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When Running a Business or Retiring, If You Don’t Get the Taxes Right, Nothing Else Matters.



We have the expertise to empower you to make informed decisions with your money. We help people like you save thousands in taxes each year.

Click on the button that best describes your situation and start saving taxes now!




Protecting Who Owns Your Business



Protecting and Controlling Who Owns Your Business


Do you have a “Business Will?” This is a plan that spells out who owns and controls the business if something should suddenly happen to you, or in the event you and any partners decide to sell all or part of the business. Many businesses start with the best of intentions, among good friends. But a little success and a few years later, it’s a tangled mess of ownership with no real concrete plans for what happens when “eventually” occurs. An owner dies and leaves a spouse who really doesn’t understand the business, or a partner who suddenly finds themselves in partnership with a surviving spouse or child that they never intended to be partners with.

The $200,000 Business Tax Deduction



The $200,000 Business Tax Deduction


Very few people know about this strategy, even though it has been around for over 40 years. You can make a $200,000 tax deductible contribution to your retirement plan this year, and every year for the next five years. You might even qualify to contribute and deduct more! If you are in the top tax bracket, this deduction would reduce your taxes by approximately $86,000 per year, for $430,000 in tax savings over the next five years. That’s nearly a half-million dollars that stays in your family, and doesn’t go to the IRS. Now, here comes the best part. When you retire, you can begin drawing an income that will be guaranteed for life! Isn’t that why you worked so hard, so you could walk away and have a guaranteed check for the rest of your life? REMEMBER: We Live in a Two-Tax-System Country. One For The Uninformed . . . and One for the Informed. Can We Help You Make A Smart Tax Decision?

Selling To Your Employees Using An ESOP


Selling to your Employees Using an ESOP


If you have a profitable business with 50 or more employees, an ESOP might be the right way to exit your business. An ESOP gives you cash while allowing you to defer the capital gains to a future date. An ESOP rewards your employees who helped you build the business by giving them a stake in the ownership outcome. They’ll no longer be employees, but they’ll be owners in the business. Their future is tied directly to the future of the business giving them an incentive to perform their responsibilities well. An ESOP frees up your equity. Most business owners have the majority of their net worth tied up in their business. If the success of that business depends on the management of the owner, and he or she suddenly dies or is disabled, their family suffers because the business deteriorates due to the absence of the owner. An ESOP cures that. It begins freeing up your equity year-by-year, as you sell the business to the ESOP trust, and new management begins to slowly take over the everyday tasks of the business as you walk alongside them and train them. An ESOP allows you to exit on your timeline. With an ESOP you don’t just take a check and walk away. You start planning perhaps five years ahead of retirement, begin grooming the next generation of management, and slowly turn the reins over to them while at the same time taking a little more time off each year, and getting paid out gradually as you sell the company. And you don’t have to immediately pay capital gains….maybe never! If you’re informed, there is a smart way to sell your business. Can we help you?


What's My Business Worth?


What’s My Business Worth


What is your business worth? Really worth? Frank was a business owner of a company that regularly throws off a half-million dollars per year. He has a key employee who he thinks could run the business, and his plan when he retired was to walk away for a couple of hundred thousand dollars, and essentially give away the business he’d worked over thirty years to build. We did an analysis on Frank’s business, including comparing it to other businesses in the same industry providing the same services. We discovered that Frank’s business values today at about $1.8 million, yet he was going to sell it for $200,000. Frank is very good at what he does, but he’s not a business valuation expert. As a result, he was about to make a $1.6 million dollar mistake. Tom and Julie made a similar mistake. They owned a business that was worth somewhere around a million and a half dollars, but they sold it for a million planning to retire in their 50’s. Unfortunately, they came to see us after they’d sold the business, and the first thing we had to point out was that they owed $300,000 in taxes, and didn’t have enough money to retire and stay retired. They sold the cash cow, and instead of retiring now they are looking for a job. Can we help you?

Tax Reduction Strategies


Tax Reduction Strategies


Karl owned a construction specialty business with eighteen employees, a fleet of trucks, and a shop/office from which he netted about $600,000 per year. He came to us because he was concerned that he was paying too much in income taxes. We showed Karl the Tax BlueprintTM process and explained how we’d review his business structure and tax returns, then come back with recommendations for how he could improve things. Karl was understandably leery, until we explained that the way our Tax BlueprintTM process works we guarantee that the taxes saved in just the first year alone (not to mention every year after that) will be double the amount he paid as our fee. He immediately said “I’m in!” We evaluated Karl’s business and tax returns, and came back with a plan that included property leases, a qualified health savings strategy with business paid health insurance, a vehicle leasing program, a risk mitigation strategy, and an (deductible) owner’s pension plan. His total tax savings was $133,000 this year, and every year going forward. The result is a 22% increase in his net benefit from owning the business. Another client, Frank, only reduced his taxes by $34,000 per year. And Arnold, he reduced his taxes by $10,000 per year. But regardless of the amount—$133,000 or $34,000 or $10,000—it’s all free money that they were paying the IRS that they aren’t paying any more. There really are two-tax-systems One For The Uninformed . . . and One for the Informed. Which system are you in? Can we help you?

EmployER Benefit Plans


EmployER Benefit Plans


As a business owner, your benefit plans should provide the maximum benefit to you, first. Then, if you want to provide a benefit to rank-and-file employees, you can do so. But that’s the opposite of how most people do it. Employers often start plans that benefit employees—at cost to the business owner—and then limit the owner’s benefits because of something call “top heavy.” That leaves the business owner taking the leftovers! We think that’s backwards! As the owner who has taken all the risks and poured blood, sweat, and tears in to your business you should be the greatest beneficiary of your company’s profits. In both of these cases we helped the business owners develop outside financing so they were able to walk away from their businesses with tax-free cash in their pockets, and with no risk that the business would come back to them if the new owner for any reason failed to take the business forward in the decades ahead. There are two retirement planning systems. One for the uninformed, and one for the informed. Can we help you?


Owners First™


Owner’s First™


Owner’s First™ is our proprietary process for helping business owners keep more of what they earn. If you aren’t intentional about taking care of yourself, your employees and business will get all the cream, and you’ll be left with the scraps. Taxes: This is where it all begins. Most business owners don’t realize they are overpaying their taxes, and accountants never tell them. There are two-tax-systems. One for the uninformed, and one for the informed. May we help you reduce your income taxes this year, and every year going forward?

A Risk-Free Exit


A Risk Free Exit


Jill and her husband are successful multi-concept business owners who want to retire in a few years and have their son take over the businesses. But they are too busy running the businesses to spend anytime planning on how to make this happen, and they are so angry with the amount of taxes they are paying that they can’t really think straight about it. They need a “Business Will.” They need to figure out what their business is worth; that’s “Business Valuation.” They need a plan for how to transition the business to the son, and how to finance it so they aren’t left holding the bag when they are 75 years old, if the son should get sick, or die, or divorced. Arnold is 66 and owns a service business that treats him well. He’s thinking about selling out and has identified a key employee—his current operations manager—who he thinks he should probably sell the business to. He’s planning to just walk away and let the manager “send him a check” for twenty years after he retires. But what happens if the manager takes over the business and then fails, or dies, or gets divorced. Arnold’s twenty year paycheck could disappear. In both of these cases we helped the business owners develop outside financing so they were able to walk away from their businesses with tax-free cash in their pockets, and with no risk that the business would come back to them if the new owner for any reason failed to take the business forward in the decades ahead. There’s a smart way to leave your business, and a dumb way. Generally, it has to do with whether you are informed or uninformed. Can we help you?



The tax code is full of rules that say you MUST pay taxes, but there are exceptions to every rule.

Our team of tax attorneys and enrolled agents help business owners reduce income taxes immediately. Our clients reduce income taxes by a minimum of $20,000 every year, and some save as much as $100,000 in taxes. Imagine what you could do to benefit your family and retirement if you saved this much.


Get the answers you need and get ready to start saving on taxes. 


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5 Ways to Plug The Holes In Your Wealth Bucket


What happens when the bucket that holds all your wealth has holes that are slowly leaking out all your hard-earned money?









Taxes are inevitably going to rise during your retirement. It’s already written into the law.

Most Americans are already virtually guaranteed to pay higher taxes in retirement. This situation becomes even more serious after you turn 70 and a half, and the government requires you to make minimum distributions from your IRA. They will then control the rate you will be taxed.


You can protect yourself from higher taxes. But you need to act quickly.


Request a 30 minute tax talk with Barry, now. 


5 Ways to Plug The Holes In Your Wealth Bucket


What happens when the bucket that holds all your wealth has holes that are slowly leaking out all your hard-earned money?









At Saving You Taxes, we love CPAs and we believe everyone should use a CPA to make sure their taxes are in compliance. 

But a CPA’s education seems to be focused largely on debits and credits and not so much on tax regulations, or the business-side of having a practice and attracting more clients.


We help CPAs like you double your income or better and we provide you with the information and guidance you need, to answer your clients’ most urgent questions about taxes.


Up your game. Build a better practice and make your clients stick with you.


5 Ways to Plug The Holes In Your Wealth Bucket


What happens when the bucket that holds all your wealth has holes that are slowly leaking out all your hard-earned money?







See what we're all about

Your Money. Your Unique Journey.

J. Barry Watts Photo

J. Barry Watts

Tax Strategist and Retirement Designer

Tax Elimination & Reduction is the chief priority for the founder of American Tax Strategies and our principal strategist, J Barry Watts. He helps business owners reduce their income taxes through immediate tax savings this year and every year going forward. When it comes time to sell their business, he helps owners reduce or eliminate the capital gains taxes. Those same business owners then draw tax-free income through all of their retirement years.

For a quarter-century Barry has helped business owners understand what is possible, and work with their professional advisors like CPA’s and tax lawyers to create the desired outcome for the owners—always while paying the least amount of taxes possible.

His Credentials, Awards, Articles, and Media Mentions Include:

  •  2019 Hall of Fame, InsurMark 
  • 2018 Certified Tax Master
  • 2018 Admitted to practice before the IRS
  • 2017 Contributing Author, Retire Abundantly
  • 2017 Insurmark, #2 Tax Strategist Nationwide
  • 2017 Shareholder, First Financial Resources, Newport Beach, CA
  • 2016 Fellow, American Tax Planning Institute
  • 2014-2015 Host of MoneyMatters on CBS affiliate KOLR.
  • 2013 Keynote Speaker Nat’l Investment Bankers Assn, New York, NY
  • 2012 Keynote Speaker, Investment Bankers Assn, Los Angeles, CA
  • 2006 Leader’s Council, Raymond James Financial Services, Inc.
  • 2005 Chairman, Money University, Springfield, MO
  • 2004 Chairman’s Council, Raymond James Financial Services, Inc.
  • 2004-2005 Host of The Money Show on KWTO 560 FM
  • 2002 quoted in SmartMoney
  • 2000 Certified Financial Planner™
  • 1994 Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Series 7, 24, 28, 63, & 65


Eric Burlison Photo

Eric Burlison

Tax Planner & Retirement Designer

Who better to guide you through the complex maze of tax regulations than a person responsible for writing the tax laws? Eric Burlison is a Tax Planner & Retirement Designer helping individuals reduce taxes, prepare for retirement, and protect themselves from the growing costs of Long-Term Care. Serving as a Senator in the Missouri legislature gives Eric intimate knowledge into Federal & State tax law. He received his Masters in Business Administration from Missouri State University, and enjoys hunting and fishing the Ozarks. Eric & his wife Angie are actively involved in Destiny Church in Republic, MO. They live in Battlefield with their two daughters, Reese and Aubrey. 


Nola Peterson Photo

Nola Peterson

Assistant

Nola Peterson has worked alongside Barry since 1998, when the company had only one filing cabinet with only one-half drawer of client files. Since that time she earned her NASD Series 7, 24 and 63 certifications and became an expert not only in managing the back office of a highly productive financial firm with hundreds of clients, but in managing customer service and communications for clients of the firm.


John Peterson Photo

John Peterson

Assistant

John Peterson joined his wife Nola in supporting Barry in 2000 providing back office administrative and processing support. John earned insurance, NASD series 7, 63 and 65 certifications, and handles all of the application processing to open hundreds of new accounts every year while implementing the money management among those accounts.


Higher taxes are coming.

J. Barry Watts is an Enrolled Agent (EA) Tax Strategist. 

Enrolled Agents (EAs) are the only profession that has specific tax code training from the Internal Revenue Service. Many CPAs, who are experts in accounting, look to EAs as the experts in tax. Like attorneys and CPAs, EAs can represent taxpayers before the IRS if needed, and they can help you develop tax strategies that will close the tax hole in your money bucket.

While accountants often help you prepare income tax returns using government forms, they generally don’t forecast future taxes and strategize on how to minimize them. They record what happened last year.  As Enrolled Agent specializing in tax strategy will evaluate your past returns and your current situation to analyze and recommend tax strategies that may be best for you. Importantly, these are proven strategies that are already written into the IRS Code. If you implement those strategies, they will reduce your income taxes.  

Bottom line: When it comes to money, if you don’t get the taxes right, nothing else really matters.



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