There are legal ways to get crafty with your tax returns to meet your goals. Here’s what I mean…

When you’re self-employed, your “proof of income” is your net income (aka profit after write-offs) as it appears on your tax return. And there are ways your tax preparer can legally make that number more or less.

📈 An example of when you would want to show more is when you’re preparing to buy a house. You’ll want that number to be big to increase the loan amount you can qualify to receive.

📉 An example of when you would want to show less is when you’re near the threshold of qualifying for free health insurance or other benefits. You’ll want to be able to reduce that number to qualify.

It’s also important to know how many years of tax returns you will need to show. Home loans typically require 2 years. Most other things – like car loans, rental leases, an benefits – will only need to see the most recent year.

So how is this done?

It’s definitely beyond the scope of a social media post, but suffice it to say tax preparers have many strategic tricks up their sleeves to play within the rules to move things around to make that number change to meet your needs.

Your job is to keep track of your income & expenses. Your tax preparer’s job is to work their magic to translate your situation into a version of your tax return that can hopefully help you achieve your goals.

​Or if not, they can advise you on specific changes you need to make to meet your goals as soon as possible.