The Tax Strategies Every Business Owner Should Know | Barbara Schreihans on The Crude Truth
Taxes don’t have to be overwhelming or expensive. In this episode of The Crude Truth, host Rey Treviño III sits down with tax strategist Barbara Schreihans to break down practical, legal strategies for reducing your tax bill and keeping more of what you earn.
From paying your kids and spouse through your business, to maximizing deductions, to leveraging oil & gas investments for significant tax benefits, Barbara explains how to think ahead, not just look back at last year’s returns. She also shares insights on the recently passed “One Big Beautiful Bill,” tax credits vs. deductions, and how to turn everyday expenses into legitimate business write-offs.
Whether you’re a business owner, investor, or high-income earner looking for smarter tax moves, this conversation is full of actionable takeaways you can apply right away.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Why the tax code is written for business owners
- The “Tax-Free Family” strategy for paying kids and spouses
- Board meetings, travel, and vehicle deductions—done right
- How oil & gas investments create massive first-year tax savings
- Key tax changes from the “One Big Beautiful Bill”
- The difference between tax credits and deductions
- Recordkeeping tips to stay audit-ready
Connect with Barbara:
Website: https://yourtaxcoach.com
Instagram: https://instagram.com/yourtaxcoach
Highlights of the Podcast
00:00 – Intro & Context
01:38 – Meet Barbara Schreihans
04:27 – Tax Code Written for Business Owners
06:10 – The “Tax-Free Family” Strategy
09:26 – Board Meetings & Travel Deductions
10:26 – Vehicle Write-Offs vs. Cash-Flow Investments
13:52 – Audit Rates
14:28 – Paying Kids – Any Age
16:53 – Oil & Gas Tax Benefits
19:47 – “One Big Beautiful Bill” – Key Tax Changes
23:12 – Tax Credits vs. Deductions
26:20 – Meals, Alcohol & Entertainment Write-Offs
30:58 – Recordkeeping Best Practices
33:55 – Working with Barbara’s Team
36:58 – Closing & Contact Info
Please reach out to Barbara Schreihans on LinkedIn
Check out StatusJet HERE
We want to thank our sponsors of THE CRUDE TRUTH.
The Tax Strategies Every Business Owner Should Know | Barbara Schreihans on The Crude Truth
Video Transcription edited for grammar. We disavow any errors unless they make us look better or smarter.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:00:00] Every year, your taxes are just harder and harder to do and more and more complicated. Don’t you just wish you had probably had a class and you hate to admit it back in school? Well, I talked to the expert today that can help you streamline and save on your taxes every year on this episode of The Crude Truth.
Narrator [00:00:20] In 1901, at Spindletop Hill near Beaumont, the future of Texas changed dramatically, as, like a fountain of fortune, thousands of barrels of oil burst from the earth towards the sky. Soon Detroit would be cranking out Model Ts by the millions, and America was on the move, thanks to the black gold being produced in Texas. Now more than a century later, the vehicles are different, but nothing else has truly changed. Sure there may be many other alternative energy sources like wind and solar and electric. But let’s be honest, America depends on oil and entrepreneurs, and if the USA is truly going to be independent, it has to know the crude truth.
Narrator [00:01:03] This episode is brought to you by LFS Chemistry. We are committed to being good stewards of the environment. We are providing the tools so you can be too. Nape Expo, where deals happen. Air Compressor Solutions. When everything is on the line, Air Compressed Solutions is the dependable choice to keep commercial business powered up. Sandstone Group. Exec Crue. Elevate your network, elevate your knowledge. Texas Star Alliance, Pecos Country Operating, fueling our future.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:01:38] Well, thank you again, as always, for tuning in to another episode of The Crude Truth. Today, as we gear up now, as head into the fall, the summer is over for some. We’re going into August, September, October, and we’re gearing up for the end of the year. People are really gonna start looking at their taxes. And I don’t know about you guys, but I do question why we have never been properly taught how to file our taxes or save on our taxes. And as a 41-year-old, that’s not a question that I was asking myself even at 29, but it’s just something that is so important that I’m thankful that I had individuals like my father, as some of y’all know in the watch in the past, that were very savvy on the taxes back in the day. And now today I brought on somebody that’s even more savvy, someone that actually does this professionally in a way that teaches individuals. Coaches individuals. Today I brought on your tax coach, Barbara Schreihans. Barbara, how are you?
Barbara Schreihans [00:02:43] I’m good, how’re you?
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:02:44] I am doing so well. Did I say the last name right?
Barbara Schreihans [00:02:47] Yeah, Schreihans.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:02:49] Schreihans. Oh my gosh. As you know, during our pre-production meeting, I was saying it over and over again to get it right. Barbara how are What are you doing?
Barbara Schreihans [00:02:58] Great, it’s extension tax deadline, so it’s a little crazy over here with everyone’s extended tax returns, but we’re doing it.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:03:08] Well, you know, I cannot thank you enough for your time to come on and do this episode. You have, as you just mentioned, you’ve been extremely busy and for real tax individuals like yourself, and I’m not trying to put anybody down as I say that, but you are busy 24 seven, 365 days a year. Obviously, you April 15th is what we all know, but for real investors and real business owners, it’s a 365 year. Sure. And individuals like you bring it out into the limelights where it’s not a chore, but it’s actually something that helps us in the long run. Barbara, for those out there that don’t know you and are not following you one, how can they follow you? And who are you?
Barbara Schreihans [00:03:55] Yeah, I like to hang out on Instagram the most. So if you like Instagram, just follow me at your tax coach. And I do drop daily tips and tricks on how to save money in taxes. So if just wanna know more about how to save money, follow me there. But yeah, I started in taxes 15 years ago. This is my 16th tax season, which is crazy to say. And I was just tired of working for big firms that didn’t actually save anyone money. And I wasn’t finding that anywhere in the workplace, so I just started my own firm six years ago.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:04:27] So now, explain to me that. Save people money on their taxes. Some people think it’s in just getting the certain credits or this or that, but what do you really mean when you say, hey, I’m going to save you money on your taxes?
Barbara Schreihans [00:04:44] Yeah, we’re tax strategists, which is so different than an accountant. Like an accountant is always looking back, like retroactively, whereas a strategist, we’re always being proactive and looking at the future so that we can save money for you now before the year is over. So typically we work with business owners and real estate investors because those are the easiest ways to save money in taxes. Now, obviously, oil and gas is also a great way to save. In people’s taxes as well. And we recommend that to our clients too. But typically we’re working with business owners because the tax code was written for business owners to save money in taxes. Otherwise, no one would own a business.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:05:24] Okay, could you say that one more time, please? The tax code was what?
Barbara Schreihans [00:05:30] The tax code was written for business owners. Otherwise, they wouldn’t want to own a business because it’s already hard enough to own the business. So the IRS has to incentivize business owners to be a business owner and to employ people. And so they do that through tax savings.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:05:46] Oh my gosh, I have never heard it said that way. I always thought it was just a great opportunity to build a company, but I’ve never heard it that way, that is awesome. So what is something out there that just a common misconception or a myth, just real quick, just kind of put you on the spot there that people always come to you with.
Barbara Schreihans [00:06:10] I always hate when people say like, oh, just pay your fair share of taxes. They think that means like don’t save money in taxes, but your fair share is actually taking all the deductions you’re entitled to as an investor or as a business owner. And so I’m here to tell you, you’re probably paying too much in taxes. Cause I’ve never seen in 15 years, I’ve ever seen a tax return. I couldn’t save someone more money on.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:06:35] Wow. Well, you know, and you, I can already tell that we can go so many different ways. The one thing I want to focus on right now is the family. Okay. That has been something that I have been hearing about now. And I’ve got a couple of individuals. In fact, one of them is a sponsor of the show. So shout out to LFS chemistry that they talk about how they’re able to. Bring in their family in some form or fashion into the business. Let’s dive into that and talking about how you can hire your family members for your work and save on your taxes.
Barbara Schreihans [00:07:13] Yeah, I call it a tax-free family, and I have a course that talks all about this, but I’m all about bringing in the people you love into your business, one, to teach them more about your business. Two, so that you have a better succession plan if you are passing on your business to your kids or other people that you love, but also to save money and taxes. And so I talk a lot about paying your kids. Through your business and this year in 2025, you can pay your kids $15,000 tax free and it’s a business deduction for your business. It’s tax free to them. And then hopefully you’re taking that 15K and investing it for them. Hopefully into a Roth IRA is what we love but you can only do 7K into a roth. So then you still have 8,000 to play with. And I also love when people bring in their spouse into their business. And there’s three different ways to do that. They could be a part owner, they could be an employee of the business, or they could a board member. And I love when they’re an employee of the the business because now you can double your retirement savings, you can travel together for business, you can buy another business vehicle, although don’t buy a vehicle if you don’t need it. We just talked about that. But I also love it because when you employ a spouse, you can now deduct all of your health and wellness deductions, which You might not think about your spending a lot of money on, but for example, you can now write off like your cold plunge and your sauna, a red light. If you need a hot tub because you have a hurt back, there’s just so many deductions you can take when you bring a spouse into your business. So there’s so many things you could do.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:08:48] So you recommend them coming in as an employee, not a co-owner or a board member. Is that where you get the most benefits?
Barbara Schreihans [00:08:56] So there’s perks and cons to all of them. When they’re part owner, you cannot deduct the medical expenses because the IRS doesn’t want to discriminate is what it’s called to owners. So they’d have to be an employee, but that’s the only difference there. As a board member, you’d only be able to deduct the travel related to a board meeting, which you could have a board meet anywhere, so that’s fine, but you wouldn’t be able to like deduct other perks like an employee would.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:09:26] Now also speaking of travel and things like that, if I’m correct, you’re able to like have one big business meeting of travel a year, somewhere different. Is that correct? For a business meeting?
Barbara Schreihans [00:09:37] Have as many as you want. But every entity is required to have at least one annual board meeting to make sure your entity is up to date with your state. It’s actually not an IRS requirement, it’s typically a state requirement. And so you want to at least have an annual board meeting and you’re probably like, well, I’m just a small business owner. I don’t have a board. You could just be the only board member. That’s fine. But I love when we bring in like Maybe your parents were in business and so they can advise you or your grandparents or your best friends. I have my best friend and her husband on my board because one, they’re business owners as well so they bring in a different perspective. But then also we can travel and make it a business deduction because we’re on each other’s boards. And so think about the people you love, trust and wanna travel with and add them to your board.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:10:26] Wow, I love that. You know, one thing we did talk about during the pre-production meeting was vehicles. And that when you see people, they’ll always buy, you know, especially I know with the oil and gas industry, vehicles are not going, they’re not getting cheaper first and foremost. Like that’s a whole other podcast, right? But three quarter ton pickup trucks these days are a hundred thousand dollars. And you get people every year that say, oh, that’s a tax write-off, so I’m gonna buy that. And it’s like, do you know how many other things are that are actually true cash flow investments that you can make rather than buying a brand new truck every year? Is that correct?
Barbara Schreihans [00:11:10] Yes. And I love that you bring this up because it’s one of my pet peeves with accountants. It’s like everyone comes to them in November, December, and they’re like, how do I save money in taxes before the end of the year? And like one, it’s your fault because it’s really late in the year. You should have asked your tax strategist earlier. And so there’s not a whole lot you can do. But also the only thing accountants know to do is be like, well, just buy a new car for a hundred grand, right? And it’ll lower your business and come by a hundred K. But stop buying cars if you don’t need them because. Yes, it’s a deduction, but $100,000 truck, it’s really costing you out-of-pocket 60 grand if you’re in the 40% tax bracket. So yes, you’re getting a $100000 truck for 60K. So you’re going to get out of discount, but it still costs you 60K out of pocket. So like what else could you have invested in that could make more money than that that could probably later buy you a truck anyway. So you could probably have put that 100K that you would have put into a truck into like an oil and gas investment. Gotten the 80% deduction in year one, saved 30K in taxes, and then you hopefully get a cash flowing asset year after year that could have been paying your truck payment in the future.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:12:21] Yeah, exactly. You know, one thing I said to somebody years ago, and it wasn’t that long ago, make it sound like I’m super old, but I was out at the lake one day and somebody asked, I was on somebody else’s boat and they go, well, why aren’t we on? Why aren’t when they found out I was in oil and gas, they go well, why aren’t t we out on your boat? And he pointed to like this giant, you know, yacht that’s like 50 feet long and this and that. And I go, I said, because I can take that money from that yacht instead of buy the yacht for. A million dollars, I can go put it in a well, and God willing, I’ll get my money back in 12 to 18 months. And then guess what? I’ll have that money back to go buy the app, but the well is still going to be producing the oil for the next 20 years. So it’s like, I’m not just here to buy, just to buy stuff just for a write-off. It’s what is strategic being a tax strategist, What are the best strategies? In order to continue to grow wealth, but also not pay as much in taxes. Because like you said, we are all built to go pay our fair share of taxes. And one thing I’ve always said about taxes is pigs eat and hogs slaughter, right? So it’s like, you know, what can we do that is a benefit to where, hey, you’re not being audited. Because that is something I think that a lot of people are always worried about is, or is this something that’s gonna cost me to be audited? And when done right with a strategist, you really shouldn’t have any worries. Is that correct?
Barbara Schreihans [00:13:52] Yeah, the audit rate is so low. It’s like 0.3%. So three out of a thousand people would be audited which is so slow. Okay. And actually the audit rates are highest for people making like less than 200 K and then over 10 million. So if you’re anywhere in the middle you’re in that 0.03% audit rate.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:14:18] Oh, wow, I did not know that. I did that know that, you know, I wanna go back to the employing family and you called it what? What are you calling it right now?
Barbara Schreihans [00:14:28] A tax-free family.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:14:29] The tax-free family. So how old are these kids that gotta be like, I’ve got a three and a half year old. And one thing we like to do is for the vehicles and equipment that we don’t use on a daily basis for our teams out in the oil field, we’ll go spend a Saturday morning and it’s not like all Saturday morning but we go start them all up and go have a hot chocolate or chocolate milk and then shut them all off. But we’ll spend 30 minutes doing that. Um, you know, could I pay him for that?
Barbara Schreihans [00:15:00] A thousand percent. Yeah. Anyone can pay their kids at any age and people are like, Oh, that’s illegal. You can literally go to irs.gov and it’ll say paying family members. And it tells you exactly how you do it and showing you that it’s legal. And so yes, even a three and a half year old, if they’re helping you in your business, you can totally pay them and you can pay them $15,000 tax free if it’s set up correctly. You can even pay them more than that. We have some clients. We actually have one family, they have five children, they pay each kid $172,000 a year because that is still the 22% tax bracket and the parents are in the 42% tax brackets. So they saved 20% on a million dollars of income. So they just saved 200 grand right there, which is great. But yeah, just find a job that your kiddo can do. Like our seven-year-old, he started years ago. And same thing, he just started helping in the office. He would scan all of our receipts. He now knows how to do bookkeeping. He does a lot of our photos and videos for social media. He can now edit videos. Kids are so much more savvy with social media and YouTube and all of that. So a lot our clients will pay their kids for social-media management. But a lot of our Clients as well like fresh out of the womb they can start paying their kids because they’re big on social media so they use their kids as models in their business and It’s the same thing like if you had to go out and get a model for the day You’d have to pay five hundred bucks a thousand bucks couple thousand bucks So might as well keep it in the family pay them and have it be tax-free
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:16:38] Oh my gosh, well, of course I know my son is the cutest one. So of course he would just be a model. Of course.
Barbara Schreihans [00:16:43] The cutest little tax deduction.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:16:47] I love it, oh my gosh. Now, here in the middle, where can people find you?
Barbara Schreihans [00:16:53] Your Tax Coach on Instagram or yourtaxcoach.com.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:16:57] Yourtaxcoach.com. I tell you what, you know, I want to kind of, if that’s okay, talk about oil and gas just for a briefer minute or a little bit dive in. Whenever we tell people that there’s active tax deductions in oil and grass, people are always a little confused with like, because they’re like, well, isn’t it only passive? And I say, no sir because you’re buying direct working interest in an oil and gas well and it’s like as if you own a well you just know as if. You do own a part of that gas well so you are a part of technically all the daily activity that’s going on which makes it an act of tax deduction. You being a tax strategist. Am I correct in telling people that?
Barbara Schreihans [00:17:43] Yeah, and we talked a little bit earlier, but the tax code is really just behavior manipulation, if you think about it. The reason why new tax laws come into place is because they’re trying to drive certain behaviors and they give you the tax incentives for oil and gas because they need people to be drilling and producing more oil and glass. And so they do that to an incentivize you. So let’s say you invest a hundred K. This year you could get anywhere from like $70,000 to $80,000 as a deduction. And this is huge, especially for W-2 earners. We work a lot with business owners, but for some of our clients who have spouses that are like high income W- 2 earners, like doctors, lawyers, they need tax deductions too, and it’s really hard for them because they don’t own a business. And so one of the best ways I think is through oil and gas, because you do get that 70 to 80% deduction in year one. And then hopefully it’s producing oil. The following years and has cash flow moving forward. And you get a 15% deduction on the money you’re making in future years because the IRS wants to incentivize you to also get cash flow.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:18:54] Absolutely. And I like how you said the manipulation part because to kind of talk about the one big beautiful bill act that was just passed. There are so many things in there right now that you can see that based off of what I see, and President Trump is really trying to motivate individuals. To invest in oil and gas. Obviously right now prices are where they are and that’s you know not something that I want to talk about here but you know he’s wanting people to invest in it to continue long term to make the economy continue to be strong. So with that being said what are some of the other great things or some things that you may even see that you don’t agree with with the one big beautiful bill and what’s going on in helping or maybe not helping Americans out there.
Barbara Schreihans [00:19:47] Yeah, a couple of things I like about it is that for basically anyone making under $500K, they’re getting a big tax cut this year. I think a lot of people that don’t like Trump are trying to say that this bill is for the wealthy, but if you actually look at the statistics, and I was a stats major in college, so I love stats, but. It’s actually saving anyone making less than 500K, which one I think is always a great thing because the less you make, the more you need to save money in taxes so that it can help your family keep growing. I really like the 100% bonus depreciation. And if you look at that from a 50,000 foot view, they’re just trying to incentivize people to invest in real estate more because they’re seeing a huge dip in commercial real estate. And so what do they need to do to… Not have commercial real estate totally implode, they have to incentivize people to buy more of it. And to do that, they’re saying, well, we’re gonna give you a 100% bonus depreciation if you cost segregate your properties, but also that 100% percent bonus applies to tractors, to trucks, like you were saying. So probably a lot of the equipment that you have in the oil fields, it’s gonna really benefit you, but it can also benefit people that wanna buy yachts and planes and all those types of things, but really it’s meant for real estate. Investors, so I really like that. They got rid of electric vehicle credits, which also shows us that they don’t want us really investing in solar and electric. They want us more investing in US manufacturing and in oil and gas, because those things are needed in order to keep the solar and electric vehicle industry alive. A lot of people don’t know that. I love that scene in Landman. Do you know what I’m talking about?
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:21:31] I do know the scene where he chews out the lawyer there, right there underneath the windmills.
Barbara Schreihans [00:21:39] Um, and so there’s a lot of great things in the one big, beautiful tax bill. I like that they’re creating new accounts for kids. So anyone with a child under eight, they can have essentially like, they’re calling it a Trump account. I don’t love the name of it, but he, you know, he’s trying to get credit for it, so whatever, but you can essentially put another five or $6,000 into an account for your kids for when they’re 18 and over, which I like because they’re also seeing a dip in college admissions. So. They’re saying, well, people aren’t investing in 529 plans anymore, so let’s create another one where they can now use it for maybe a down payment on a house later on or other things other than college.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:22:19] Wow, that’s pretty cool. I wasn’t aware of that one. So is that 5,000 on top of the 15,000 that the company could pay him?
Barbara Schreihans [00:22:29] Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:22:31] Holy cow, that’s a lot of De Niro.
Barbara Schreihans [00:22:35] I know. They haven’t come out exactly with how these Trump accounts are going to work. I don’t think a lot of the institutions have implemented it yet since the bill just passed July 4th, but we should be seeing a lot it come like Q4 of this year. And the government’s actually going to deposit $1,000 into these accounts if you had a kid born this year or last year as well. So I think that’s that’s all a plus.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:22:59] Wow, you know, you mentioned the tax credit. I wanna ask you, is there for people out there and me as well, is their difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction?
Barbara Schreihans [00:23:12] Yes, such a big difference. And I’m glad you asked because people think that they’re the same. So I’ll try to explain it as simply as I can. But let’s say you’re a business owner making $100,000. And you had $40,000 of deductions. So that means you’re taxed on $60,000 of income, the $100K you bring in, $40K of deduction. So your profit is $60K. That’s what you’re tasked on. Whereas a tax credit is a dollar for dollar reduction in taxes due. So let’s say you had a $40,000 tax credit, not a deduction. That would mean if you owed 40,000 in tax, that would wipe it out. So for example, on 60,000 of profit, that first example with the deduction, on 60 thousand of profit let’s say your tax is due is like 15,000, but you had $40 thousand tax credit. You would have $25,000 left over, whether it depends if it’s a refundable credit or if it just gonna carry forward to another year. So you want tax credits more than deductions, but there’s obviously a lot less tax credits than deduction.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:24:26] Okay, I did not know that last part. I didn’t know that there weren’t as many tax credits. So that’s, I guess, and I’m not trying to get political by any means right now, but I guess that’s what made those green energy tax credits so lucrative is that there’s never that many of them. So it’s like, oh my gosh, I can get tax credits, I did that know that, or I did know that there’s not as many of those out there. So it was almost like the carbon credits, But that’s, that’s a whole other thing too.
Barbara Schreihans [00:24:56] Yeah, yeah, we could talk a full episode on that.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:24:59] Oh, are you familiar with carbon credits? Yeah. Oh, really? Okay, yes, we need to dive into that at a later time and we work on those a little bit as well and they’re out there and might as well capture them from the sky and bring them back down and resell them.
Barbara Schreihans [00:25:16] It’s kind of a crazy, a crazy concept. We were in Lake Como last summer and we, our kids were playing with these other kids and they’re from Germany. And so we started talking to the family and they sell carbon credits. And man, there is a lot of money in carbon credits, but I’m also like, is this thing real?
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:25:35] Is Bitcoin real?
Barbara Schreihans [00:25:37] I mean, I love Bitcoin.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:25:39] I mean, I cannot complain with my portfolio of Bitcoin, absolutely, but is it real? So, and that’s sometimes the way I look at carbon credit. So that is awesome to know that you are in tune with what’s going on, even on the carbon credit side, Barbara. You know, I’m trying to think here. I got so many questions. You know, other things like when you take other deductions, when you’re taking investors out or clients out for dinners, you know, alcohol, food, entertainment, you know how does all that work? You know for those out there, what’s a kind of a dive into all of that?
Barbara Schreihans [00:26:20] I love that you brought that up. So we talked about tax-free family, which is the name of one of my courses. And then now you’re diving into what I call right off your life, which is what like everyone knows, knows me for, I have a signature course called right off, your life. How to turn like seemingly personal expenses into business expenses. And, and to what you were saying, a lot of people think that meals deductions can only mean like, Oh, I’m taking a client out to eat. And that’s just not true. It’s- There’s so many other reasons that we all go out to eat that could be related to business. So maybe it’s for content. So if you’re taking content at this, you know, beautiful restaurant, that can be a business deduction. It doesn’t have to be a client. Maybe it’s an employee of yours or a vendor or someone you want to work with. And just like my business, probably for your business, like everyone could be a client of yours at some point, or they probably know someone that could be a Client of yours. And so. That’s prospecting. So anytime you’re prospecting, you can write that off. So even if you’re going out to eat with your best friends or family members or parents or nieces and nephews, I’m sure you’re talking about business. At some point, like I’m always like, yeah, today I’m not gonna talk about business at dinner. And like by the time the appetizers come, I’m already talking about dinner or I’m talking about about business and so if you are talking business, make it a write off, but there’s some things you have to know. You have to have it on your calendar because the IRS is gonna ask you, was your intent of this meal before you went business, or did you decide to turn it into business later? So have it in your business calendar, keep your receipts, write on the receipt who was there and what you talked about. So a lot of times, like I was saying, my best friend and I will go out to eat, we’re both business owners, so we will talk about each other’s businesses all the time, and she’s a client of mine and I’m a client her, so it’s very easily a business deduction. So just try to think of how can I relate this meal to business? And then with entertainment, I’m kind of bummed about this one. Like this rule changed in 2018 with the tax cuts and jobs act the first time. But again, remember I was talking about like behavior manipulation. So they got rid of in 2018 entertainment deductions. They say it was because people were abusing, like buying Superbowl tickets. And making it a business deduction. But really what they did, they kind of put Trump in a strong hold because he wanted all these other deductions and they were like, we’re not going to do it unless you get rid of entertainment, which by the way, is mostly golf deduptions and Trump owns a lot of golf courses. So that was kind of his stab in the stomach to let all the other business owners get a bunch of deductions in 2018. So you can’t deduct entertainment anymore. I was hoping it was gonna come back with this bill at 50%. Like if you spent 10K on entertainment, you could deduct 5,000 of it, but it’s still not back. But still, so even though it’s not a deduction in your business, still run it through your business cards. It’s just not gonna show in your profit and loss as a deduction. And I say that because You still want to run it through the business because if it is business related, like say you’re taking a bunch of clients out to a baseball game and you want to run it though the business, it’s not a deduction, but at least you didn’t have to take a distribution in order to pay for it. So it’ll keep your basis intact for your business. Now that might be above some people’s heads, but still run it thru the business.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:29:53] Well, for some people, I am one of those, but that’s why we have the tax coach on to be able to dive into more. My dad would be jumping up and down clapping when he said, save your receipts and write down everybody that’s on him because God knows that that’s what he tells me all the time is, well, who was there and this and that. And he even, he tells me some old war stories about some of the other oil and gas companies that if they didn’t get all the receipts and stuff turned in on time, they would literally shut the credit card off. And there were times that they would be all out to dinner and you know, big dinner and the card wouldn’t work to where he’d have to use a personal card or not my dad, but one of the owner, the owners of the company, cause it was like. Told you to give the tax, you know, give me all the receipts for last month or, you know? And it’s, it’s it’s no joke. Now, would bank statement receipts account, would those work as receipts or do they got to be the actual physical receipt?
Barbara Schreihans [00:30:58] They have to be the physical receipt because I’ll use like a gas station receipt. For example, a lot of people are like, well, of course, if I’m at Exxon, it’s, I’m getting gas for my business vehicle. And it was, let’s say 120 bucks. Well, the IRS doesn’t know if you actually got gas or maybe you walked inside and you got a carton of cigarettes and some beer. So they have to see the itemized receipt, not just the total that says Exxons on your bank statement. So yes, you have to keep itemized receipts. The IRS could disallow all your expenses.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:31:30] Okay. And then of course alcohol doesn’t actually count as a deduction. Is that correct also?
Barbara Schreihans [00:31:37] Common myth.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:31:38] Common myth.
Barbara Schreihans [00:31:39] Yeah, you can deduct all alcohol expenses.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:31:42] Oh, wow. Okay. I did not know that.
Barbara Schreihans [00:31:46] The IRS just says it can’t be extraordinary. Whatever that means. Do they define it? No, they don’t. But if you’re in like a high ticket company or like a luxury brand, obviously you’re gonna buy more luxury champagne. You know, you’re not gonna buy VUV. Maybe you’re going to buy Cristal. But what constitutes a luxury band? No one knows. But that’s what the rule says. So yes, you can still deduct all of your alcohol. Just make sure it’s business related. You keep your receipts. You say who was there, what you talked about.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:32:20] Well, now, okay, I do see some people and they’re clever that have the apps and they’ll take pictures of the receipts. That’s legit. Is that good?
Barbara Schreihans [00:32:29] Yeah, love it. I love that because we probably all just throw our receipts in our wallet or our purse and then they get lost forever or the ink loses, like, you know, on receipts, the ink is like magic. It disappears. So if you can scan it right away, that’s the best option. So if use QuickBooks, you can actually download a QuickBooks app and the app will scan it right in for you. And it even has like an AI feature where if your receipt says like $75 and 12 cents and it sees. On your credit card feed, $75.12, it’ll link the receipt right to that transaction. So if you were ever audited, you never would have to do any work. It’s already done for you, which is nice. But you can also just scan your receipts into like your notes app, or there’s other receipt apps out there, like Shoebox and things like that.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:33:17] Well, that is the other thing that I have to do. I got to get a copy of them. And I tell you what, there is so much here and some of these questions and my friends that watch this show and I’m talking about my friends that know me, they’re going, oh my God, Ray’s dad would be just high-fiving you right now, Barbara, like there’s no tomorrow going, go shaking his finger at me going, I told you so on a couple of these things. But You know, Barbara, you and your team, are y’all always looking for new individuals or is it invite only? Or, you know, how do people get in contact with you and how do you people qualify to work with you and your teams?
Barbara Schreihans [00:33:55] So anyone can schedule a free consult. We’ll chat with you for 30 minutes about your situation, your scenario, what you have going on in your business or investments and see if we can save you money in taxes. But we’ll never take you on as a client unless we know we can you more in tax than what our fees are. Because I never wanna feel like an expense for you. I want to feel like in ROI. So my team meets with you, I look at your tax returns and see what we can do and then we decide the best route moving forward.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:34:24] Yeah, no, I mean, we’ve got some great, great clients of ours that might spend what some people would think is a lot in, I’ll just use the word, CPA fees. However, because they’re making all these investments and they’re saving so much in taxes, that’s like, well, that’s a no-brainer to do that. Like, you know, sometimes they’re savin’ them 10X on what their CPAs. Charging them are, and it’s not even a CPA, it’s a tax strategist. And that is, and there is a difference there. And for those out there, one more time that might’ve missed it, what is the difference between a CPA and a tax strategies, Barbara?
Barbara Schreihans [00:35:04] BPAs look backwards, like the year’s already over, there’s nothing they can do for you. A strategist looks forward so that we’re anticipating any taxes due and we mitigate it for you
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:35:15] Golly, well Barbara, and how can people find you one more time?
Barbara Schreihans [00:35:20] Yeah, yourtaxcoach.com. You can call, you can text us, we make it easy.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:35:25] Well, Barbara, you have really enlightened me today. And I cannot thank you enough for kind of diving into the one big, beautiful bill, really diving into your tax-free family. I’m definitely gonna have to look into those a little bit more because God knows we all wanna be prepared for college. I am a firm believer in college. However, not everybody needs it, you know, but college is also the other thing that’s not going down anytime soon. So I definitely need to be saving up for that for my son. And thanks for discussing the oil and gas with me for a few minutes. I’d love to have you come back on. Maybe we’ll got to get you back on after the tax season or even get you with another group of CPAs. I’m sure you coach CPAs as well. Is that correct to help them out and getting better at helping their clients out?
Barbara Schreihans [00:36:22] Yeah, we do. We have a whole education company as well with all of our courses. And I host a mastermind group as well to help business owners scale to seven figures and beyond.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:36:33] Wow. Well, Barbara, again, I cannot thank you enough for all of those out there that got any questions, please reach out to Barbara. If you want, you can reach out to me and we can definitely be in contact with her. Barbara, I can not thank you enough for your time today. You have just really instilled us with a bunch of great information and I look forward to next time.
Barbara Schreihans [00:36:58] Yeah, thank you.
Rey “RT” Treviño III [00:36:58] Thank you, and to all our listeners out there, I wanna say thank you as always, and we’ll see you again on another episode of The Crude Truth.
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