Nisla Love with Choose Love Solutions

Intro: Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX studios in Atlanta, Georgia. It’s time for High Velocity Radio.

Stone Payton: Welcome to the High Velocity Radio show, where we celebrate top performers producing better results in less time. Stone Payton here with you. Please join me in welcoming to the broadcast with Choose Love Solutions LLC, Nisla. Love, How are you?

Nisla Love: I am doing great. Thanks for having me.

Stone Payton: Well, it is my pleasure. So I think maybe a good place to start the conversation is if you could share with me in our listeners Mission purpose. What are you out there trying to do for folks? Nicely?

Nisla Love: I’m trying to help people save money, especially when it comes to small business owners. And I do that due tax planning. So which I love doing. I love breaking down the tax code, making it more simplify for them.

Stone Payton: I’m glad we have people like you doing that. It doesn’t sound like fun to me, but it sounds like. Like you enjoy it. How did you get into that line of work?

Nisla Love: Oh, gosh. So I always loved helping people. And I was that person where, you know, where you just stack of paper and you just give it to someone. And then I took a class when I was when I went to college in accounting, and they did a segment on taxes and I was like, Oh, this is interesting. So this is how I did this and this is how I got that. I said, okay. So I really dig deep into it, started practicing, it started doing it, and then I became an enrolled agent.

Stone Payton: I saw in your write up, I saw this phrase, and I want to I want you to dive into this a little bit because it sounds like it’s a dream that can come true, but it sounds audacious to me. Audit proof your books.

Nisla Love: Audit proof your books. So it’s it’s really simple. When I say audit your books, it starts with documentation, everything. So document, document, document. Keep everything traceable. It sounds simple, but everyone is not doing it, so it can’t happen. So if you ever want to get on it, you can always back it up. And that’s what I always tell my clients. Have proof, have a documentation. One of the things people tend to do is they buy stuff on the fly. Take a picture of it. Email it to yourself. Simple stuff, but no one’s doing it.

Stone Payton: All right, so how does this work? Someone reaches out to you or you get connected with them in some fashion. What happens in the early stages of a of a relationship, an engagement? Walk us through that.

Nisla Love: So as an engagement. So we’ll have like a one on one consultation. Let me know what are your needs and what’s your expectation in reference to that? We’ll go over what can be done and then we’ll basically talk about if you’re there for tax preparation, you know, what can be done. And so basically what I’m doing is having that one on one conversation because I always want to build relationship with my clients because, you know, we’re talking about taxes. It’s a very sensitive topic and money. So I want to build that trust and relationship with them. So they’re interviewing me. I’m interviewing them at the same token. But the thing is, I want to give them a realistic outcome of what can be done. So we’re having a conversation. I go over their tax documents and then from there I let them know this is what the cost would be and this is what what the expectation is. If they want to move forward, then we’ll continue the process and provide that service for them.

Stone Payton: So do you find that you come across I’ll call them myths, misconceptions, misunderstandings, assumptions about this whole arena that you have to help them get it straight and sort of reeducate them?

Nisla Love: Yeah, I constantly have to educate my clients and potential clients because there is a lot of false information out there when it comes to doing your taxes. Nothing about other people promoting, but they just give you like little snippets of of things you possibly can do it. People will ride into it, say, I want to do it, I can do it. And so I always tell individuals and clients that what works for somebody else may not work for you because everyone is different. So constantly educating and then also backing it up with the tax code.

Stone Payton: Well, speaking of tax code, you either are or were IRS enrolled agent. Explain that, if you would.

Nisla Love: So I am a licensed tax preparation as enrolled agent, which I had to take three part exam to be licensed by the IRS. And that’s what the enrolled agent and enrolled agent is a little bit different from a CPA. We specialize in taxes. That is our field. We specialize in taxes. With that, we’re able to prepare our taxes all within the 50 states or in US citizens of abroad. So we have that luxury where we were able to not only prepare taxes, we’re able to represent our clients before the IRS and the state also to versus where a CPA, they have to be licensed in that particular state, which as an enrolled agent, licensed by the IRS, we’re able to do all within the 50 states.

Stone Payton: Wow. I would think that that credential would really set you apart in the marketplace. So how do you get the the new clients? Do you have to get out there and and mark it or do you have some other system or are you at a point now where it’s just all referral? How do you how do you get the new business?

Nisla Love: So it’s a little bit of both. It is referral based word of mouth. And then I do workshops and I go to different places and network. And so that’s how I able to get clients also to. And then I have people Googling me. So I love Google.

Stone Payton: Yeah, Yeah. So you’ve been at this a while, 15 plus years, I think. I read in my notes what, what what’s the most rewarding? What do you enjoy the most about the work?

Nisla Love: My satisfaction is knowing that I can save people money. They’ll come to me telling me either they did it themselves before or they had another preparer. But that’s my rewarding, just to educate individuals, to let them know, make it more simplified, and then to save the money on things that come easy to me, but not to them. So that’s my reward, is helping people save money and making the tax code very simplified for them.

Stone Payton: So going into 2023 and for some context for our listeners, because sometimes people tap into this content that we publish months, even years later, but we’re in late 22 as of this conversation, we’re going into 2023. Are there some interesting new, different tax benefits, challenges, things that we ought to be at least aware of or ask our tax professional about?

Nisla Love: Yes. Yes, there is. There’s laugh. How long do I have?

Stone Payton: Well, I think the main point is that there are and you probably ought to connect with nicely to have that conversation. I just wondered if there was something standing out that maybe, you know, the average bear certainly like me. I mean, that I wouldn’t have a clue. And it’s at least something to be aware of or be thinking about.

Nisla Love: Well, I don’t know if anyone know the standard deduction went up, so that was always a plus. I know one of the things that individuals would kind of discarded because they couldn’t itemize, but the deduction did go up. For instance, the married filings, separate and single newsstand deduction is going to be 12,950 that went up. It was it was 12,500. So now you’ve got to bumped up by 450. So that’s also two. And then married filing joint. That went up tremendously also. So we’re looking at 25,900. So they’re taking into consideration inflation and cost of living. So that is a plus. And then the charity also to where the last couple of years the IRS was rewarding people for if you did the standard deduction, they were giving you that additional $300, up to $600 additional that you could do with the standard deduction. Well, they’re not doing that. No.

Stone Payton: Oh, okay. So that’s good. That’s good to know. All right. So let’s talk a little bit about tax planning, because I think probably I’m not the only one. It’s one of those things I really don’t want to think about. I it’s almost like my own mortality, right? I’m like, I don’t want to think about that, you know? But there really are some benefits of exercising a few habits all year long so that it’s not this big hairy thing at the at the end of the period. Yeah. So yeah, speak to that a little bit.

Nisla Love: So when people think of tax planning, they always think about the billionaire. All that good, great stuff where it is not for me. You can tax plan on so many levels. It could be from I’m going to and I’ll just use an example like utilize pre tax benefits like your 401. K you maximize that or the matching and that reduces your tax liability. That’s one way to tax plan to make sure that you’re putting enough money is set aside and then coming with a tax professional say like you get a bonus or you get a bump in your your income, how are you going to pay that tax? Is that something that you can anticipate? Is there different strategies in place where you could alleviate the cost of your tax liability? That’s why it’s so important. So it varies from different individuals. So I always encourage that no matter what income you have, there’s always room to tax plan and it’s better to do it before the year starts or during the year. So that way when it’s tax season, you don’t get this outrageous bill or a lower refund and you’re surprised because you had did your homework the prior year.

Stone Payton: I know that that is wise counsel and it still feels like. But no, I mean, I think I think I’ll be happier if I will actually do more of that. And I’m sure our listeners would as well. We’re having this conversation. We didn’t plan it this way or it’s just circumstance, but we happen to be having this conversation on Veteran’s Day, November the 11th, 2022. Thank you for your for your service because you are a veteran military retired spouse. My question is, do you feel like your your military experience has had some impact on your ability to to run a successful business and serve your clients?

Nisla Love: Yes, I really do. I really do. It has because with being in the military, it’s you learn so much life skills and so many tools in your pocket. And when I say tools in your pocket, where it brings you to a place of humanity, humble, and you’re exposed to so many different diversity that you can bring that experience, it gives you patience, things that other people wouldn’t endure. You just you’re able to you’re able to do it. So it has really has played a part in my life. And it also my business as a veteran and a military spouse.

Stone Payton: I thought maybe that would be your response. And I have had the pleasure of interviewing other business professionals who have served, and that has that has typically been the response. Everything from equipping these folks to lead other people to also having the the resiliency that it takes to be an entrepreneur. And you touched on it to the military, perhaps more so than a lot of private sector organizations has been for some time. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say a model for diversity and inclusion and yeah, yeah. So, man, we’re we’re so fortunate and you’re fortunate to have that background. Okay, before we wrap, I’d love to leave our listeners with a couple of Pro tips. Particularly our business owners are entrepreneurs. I don’t know if it’s tax planning tips, some do’s, some don’ts, some things to watch out just for a couple of actionable things that we ought to be reading, doing, not doing. Let’s leave them with Let’s leave them with a couple of pro tips.

Nisla Love: Okay. So process one and I touched it on before. Make sure you document everything. You have your receipts, Make sure that everything is in order in a spreadsheet or a system, a bookkeeping system where it is trackable. So that way you can always go back and retrieve your information. Another tip is don’t wait till the last minute to plan. Be proactive so that way, if anything comes up, you’re you’re ready for it. Another tip is when you get a tax professional, make sure you ask questions. If they don’t answer your question, it’s okay to move on to the next one. This is your livelihood regardless of what they do or don’t do. At the end of the day, you are liable for for that tax return because you’re signing it.

Stone Payton: What’s the best way for our listeners to connect with you? If they’d like to have a conversation with you, learn more about your work.

Nisla Love: You can reach me at Chu’s Love Solutions dot com and you can sign up for an initial consultation. And I would love to have a conversation with you.

Stone Payton: And you can practice in all 50 states, right?

Nisla Love: That’s what we talk. Yes, I can.

Stone Payton: Okay. Fantastic. Well, it has been an absolute delight having you on the show today. Thank you for investing your time with us and helping us get educated and maybe even a little recommitted to getting on top of this thing.

Nisla Love: Thank you for having me.

Stone Payton: My pleasure. All right. Until next time, this is Stone Payton for our guest today with Choose Love Solutions, The lady herself and this little of and everyone here at the Business RadioX family saying we’ll see you in the fast lane.