Chris Willis, CPA

@Budgetdog_ Preach! Ive been screaming this for years.

My largest account isn’t a 401(k) or IRA. It’s my Taxable Brokerage. Built wealth early so needed flexibility. No age restrictions. No penalties. Full control. That’s what actually funds financial freedom. Retirement accounts optimize taxes. Taxable accounts optimize your life. Both matter. Most people underestimate the second.

@theficouple You are missing when the annual holding costs of that asset approach or exceed the market appreciation of that asset.

People like to debate whether a home is an asset or a liability? But if the home is worth $550,000 & the couple owes $200,000? Their net worth has $350,000 included in it making the home an asset. ...What are we missing?

@robbiehendricks If those are you goals in life great. If your goal is to build wealth, the Ramsey way is not the most effective.

One of my friends has followed the Dave Ramsey debt snowball plan to the letter. Attends every annual conference. Proud Ramsey advocate. Early 40s. Husband is a cop. Couple kids. Just a great, red-blooded Ohio family. Probably makes $200k/year as a household (just a guess). Over the last 10 years: • Paid off house • Paid off cars • 529s funded for kids • On track to retire around 55 Now look, I’m obviously a debt-user and advocate for going out there and building wealth. The Ramsey plan is not a character fit for me, as I’m admittedly wired very ambitious, and enjoy investing, building my business, and taking on that responsibility (and risk). But these folks are doing better than 90% of the country - in a stress free manner - simply by: • Finding a plan • Sticking to the plan • Not increasing expenses as income and savings grow Something to be said for that, I think. Stuck to their guns, didn’t care that it was “boring”. Didn’t listen to other people telling them to be more aggressive. Very happy for them.

All the more reason I preach do not automatically max IRA's to my clients. Sounds like his was a rollover IRA so probably couldnt do anything about it but those who can really need to plan for this "potential" tax deferral benefit. I am seeing more and more people in much higher tax brackets at retirement than when employed with maybe a spouse still alive, itemized deductions perhaps, business planning ability, etc etc....Not to mention once you play the IRS game, you have to play by their rules. Im not an automatic max out your IRA kind of person.

Client retires at 64. Has a pension. Doesn't need his $3.8M IRA. "I'll just let it grow." At 75, the IRS disagrees. Required Minimum Distribution: $143,000. He doesn't want it. Doesn't need it. But he has no choice. That $143K gets added to his pension income. Pushes him into a higher bracket. Increases his Medicare premiums by $4,000/year. Makes 85% of his Social Security taxable. Between retirement and age 75 there is a window. Eleven years to do Roth conversions. Eleven years to reduce the account. Eleven years to get ahead of this. Most people don't know the window exists until it closes.

@Dani_Bbrn Im confused... easily done this time of year.😳 If the taxpayer died in 2024, who created 2025 vouchers with his name anywhere on them?

MFJ, taxpayer dies 24, didn’t swap taxpayer and spouse bc estimates were made by check under taxpayer’s ssn. Schedule via UT estimates via ACH for 25. They’re all reported under the deceased taxpayer and now the surviving spouse is getting letters. It shouldn’t be this hard 🤦🏼‍♀️

@QuickBooks @Intuit My client didnt get the details, but contacted me immediately. I have no reason to doubt her. The sales pitch starts the minute a client goes to the qbo login page, that cannot be denied. If you care, I can walk you through it!

@CPA2Solutions @Intuit I hope your day is off to a good start, Chris. I’m still here and can look into the call your client received if you’d like. Just let me know and I’ll dig into it right away. ^Kailyn x.com/messages/compo…

If you are in practice and use @Intuit products and aren't actively searching for alternatives.... Beware! I just got off of a call with a monthly bookkeeping client who received a cold call from Quickbooks trying to move them into @QuickBooks support. This is just the first step. I suppose now I have something to do during the slow season..... Migrate all of my client to something else! Anything else!

@DailyTaxMemes Ask what the "advisory" fees were the last three years, take an average and create the invoice. Insist on your value.

A financial advisor emailed me this morning asking if I could map out a mutual client's 3 year tax window as they are considering some Roth conversions. Wants to know if he can have it by mid-next week. First I've heard about this was this morning

@LoZabransky @JWellsTax Exactly

@JWellsTax The problem is all these tax-influencers telling people if they’re not an Scorp at $50k net profit they’re overpaying in taxes

Imagine telling the entire Internet you really don’t make that much money.

@ArthurJSpring Hell, ill swing by on the way to my cabin in the NC mountains....Just saw your location

@CPA2Solutions Most of my clients are subscription-billed and I keep fairly diligent notes for when the contracts renew. No notes means either no increase or a COL increase, notes like "never turns in everything the first time" guarantees a healthy bump on renewal

Not sure what it is about having to rework returns, but clients sending docs after I send them a "finished" return makes me irrationally angry

@ArthurJSpring Id love to meet after d day and look under the hood about how to get tax clients on a subscription plan...

@SimplyCherieCPA That phrase "quick question" has become a trigger for me. 34 years of hearing it.... I block every word after that and open my billing software while they gab.

I just received a "quick question" from a client that was ACTUALLY a quick question. My response took less than 5 minutes. I couldn't believe it 🤣

@BkwrmCPA Don't beat yourself up.... It sticks in your memory more than hers. Plus, I will bet you dont make that mistake again....

Absolutely botched a clients tax projection over the summer. Granted, we reviewed together and nobody caught the BIG mistake. I still suck though 😅 Sent her copies and praying that she just pays and doesn’t question it, but I deserve a bit of hell for that one 😭

@bsuecannon Yep, just had an upload to our portal from someone who thinks they are above the process.... he is in for a surprise...

This is why we send the calendar link in December and ask them to pick a date for 2026 by the end December. For those who haven’t picked a date by the end of December, we send a couple of reminders, and if they still don’t pick a date, we terminate them. We’re serious about the structure of this process. I’m not having chaos at work anymore.

When we started scheduling tax prep 3 years ago, one of my clients said “I don’t think this is going to work, Brenda.” Same client when picking her dates (for 2 businesses and 1 personal return) in December, “I got my dates! I feel like I’ve won the Kentucky Derby!” People are adverse to change. Don’t let a small group of your clients run your business, and don’t let people get in your head.

@LizMpersonal Right, and an abacus on the desk... 😄

If you’re not depreciating your assets using sum of years digits, are you really an accountant?

@LizMpersonal I was thinking the same thing about PTE's yesterday! Especially Louisiana

To the people who prepare trust returns regularly: why don’t you have alcohol poisoning?

@Dani_Bbrn Dude, I threw some docs at it and I was amazed.... Ive been leaning in and using some replit to build out some things, but Claude is a game changer.

Did Claude just become my new BFF? Where has this been my whole life? #TaxTwitter

@LoZabransky Yea Right... It would be nice to run into a few "forms only" returns right about now... I've got 3 partnerships, 1 corp and a family trust to do before I can do this "IRS has all the forms" tax return. 😀

Really? All of it? #taxtwitter