Bellatoris Consulting, LLC

Archive for July, 2012|Monthly archive page

My Secret Addiction

In Tax Planning on July 19, 2012 at 1:47 PM

While I was having dinner the other night at one of my favorite restaurants, I noticed a young girl walking around.  She looked to be about 9 or 10 and she displayed signs of having some sort of developmental disability.

As I watched her, she went from table to table saying hello to everyone in hopes of striking up a conversation.  She was cheerful and warm, despite the rejection and cold responses she was getting from every table she visited.

At one point, I saw her wave at her mother.  It was done in a way that signaled she was okay and having fun.  The woman watched her daughter with complete adornment.

As a waiter brought over their desserts, I saw the girl hurry back to her table and swoon over a plate of apple pie with a huge scoop of ice cream on top.

After watching the pure and innocent joy this child had, all the stress of my day seemed like such a waste.  Life is too short to get caught up in that kind of crap.

As the waiter headed back to the kitchen, I flagged him down and said, “Here’s my credit card. I want to cover the bill for that woman and her daughter.  Don’t tell them who paid though.”

My name is Derek and I’m addicted to random acts of kindness. 

Phew!  I’m glad I got that off my chest.

While we often associate addictions with destructive behaviors, it’s also possible to be addicted to positive behaviors as well.  Random acts of kindness give me a rush of excitement and adrenaline.

Examples of other positive addictions may be faith, golf, or even something as back-breaking as home improvement.

Considering my profession, can you guess what positive addiction I occasionally observe?  That’s right, an addiction to tax planning.

No disrespect to the income tax world, but I don’t see as much excitement in the eyes of tax professionals these days when talking about income tax planning.  I think the heyday of corporate tax shelters and black-box strategies are long gone.

Instead, I see more people opening their eyes to the opportunities that exist for sales tax and use tax planning.  The strategies aren’t flashy, but they easily create an impact on a company’s bottom line.

With so many moving parts in the sales and use tax world, planning and optimization opportunities are plentiful.  Plus, they’re rather easy to implement.

So, if you want to catch the same bug I have for random acts of kindness, check out this site for ideas and inspiration.

If you want ideas and inspiration on how to catch the sales and use tax planning bug, subscribe to this blog by following the e-mail subscription link below and I’ll promise to share quick tips and stories that can help you take advantage of the opportunities I alluded to above.

Be careful…the pleasure that comes from progress is highly addictive!  (Click here to tweet this)

 

 

Try This Experiment

In Just for Fun, Profit on July 15, 2012 at 10:38 PM

When you leave work tonight, take a look at your to-do list and then take inventory of how you feel.

If you have a productive day filled with massive action and shortened to-do list, then I’m betting you’ll leave the office feeling great.

If you have a hectic day filled with interruptions and a to-do list that’s larger than when you started the day, then I’m betting you’ll leave the office feeling drained.

How about your staff?

How do you think they’ll feel when they leave the office tonight?

Throughout the last 5 years we’ve been in this “global recession,” I’ve seen many clients working with a lean headcount of staff that leaves the office each night feeling drained.

How to Help Your Employees Feel Great at the End of the Workday

Foster an environment of massive action and you’ll retain great employees. (Click Here To Tweet This!)

Do your employees have the tools they need for massive action?  

Do your employees have an incentive plan that rewards massive action?

Do your employees have adequate support in place for massive action?

I can’t really offer you much advice on the first two questions, but I certainly can chime in on the third one.

If you aren’t already a client of Bellatoris Consulting, you’ve probably gathered from this blog that we’re in the business of helping clients take massive action with sales taxes and use taxes.

What you may not know is that we also work on retainer for clients that just want a 911-style hotline for sales tax and use tax questions that come up.  This is perfect if you if you don’t have the immediate need for us to do a full-scale project, but still want to foster an environment of massive action.

So, roll up your sleeves, shotgun a cup of coffee, and shout your favorite battle cry (e.g. Let’s Rock, Get-R-Done, Do Work Son, etc.) and let’s all have a day filled with massive action!

The Good Samaritan

In Compliance on July 12, 2012 at 2:51 PM

Last night, I was driving through the parking lot at my local grocery store and the sight of a child pushing a loaded shopping cart caught my eye.  The parking lot was sloped and he was having a hard time controlling it has he walked downhill.  A disaster seemed eminent!

Literally a second later, the child lost his grip on the shopping cart and it rolled downhill.  Before the child’s father could catch up with the runaway cart, it slammed into a parked car.  My spidey sense was right on point.

I was in the adjacent row of the parking lot, so I quickly whipped the Taxmobile into a space so I could see how bad the hit was.

The father pulled the cart away from the parked car and took a look at the point of impact.  Judging by the way he was yelling at his son, it had to have been bad.

My curiosity was piqued, so stayed in my car to see if he was going to leave a note.

As the father loaded the groceries into the car, he and the boy got in and they started to back out of their parking space.  No note!

I immediately hopped out of the Taxmobile and snapped a picture of his car and license plate.

I’m in a good mood today, so I’ll blur out his license plate.

After securing a photo of his license plate, I went over to survey the damage on the car they hit.  Here’s what I saw:

Ouch! Look at the lower one and you’ll see bare metal.

I’m not an expert in auto body repair, but that one spot clearly broke the paint and will need a costly repair.  If left alone, it’ll probably start to rust.

Of course, I didn’t have a pen or paper (Murphy’s Law!), so I decided to wait for the owner so I could show him/her the picture I took of the hit-and-runner.  How long could that take, right?

Flash forward a half-hour and my stakeout was still in full effect.  No sign of the owner anywhere.

I got impatient and decided to call the police.  They told me to wait by the car and they’d have an officer at the scene in a few minutes.

Flash forward another half-hour and no police officer yet.  Just as I was ready to give up, I saw a young woman heading toward the car with keys in hand.  It had to be the owner.  Finally!

As I walked over to talk to the woman, I noticed that she was wearing a uniform from the grocery store.

(That explains why it took so long!  I was happy that I didn’t witness this event at the beginning of her shift!)

After I explained the situation, she looked at her car and said, “Meh, that’s the price I have to pay for working at this grocery store.  Shopping carts are always rolling into parked cars.  It’s no big deal.  Thanks though.”

I was dumbfounded.  This was a fairly new car, the damage was substantial, and she didn’t even care that I waited around for an hour to be able to give her the license plate of the person that caused the damage to her car.

She obviously felt my confusion, so she said, “It’s okay, it’s still under warranty.”

That’s when I turned around and walked away.  I didn’t have the heart to try any harder and let her know that warranties don’t cover body damage.

Being a good samaritan and trying to help people in need can be a tremendously rewarding experience.  However, when the person in need rejects your help, that can be tremendously frustrating.  It can almost be frustrating to the point of never wanting to help anyone ever again.

Connecting the Dots

When it comes to taxes, you may stumble across an error or oversight that could be tremendously helpful for your company.

In some cases, I’ve seen management respond in a way that’s very similar to the situation I experienced in the parking lot.  One of two things may happen:

1) They don’t care; or

2) They have a false sense of security how it will get resolved.

When these situations happen, don’t get discouraged.  It’s your responsibility to raise these issues when you see them.  If management decides that inaction is the best course of action, that’s on them.

When I saw the shopping cart incident, I felt as if it was my responsibility to alert the owner of the car.  She decided to ignore the situation, so I’ll have to make peace with the fact that her late-model car is going to be a rust-bucket in the near future.

Have you ever found a tax error or oversight that got shrugged off by management?  If so, how did you handle it?  Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below!

(P.S. – The cops didn’t show up before I left the parking lot and went home, but they did call me an hour later to say that they were busy and would be there soon.  Thank God I wasn’t getting robbed or murdered!)

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