PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER

I enjoy reading tax court cases because they are great way to identify what the courts are scrutinizing and what they find important. It’s also a very inexpensive way to learn from the very expensive mistakes of others. It’s a great form of leverage.

A recent tax case caught my attention. It involved a doctor who operated his practice as a sole proprietorship for several years, and then changed the structure. The new structure involved several changes that provided significant tax savings.

Two of the key changes were:

1. Putting the practice in an LLC. The LLC was owned by the doctor and a newly formed corporation (owned by the doctor).

2. Forming another new corporation (owned by the doctor) to provide management services to the LLC.

On the surface, the structure isn’t unusual. It’s not uncommon for a doctor’s practice to outsource its management function, nor is it uncommon for a practice to undergo ownership and entity changes.

The court, however, disregarded the two corporations as separate entities for tax purposes. This had a significant impact on the tax savings because all the income earned by the corporations was attributed to the doctor. At the end of the day, because the corporations were disregarded by the court, the tax result was no different than when the doctor was a sole proprietorship.

What went wrong? While this was a U.S. Tax Court case, the lessons to be learned are universal. There is a lot to be learned here about what went wrong.

The main issue the court had with the structure was that the doctor continued business as usual and changes were not made to the business operations to reflect the new structure.

Here are few of the specific findings that the court relied on in its decision:

- Neither corporation ever had employees

- Neither corporation ever paid salaries

- There was no evidence that the management service corporation ever performed the management services for which it was paid

- There was no service agreement between either corporation and the LLC – Only one of the corporations had a bank account

- Neither corporation had assets (other than a bank account)

- Neither corporation had day-to-day activity

- Assets were not retitled to / from the LLC

Complementary Opposites

If you study any aspect of oriental philosophy or culture you soon come across the terms ‘yin’ and ‘yang’. These terms are used to describe the opposite yet complementary nature of iChi energy which ancient people understood to be present behind the manifestation of anything in nature – the creation of structures, actions, seasons, emotions and movement.

In I Ching Astrology the qualities of yin and yang lie behind the understanding of the cycles of change that we go through. These nine-year cycles are moving from yin to yang; this means from dormancy in winter (yin) through the active rising stage of spring to the consolidation stages of yang. Similarly, the principal numbers also contain yin/yang attributes.

Yang’s nature is seen to emanate from the heavens and descend towards the earth. Conversely, yin’s natural tendency is to rise and return towards the heavens. As yin’s energy rises it becomes more diffused, and therefore slower and cooler, whereas yang’s descending energy becomes more concentrated, harder, hotter and faster. The outcome of this process is that structures that are bigger are seen as more yin, while those that are smaller and more compact are seen as more yang.

Here is a list of some typical opposites associated with yin and yang.

Yin: passivity; coolness; stillness; potential energy (power); cool; introvert; diligent; cautious; maternal; insecure; dependent

Yang: activity heat; movement; power (obvious); self-conscious; passionate; extrovert; impulsive; stubborn; bold; paternal; adventurous; independent

Intermingled Concepts

An important principle to bear in mind is that nothing is totally yin and nothing is totally yang. The centuries-old yin/yang symbol, which everyone these days is familiar with, expresses this concept perfectly. The dark section of the yin/yang symbol is representative of yin, but within it is a small circle of the opposite (yang) from the left-hand side. If we were to look at a tree we could say that its leaves, branches and trunk represent the yin element in its structure and that the yang expression is within its downward-growing roots.

A spring onion has far more upward nature (yin) within its structure and far less root (yang); compares this with a carrot, which has a greater concentration of energy and structure within its root (yang) and less emphasis on the leaf structure (yin). Similarly, if our nature is predominantly spiritual or intellectual we are more yin than an individual who is practical and grounded, who would be seen as more yang.