Gwennetta Wright With Xpert Tax Service LLC

Speaker1: [00:00:04] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for Atlanta Business Radio, brought to you by on pay. Atlanta’s new standard in payroll. Now, here’s your host.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:25] Lee Kantor here another episode of Atlanta Business Radio. And this is going to be a good one. But before we get started, it’s important to thank our sponsor on pay. Without them, we couldn’t be sharing these important stories. Today on Atlanta Business Radio, we have Gwennetta Wright with Xpert Tax Service. Welcome.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:00:45] How are you?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:45] I am doing well. I’m so excited to learn what you’re up to, especially this time of year. It’s so important. Tell us a little bit about expert tax service. How are you serving folks?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:00:54] So it’s for a test or. Thank you first for having me on. It’s Express Service is a tax preparation company where we help individuals and small business owners that are single member LLCs and sole proprietors save money when filing their tax.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:11] Now, what’s your back story? Have you always been involved in this line of work?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:01:15] I’ve been doing it for a long time now. I’ve actually been doing it for 19 years this year and business for the last 17. So I’ve been doing it for quite some time now.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:28] Now, what is it about kind of this this line of work serving the business community when it comes to taxes that is so important to you? Why did you get involved in this line of work with taxes?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:01:41] This is very important for me because I think as even individuals, but especially small business owners, we take the lack of what taxes and how it affects our lives very likely. As a business owner, it’s very important for you to know, like your bottom line when you’re operating your business and how your taxes up that that. So for me it’s just important that I get out the education not just preparing taxes for people, but making sure they’re educated about their specific tax situation so that they’re not faced with getting leaves on their homes on so much to the IRS and then not knowing what to do.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:24] Now, have you always specialized in helping business people?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:02:28] Yes, I have. I have a passion for business people because I’m a business owner myself, and when I first started in business, I didn’t have anyone to really educate me really on business or on my taxes. You see so many like celebrities, influencers going to jail or facing tax issues because the lack of education. So for me, it’s very important for small business owners to understand their taxes.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:55] Now we’re in January, the end of January. Is there something that I should be doing right now that can help me with my taxes?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:03:03] Well, as a anybody, like an individual or small business, you should be gathering your documents. I say make a list of everything that you have going on last year that could affect you tax wise and make sure that before you go, try to file your taxes, that you have all your tax documents so that way you don’t have any issues later on because you love something. I’ll also for like my small business owners, definitely start crunching your numbers. If you have not kept up with your bookkeeping as far as what you have coming in each month and what you had going out each month, start gathering those numbers so that you are taking advantage of all the deductions that you can take as as a business owner and as an individual.

Lee Kantor: [00:03:49] Now, is it too late for me right now to make any moves or do I still have time to do certain things?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:03:56] It’s really kind of too late for the 2022 tax season, but it’s never too late to be preparing for next year. So one thing is for like individuals that have just start, you know, check your withholdings. What I’m seeing a lot of in tax season has just started is with a lot of individuals not paying no money in taxes. And what that is causing is for a lot of people to end up only when they possibly then want to or they might they might want it more money in their check. But they’re not just getting more money in their check. It’s causing them to. Oh, so start checking your withholdings so that you are prepared for the next upcoming tax season and you’re not faced with that issue.

Lee Kantor: [00:04:44] Now, How do you help the the people that you know how so many people nowadays they have a bunch of side hustles and they might have money coming in from all different places. You know, maybe they have an Etsy shop or maybe, you know, some people pay them through Venmo. How do you keep track of all that stuff?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:05:02] So well, a lot of those vendors like Etsy and Venmo, of course, you can write reports for them at the at the beginning of the year monthly to see what their transactions are as far as what you brought in. So again, it goes back to when I said like making a list because we do have a lot of people that. They sell products and they sell on different platforms. So keep in mind all the places you sold something or you did business somewhere and then go into each one, run a report from January 1st, 20, 22 to December 31st, 2022, and get your total for each one of those platforms.

Lee Kantor: [00:05:46] Now, is there something that you when you were working with your clients that you see all the time where you’re like, Man, if they would have done this one thing, this could have saved them so much, either money or time. Is there anything that you see over and over from folks that if they would just make a couple little changes, it would make their life so much easier?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:06:06] The funniest thing is pay your taxes. That will make your life so much easier. The worst part of it is, of course, nobody wants to pay taxes. We don’t want to give our money to the government. I mean, that’s who wants to do that, right? But if you go ahead and pay it, then you save yourself time and and heartache and anxiety at the beginning of the year when you’re scared now that you got to face a tax bill. And that’s for, again, individuals and small business owners, because ill employees, if you’re an employee and you’re allowing them to go ahead and take what they’re going to take out during the year, then you’re not worrying about whether you’re going to face a tax bill at the beginning of the year. And now you’ve got to own the risk. And same thing for small business owners and small business owners. We a lot of educated to know that you are responsible for your own tax bill. In order for you to take care of that, you have to pay your taxes quarterly. So go ahead and put some money into to your taxes. Nobody wants to do it. But guess what? The government is going to get their money regardless if you pay it now or later. So save yourself some heartache and just go ahead and let them get it now.

Lee Kantor: [00:07:20] Now, was there anything because of COVID? Is there was there opportunities for folks that they could take advantage this year or not?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:07:31] Now, that’s the sad part about this year. So the sad part about this year is the fact that the last two years we have had so many. Credits that have benefited both individuals and small business due to COVID. And unfortunately, in 2020, to this up, this tax is a lot of those credits have went away and people are seeing way smaller refunds than they have seen in the past two years. So that’s why it’s going to be important for you now to be looking at ways that you possibly could, you know, help increase your future taxes, because this year, unexpectedly, people are not going to be used to how they reduced all the different credits that they have been getting due to COVID for the last two years. So refunds are actually smaller than they have been in the last two years. But, you know, it is what it is.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:33] Right? I mean, it couldn’t go on forever. Right?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:08:36] Right. It can go on forever. And the boat has stopped. But, you know, so now you have to be careful.

Lee Kantor: [00:08:44] So if somebody wants to work with you, is it like can they just show up at your door with a box full of receipts and documents and then you you just fix everything for them? Or is it something where if you want to work with you and your team, that they you know, it requires regular check ins and keeping you up to date, maybe sharing their QuickBooks or whatever service they’re using with you so you can kind of help them along the line.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:09:13] So for me, I do take walk ins, but if you come with a shoe box and you want us to go through your documents, you know that’s going to be additional fee because it’s really your responsibility to keep up with your bookkeeping and have someone to do your bookkeeping during the year. But we will assist if you have not been able to do that. We do take walk ins, we prefer appointments and we also have virtual services. So it doesn’t matter where you’re living, you can submit your information to us via our website at W WW expert tax services dot com and it’s spelled with Asperger’s spelled with the X and you know the only thing that we require is making sure that you have your documents and all the information that you’re going to need for us to prepare your taxes.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:02] So if, if somebody needed help with bookkeeping and keeping track of that, you have a service that can help them with that along the way. So that way it makes their taxes pretty easy at the end of the year.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:10:13] No, we don’t actually do bookkeeping at my particular company, but we do have some partners that we can refer them to that can assist them in their bookkeeping for the year. But if you have not kept up with your books for the years, then we’re able to assist you to try to get your numbers together for you for this particular tax season. By you either share again your QuickBooks sign in or your bank statements will go in and we’ll reconstruct and pluck your numbers for you so that you can have the most accurate tax return possible.

Lee Kantor: [00:10:48] Now, it’s important for business owners to be more proactive, right? Like the you shouldn’t be just showing up with a big pile of papers and then hope to make a move. If you if you have a partner with your tax service, you should be able to have them help you decide, Hey, maybe you should buy this, or maybe you should start an account over here. This is a better way to spend this money, right? Like you want to be their partner.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:11:13] All right? So we want to make sure that there they are in order. And we do consult you and do sessions with you as far as helping you to do it, if you need to do it yourself. I actually offer a money planner for small business owners that can help them keep up with their income and expenses monthly, yearly and daily. So I do offer that and then we do assist in helping them get someone to help them and making sure that they are keeping up with the information. We just don’t do ongoing bookkeeping specifically at my company.

Lee Kantor: [00:11:54] Right. But you. But it makes everybody’s life easier if they have that organized.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:11:59] Correct. It definitely will.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:01] And it probably saves you money in the long run because you don’t have to have somebody just going through all that paperwork. Right. So you’re doing a little bit each month. It’s a lot easier than doing a big pile once a year.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:12:13] Yes. And that’s that’s what I’m an advocate for, making sure that people definitely keep up with their their books monthly instead of waiting till the beginning of the year.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:23] So now what’s your favorite part of the job?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:12:27] That at one more time.

Lee Kantor: [00:12:28] What’s your favorite part of the job?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:12:31] Oh, my favorite part of the job is educating people and making sure that they understand, again, their taxes. I understand their business, understand their bottom line, and to put them in a position to win in their business. I also love when I have the opportunity to introduce different things to my clients and that can help them in saving money when it’s time to come to their taxes.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:00] So now, is there a story you can share of you working with a client that you help them get to a new level?

Gwennetta Wright: [00:13:09] Well, I can share a story with you in reference to clients who maybe, you know, had a small business and they had issues with the IRS and they was audited. And I was able to successfully, successfully make sure they walk away with not on the IRS anything and being able to make sure that there was they was able to represent their business and their finances to the IRS where they walked away with $0 owing them. And my go ahead.

Lee Kantor: [00:13:43] And that’s that’s why it’s important to partner with an expert like yourself. Right. Because you can’t just go to QuickBooks or, you know, TurboTax and get this kind of help. You need a professional.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:13:58] Exactly. And that’s the that’s the thing you said. Or then, you know, it’s very important for you to understand the tax laws. The computer can do anything. You can patent anything on a computer. But is you putting the correct information based off the law? And unfortunately, a lot of people don’t understand that, because when the IRS comes knocking at your door, you can’t say, oh, what? Turbotax told me that I supposed to get the credit because you’re actually responsible for what’s on your documents. So it’s very important for you to hire a tax professional so that you understand what the laws are and what you are entitled to when it comes to filing your taxes.

Lee Kantor: [00:14:40] So if somebody wants to learn more, have a more substantive conversation with you or somebody on your team one more time, that website.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:14:48] They can go to w w w x expert tax services with the s on the n dot com and experts start with the x and not an e. You also can follow us on social media. I do a tax talk weekly because like I said, I love educating people about their tax situation. So I do a tax talk weekly during tax season on my Facebook expert chat service.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:13] Good stuff. Well, thank you so much for sharing your story today. You’re doing such important work and we appreciate you.

Gwennetta Wright: [00:15:19] Thank you so much. And I appreciate you having me. I appreciate you having me. Thank you so much.

Lee Kantor: [00:15:24] All right. This is Lee Kantor. We’ll see you all next time on Atlanta Business Radio.