Tax Incentives: Yes, It's Important

5 Minute Read
Posted by Randy Eickhoff on Nov 10, 2011 2:00:00 AM

baseball_to_tax_incentives_its_importantMy son has been enjoying playing baseball over the last few years starting with t-ball and now playing farm league. For the first time in his short life, stuff matters, the way he fields the ball, the way he steps when he throws the ball and the way he stands at the plate preparing to hit. Finally! All those pieces of being a baseball player matter.

Being competitive means making the little stuff important

My son’s coach, (we’ll call him Ned for now to protect his real name) Ned, is a stickler for details and last week in practice tried hard to focus the kids’ attention on those little details like being in baseball ready position, getting their glove on the ground, stepping when they throw, etc. After every missed ball, the message was:

Make it important!

Every step, every throw, every pitch needs to be important and if you want to succeed, you need to make them important. The perspective or vision Ned was trying to instill doesn’t stop when you leave the baseball field; it’s true in all aspects of our lives and critical in your business.

Tax Incentives- It’s Important

Business owners are amazing people; they will work to squeeze costs out of manufacturing processes, develop new techniques for packaging more quickly, streamline operations for greater efficiencies and a host of other changes to make them more competitive both at home and globally (not to mention turn on the lights, design new products during the day, market and sell, oh, and empty the trash cans at night on their way home).

When it comes to incentives, though, it seems like there is a disconnect regarding the value they can bring. If taking a tax incentive will add $30,000 to your bottom line or $100,000 or more, why wouldn’t you make that effort a priority?

How much additional revenue would you need to generate to add the value of a tax credit to your bottom line and what would that cost you in terms of time, energy and dollars?

Perhaps it because a business owner knows their business and tax incentives are these strange things that seem odd and complicated(they are odd and complicated, that’s why green-eye shade accountants are the ones that tend to be the experts).

Changing the Game and Making It Important

Let me challenge you to think about what you might be missing In term of making yourWhat_are_you_doing_to_advance_the_ball? company the most competitive company in the market.

Are you the company your competitors fear because you seem to have more resources, enter new markets, grow faster than they can?

Are you leaving money on the table that someone else is using to grow their business?

A Lesson from Shannon Sharp at being the Best

Listening to talk radio the other day, I heard the story of Shannon Sharp, the hall of fame football player that chose to miss a dinner at the White House when his team won the Super Bowl. When he was asked why, his response was that if he missed a day of training, someone else was doing more than he was to be successful. So let me ask again,

What might your competitor be doing with tax incentives that perhaps you are not?

What say you friends?

Why might you not take advantage of a tax incentive that you are entitled to use?

Are you aware of all the incentives available to you in your state?

Have you pressed your CPA or Enrolled Agent to review available incentives and make sure you aren’t missing any?

Randy Eickhoff, CPA is President of Acena Consulting. With more than 20 years of tax and consulting experience, Randy focused on helping companies successfully document and secure tax incentives throughout the US. He has been a long-time speaker nationally as well as conducted numerous training sessions on R&D tax credits and other US tax incentives.

Related Articles

1.  R&D Tax Credits: Making Small Business Competitive

2.  Tax Incentives: Freebies with a Purpose

3.  R&D Tax Credits: The Ripple Effect Congress Isn't Seeing

Acena Free Tools & Subscriptions

Click Here to Subscribe to Tax Incentives! Acena's Monthly Newsletter

Free Strategic Tax Assessment Checklist

R&D Tax Credits - Additional Information

Free IC DISC Basics Slides

New Call-to-action  

 

 

Randy Eickhoff

Randy Eickhoff

Acena Consulting President Randy Eickhoff, licensed CPA, has partnered with more than 200 companies during more than 20 years of experience securing tax credits and other government incentives. His corporate partners range from multinational technology firms to smaller, privately held manufacturing, sports, and technology enterprises.