Hello! My name is Gary Shotton and I’m here as a part of Inspiring Better Business and today we’re going to talk about paying taxes. Oh my goodness! That is not a subject that we want to talk about because all of us have taxes and that is not fun paying taxes. Now I will tell you the United States of America has a tax system. And when we have a tax system that’s done fairly and we want to contribute to the tax system and the money is used wisely, then we have roads, we have schools, we have libraries, we have police department, we have Fire Department. We have a lot of things that the rest of the world does not have. And somehow the rest of the world thinks wow! I want all those things of America but as Christians whoa! why would I pay taxes? Well, I believe there’re several reasons and there’s an approach that would be helpful here. Now, here’s the question that was posed to us and I think it’s legit. They said, what do we do because we’re doing good business, our groups are doing business and we’re working along and all of a sudden here comes the tax collector or the tax bill and we’re taxed so heavily that it drives us out of business.

Wow! I think that’s pretty common around the world. I’ve heard that in Europe, former Russian Bloc countries and other countries, not just Africa. That is a common problem. So when we ask and tell our groups to ask tough questions we didn’t mean quite that tough! But let’s try to make a shot at this. Number one, Matthew was a tax collector says Levi, the tax collector, that’s Matthew. And it’s interesting in Matthew, Mark, Luke and Matthew, Mark and Luke, three out of the four, New Testament biography books, Matthew, Mark, Luke. They all refer to pay under Caesars what Caesars and give unto God what’s God’s. And in one case there’s a referral to the fact that they were told to go out and I didn’t look up the verse, I think you could find it. That, go out and do some fishing and in the pond or in the stream, you can catch a fish, in there you’ll catch a fish that will be enough money to pay my taxes and several others, is the way I gather. So you know God never did say, Jesus didn’t say “don’t pay your taxes” but he had a unique way of doing it. I’m not suggesting that you go fishing looking for a coin in the fish’s mouth but let’s talk about your situation.

Number one, what I think in my limited discovery and discussions on this subject is that, many of our small businesses, yes, it appears that you’re making a profit because there’re people coming in, people going out, money changing hands. But that in itself does not may mean you’re making a profit. And a good fair tax is not based on the sales but based on the profit. Of course that’s difficult because you get to list your expenses, your income minus your expenses normally equals your profit and if your profit is lower than your expenses then it represents your loss for the month or the year or whatever time period. And so, when it comes down to it, many times we understand and believe that the tax system, the tax collector does not trust the small business person and so when there’s an opportunity to tax, they go to the highest level of tax that would just like cover it all and slap that on you. Well, we’re of opinion, I’m of the opinion that you should be taking very good record-keeping. You should be able to show every sale and be able to show every expense, you should be able to log and keep that as a part of good business. Then when it comes time for taxes, I think you have a chance to present that to the tax authorities and plead your case and say listen, maybe you’re wanting to collect that amount of taxes from others but I have records here to show that’s impossible. If you want to drive me out of business, if you want nothing, keep pressing this issue. I will pay a fair tax. Kind of plead your case with them regarding having great records showing that you’re willing to pay a fair tax but not just based on total sales or what it looks like.

Number two, we found out in our own City, that we had a situation it wasn’t taxes, but we had a complaint. I had a complaint this last week on something that we’re doing in a particular business endeavor. And I said, “well, tell me” to the authority. I said, what, what, what is the law that I have broken? Can you show me what law we’re breaking? And the responses, well, somebody just didn’t like the way something looked. I said, well, that really isn’t going to work very well for me because what if somebody doesn’t like this or somebody else doesn’t like that. We’ve got to go back to the actual law, the actual rule, the actual ordinance, whatever it is and if you’ll show me that ordinance, that rule and together we will work through this because I want to do business. That’s what you could do in this case. Say, hey! You know, where is your rule in law? What is your authority? I’m not disrespecting by the way, I never talked down to this person in authority. I said I respect your position but I also, you have to respect me to find out what is exactly the written documentation that I should be following. And when we look at that, many times it’s not half as bad as when we first thought. There’s summarizing and you can look at that with that individual. Say listen, where is it that says this is the fair tax? And then third, but not least, get on the board and get some better laws. You know, a country that doesn’t have good law and order is not a country that can prosper. That hinders business. And so we do need taxes for sure to pay the police and fire department, and then it would be nice to have some nice roads, and it would be nice to have some better schools, but you can’t pay all of that. So, you can have some voice.

And there are some people that are not called to business. They’re not called to own a business but they are called to be in the service of serving the community through governments, through running the business of the government. And get those people in there, get them elected, get them, get your voice known, start a movement that starts changing and improving things. I know that’s not going to help right away. And I don’t know that this is a 100 percent answer for everything but at least I’m giving you some thoughts and directions. I have, my daughter is my tax consultant for me, Perry, paying the proper taxes. And to the very best of my ability, I’m paying all of my taxes as designed by law. I have the saying that says this, I have the right to arrange my business affairs in the least taxable manner allowed by law. So you need to know the laws and you can apply certain expenses in our case, that are legitimate and if you don’t apply that, you didn’t get the full advantage of that expense, thus, you showed more profit than you should have showed, thus, you’re going to pay more taxes. Well, I hope that makes sense. I hope we can help. This was a tough question. Keep them coming. We love it! Thank you!