Don't Let The Irs Destroy Your Small Business: Seventy-six Mistakes To Avoid (Paperback)

by Michael Savage (Author) "Once upon a time, the IRS charged interest on tax underpayments at the rate of 6 percent per year, simple (noncompounding) interest..." (more)
Key Phrases: family business exclusion, business connection requirement, accountable plan rules, Annual Lease Value (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Problems resulting from tax law blunders aren't new. Tax attorney Michael Savage contends, however, that small businesses that run afoul of the Internal Revenue Service and face big fines are often not guilty of malfeasance; rather, he says, they simply lack the wherewithal to handle complicated regulations as competently as their larger counterparts. In Don't Let the IRS Destroy Your Small Business: 76 Mistakes to Avoid, Savage lays out major potential stumbling blocks and in easy-to-understand language outlines ways to avoid them.

From Booklist
With new businesses multiplying like rabbits, it is never too late to learn the number one critical question to ask, namely, what are the tax ramifications? That query should accompany every company strategy, every company move, from founding to estate planning. According to Manhattan tax attorney Savage, 76 mistakes are almost indigenous to small-business ventures. Many of those errors, categorized here into a dozen chapters, are generally well-known, thanks to popular media coverage (such as the home-office deduction and establishing the difference between an employee and an independent contractor). Other IRS Code rules are more arcane, including the selection of the appropriate retirement plan and the too-much-capital-not-enough-debt trap. Considering that the infamous code is more than 3,000 pages in length, it makes excellent sense to have an expert flag Uncle Sam's hot spots--well in advance. Barbara Jacobs

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books (December 24, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0201311453
• ISBN-13: 978-0201311457
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #212,445 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book - concise and helpful, August 25, 2000

By	Geoffrey Amthor "[e-mail]" (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This book outlines 76 ways that small businesses often get in trouble with the IRS. A lot of these mistakes are very tempting to make -- in fact, one can argue that it's the tax law that's the problem in many cases, not the business practice. Nonetheless, the author makes clear the IRS position on these mistakes, and shows how damaging the mistakes can be when the IRS wins in tax court over the business owners.

Every small business owner should read this book. It's remarkably easy to scan and absorb, though the topics are often quite complex at their root. This book cuts through the complexity and makes clear what the dangers are. As the author writes in the introduction, "If things go wrong, it gets expensive. For this reason, you should know *where* things go wrong. Because usually they go wrong in the same place. To see your taxes doubled because you made the same mistake that thousands of other people made before you does not make good business sense."

57 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Insightful Info about All Areas of the Tax Code, November 1, 1999

By A Customer

All around great advise that covers practically every area of the tax code for a small business. My accountant can always answer a specific question but he has never put all my posible tax issues into one big picture. This book does that!

It covers all the major areas of the tax code such as paying employees vs. contractors, entertainment and meal expenses, retirement plans, loans, and S-Corporations. In all these areas are descriptions of the tax law, how the IRS enforces it, and what can go wrong.

Ignore the low ratings from the tax anarchist. This book is 5 stars!

40 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New information worth buying, April 22, 1999

By A Customer

I thought I had read it all when it comes to preparing yourself for the IRS, but I was wrong, there is new and useful information in here. It saved me money right away and I can see all the mistakes I have made in the past year in this book. If you have been in business you have made these mistakes. Good Book, could be longer.