Albert Einstein once said that "the hardest thing in the world to understand is income tax." For Einstein, tax return preparation was the business of "philosophers, not mathematicians."

If there's anyone who can truly relate to this famous quote, it's a real estate professional. With fluctuations in income and an ever-changing real estate market, it's easy to see how one or two minor mistakes can be costly or even detrimental to your bottom line.

As your long-term strategic business partner, your success is important to me, and so I'm always searching for ways to add value to your business to help give you an edge over the competition. With this in mind, I'd like to share with you a great interview I have on CD with expert tax attorney, Ed Lyon, an award-winning author, speaker, and consultant. Ed Lyon concentrates his practice on helping real estate agents and investors avoid costly tax mistakes. In just one hour, you can learn several small changes you can make to save thousands of dollars in income taxes.

For Ed, the key to tax preparation is preparation itself, and his forward-planning process provides "audit-proof" tax deductions, credits, and loopholes that even Einstein could appreciate. From cars, meals, entertainment, client gifts, and home offices to retirement plans and medical expenses, these deductions amount to huge savings for real estate professionals in today's marketplace.

Topics discussed include:

• Create an ongoing, proactive business plan to legally beat the IRS without raising a single red flag.
• Discover the pros and cons of S Corp, C Corp, and LLCs, and how real estate agents should structure their businesses to maximize money-saving deductions.
• Learn the proper documentation to avoid "gray areas" and protect yourself from IRS audits. The IRS provides very specific guidelines as to what records to keep and for how long. By being prepared to produce these records, any potential action taken by the IRS can be immediately resolved.
• Utilize family employment strategies to recover many qualified "unreimbursed" expenses, including high-ticket items, like braces for your children's teeth!
• Find out about the "creative tax deductions" real estate agents most often overlook, including home office, automobile, meal, and entertainment expenses, as well as the IRS-approved method for simplifying the documentation associated with these deductions.
• Learn the importance of meeting with your CPA or Tax Preparer quarterly to create peace of mind and avoid the anxiety of the April Tax scramble.

Listen to this interview while you're in the car or at the gym and see if there aren't a few ways you can make your income taxes less taxing. Call me, and I'll send it over right away.