In the dental profession the roles of the dental assistant versus the dental hygienist are pretty clear. However, to the average consumer of dental services there is very little distinction. In our industry, tax planning, we see the same blurred lines amongst consumers. When it comes to tax planning services the average consumer is often not aware that there is a clear distinction between the role of a tax planning specialist and a CPA/tax preparer.

First, let’s examine the definition of your CPA – an individual who has passed the uniform CPA examination administered by the American Institute Of Certified Public Accountants, and who has received state certification to practice accounting. The primary functions performed by CPAs relate to assurance services. In assurance services, also known as financial audit services, CPAs attest to the reasonableness of disclosures, the freedom from material misstatement, and the adherence to the applicable generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP) in financial statements.

There’s a myth floating around that Certified Public Accountants (CPAs) do tax planning.  However, the CPA exam does not focus on the topic of tax planning. For your average CPA, tax planning is an independent subject, removed from accounting, tax preparation, financial reporting, audits and consulting. But, the average consumer of tax services looks to the CPA/tax preparer for their tax planning needs. So, what is the difference between your CPA/tax preparing and a firm specialized in tax planning strategies that can help you save money on your taxes?

PJS Services, a partner of Financial Gravity, has staff trained, and certified, to use the tax code to help you save money on your taxes.  We have a proven and patented process to help save money on taxes that focuses on four key strategies for our clients that own a business and pay over $20,000 in taxes. We offer a free assessment that takes about 15 minutes. We can evaluate if you’re CPA/tax preparer is optimizing your tax savings, or if we can offer strategies that can save you money on your taxes.  Our process guarantees that we can save you over twice as much as the fee for our service or we will give you money back. Last year we averaged savings for our clients of 12x times their fee.

Remember, CPAs are generally not proactive tax planners. Typically they are bookkeepers and tax preparers. Their lack of proactive planning may be costing you money you could use for college tuition, or preparation for your retirement. On the other hand, PJS Services, a partner of Financial Gravity, are proactive tax planners with a proven track record of saving small and medium size business owners an average of $21,000 per year (year over year) in income taxes.

CPA really stand for “Public,” as in a publicly-traded company or the general “public”. Either way, the CPA designation was created to teach general accounting principles, not to help business owners lower their taxes. This is a critical distinction. CPAs are not traditionally trained to help you lower your taxes. They are trained to be accountants; they are number historians.

At PJS Services, LLC we use your most recent tax return to analyze and implement four primary tax planning strategies that have saved our clients on average $21,000 per year. We call this our Tax Blueprint. Then we work with your CPA, or we can work for you separately, to implement these strategies. Do you believe your CPA is saving you enough money on your taxes? If not, see if we can … all you have to do is take our free 15 minute assessment to start the process. We will either let you know your taxes are optimized, or we will recommend strategies in our Tax Blueprint to save you money.