The Tax Man Cometh

Recently I went fishing on a charter boat out of San Diego. The bite was heating up and Yellowfin Tuna were flying over the rail faster and faster as guys would hook up and yell for the gaff. It was one of those great trips. Then all of a sudden someone said ‘Hey look at this, there’s a shark !”. Sure enough, a Mako shark was chewing on the tuna the guy had brought to the boat. The crew was quick to respond and gaffed what was left of the tuna, but it was too late. The comments that went around the boat were: “The tax mans is here”, “lost one to the tax man” and “gotta pay the tax man”.

So, being the tax geek that I am, some questions immediately popped into my mind: Since we were fishing off the coast of Mexico would the shark be an international tax man? Either way he sure took a bite out of my friend’s day. Maybe my friend should have made a waters edge election…or opened an offshore account? Perhaps the boat should have negotiated a tax treaty with Mexican sharks?

Okay, no more dumb accountant jokes. I guess the point of this ramble is to point out that taxes are always a part of success. Smart people accept that fact and manage the tax burden, not ignore it. Our goal is to keep the pain to a minimum.