generate a profit. All right. So for the time being, we're paying tax, but we're claiming what we can. We're keeping it in-house in terms of we're not setting up a company yet.

Not yet, but probably one day. When we start making, and I'm going'm gonna because at the moment we're making i think it's like uh you know we'd be making like uh well on the live show and the page show we might be making like uh on a good month we we now might be the point where we make like five hundred dollars a month you know so good such a good start but so what So what is 75,000 divided by 12? That is like about 6,000 a month. So once we are clipping, you know, that $1,500 a week income, then we touch base again. Yeah.

And we go next level. That's the next account in chat. So this is account level one discussion. Yes. And then once we're making like $2,000 a week, I'll come back to you. Yep. And I'll say, hey. Perfect.

It's time for us to kick this up a little. Exactly. Yep. You keep us in the loop and we are here whenever you need. And then we can help you with this, like the setup of all this systems, the software, get you in the right structure, come help you pick a boat, organise a boat party, whatever you need. It's going to be great.

I appreciate that. You're great at what you do and I want people to go out. The real teal, and you spell that, is it T-H-I-E-L? Yes, perfect. Get out there. Creative people. We'll put a link in the description for this episode. If you're in the arts, this episode if you're in the

arts or even if you're not and you need an account uh you've done right by me before you're doing right by me now and i really hope this recording has worked because i feel it's been a good recording and i need to all right now let's with full care and attention, I'm going to end the recording on my end. Okay. And you let me know when that can be sent through. Okay, here we go. All right, here we go. Thank you.

Thank you. If you have enjoyed this conversation with Lauren Teal, hit up Lauren Teal, The Real Teal Accounting. She'll be able to help you. And if you've enjoyed the sort of me section, well, you might like to subscribe to the James Donald Forbes McCann Catamaran plan. Or if you've already subscribed and you'd like to do even more, you can contribute to my financial journey to boat ownership by joining the Patreon. There's a bonus episode every week and lots of, you know, really,

there's good stuff. All right. Thank you so much for listening. There'll be a new episode next Monday. Have a good one, everybody. Catamaran ho.