There’s a lot of dollars at stake here. It can run up to 40% or more of income. It can be your biggest expense item.

So why not have somebody who can be sharp enough to help you find ways to save some of this major expense?

There’s another reason too. The landscape changes so often because so much new each year you can’t keep up on all these law changes yourself. Without knowing it and with good intentions, you could get yourself in a lot of trouble.

Your circumstances can change too year to year. You want somebody who can adapt to your changing situations in your business or personal matters.

You want them to be savvy on the personal side as well. After all, you want to maximize the income that flows to you personally and not to the IRS.

Of course, you want to find somebody you’re comfortable with. Get a sense on how aggressive that person is and does it match your particular style. It’s not black and white. There are different shades of grey on certain matters. Ask questions and get a sense of how they would suggest you treat certain transactions in your business. It they want you to do things you don’t feel are ethical, consider the conversation to be over.

Finally, there is also the long term factor. You want the right structure that can maximize your value when you go to sell or transfer your company. Make the wrong choice and a good chunk of your value may disappear at the back end in the best case. In the worst case, buyers could be scared off.

There is serious money that can be left on the table. There is also the peace of mind factor. You want the balance of knowing that you are in compliance, not paying more than you need to, while always making the right moves in the long term. In many cases, the tax savings can be many times what you pay your financial consultant or CPA. This can be one of the biggest reasons companies change their outside accountant.