The Pattie Gentile Show as heard on WADK Radio Ep 39

Pattie Gentile's "Fighting the Good Fight Podcast" is now a weekly radio program! Heard Saturday evening's at 6 and again Sunday morning at 10 at www.wadk.com or 1540AM Newport RI.

Host Patricia Gentile continues "Defending Taxpayers & Solving Their Tax Problems". With this new format, The Pattie Gentile Show will be your weekly appointment with Host Pattie Gentile & her guest experts as they discuss the latest tax news, issues and cutting-edge strategies to resolve and prevent tax problems.

Here on episode 39, we welcome owner & pitmaster of Angry Hog Barbecue - Barbecue - North Woodstock, New Hampshire Joe Bernier

Enjoy and tune in on WADK.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

I'm Patricia Gentile, founder of New England Tax Relief. I started this practice for hardworking families and small business owners getting crushed by IRS debt they didn't know how to fight. I work directly with the IRS on your behalf, negotiating settlements, stopping collections, reducing penalties, and handling appeals. Personally, no call centers, no runaround, just me working for you. Call or schedule online for your free confidential consultation at 1-800-8808388 or at New England Taxrelief.com. Welcome everyone to the Patty Gentile Show. And in studio with me as always is my producer, John Ianuzi. We like to kick off the show with notable dates or events. And I wanted to mention uh here, John, that I got a lot of feedback from friends and family on our text line. Area code 603-2040104. So anybody wants to text us, that's the number, 603-204-0104, about our coverage of the of Scotland and the Scots being in Boston because they were playing at Patriots Stadium for the FIFA World Cup matches. Did you get some feedback from family and friends about enjoying our conversation about the Scots?

SPEAKER_01 2:05

Well, I have to tell you, it's dominated every conversation. I mean, they just left a couple of days ago, and immediately in the Boston Globe, an open letter was printed thanking them for visiting and for being such wonderful guests. And I do suspect that Craft's move is going to be emulated and copied by I'm sure other sports and media outlets. I think that this Scotland-Boston love affair has just started.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Well, we've got Sister Cities now. Um, also uh around Boston last week's show, uh family, friends uh really enjoyed Frankie Boyer being on and talking about all the activities and the events going on in Boston between now all the way through the middle of July because of the 4th of July and the United States birthday of 250 years. Uh, they really enjoyed that. The thing I wanted to mention here is opening Thursday, it opened on Thursday, uh June 25th, and will go all the way through July 10th, is the Great American State Fair on in Washington, D.C. on our national mall. All 50 states and the six United States territories are going to be represented there. Um, of course, there's going to be carnival rides, there's a 110-foot ferris wheel, and there's live daily programs, including there's going to be something called uh what is it? Maha Monday. M-A-H-A Monday, which is stands for Maha, making America Healthy Again. So there's going to be Maha Mondays. And uh this is just very exciting. I saw the kickoff on television, the and I just think it's free. I mean, talk about a very exciting uh birthday to celebrate, very patriotic, but everything they have there, you're gonna learn about all the 50 states and the six territories, and you're gonna have fun and you're gonna celebrate. It's just just such a huge celebration, and I really am thankful that we're having this great American uh state fair where they are. Have you uh do you know anybody who's going down?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

I I you know what I don't, however, I can tell you that that would be something for first of all. I don't know about making healthy. I know the way I eat at carnivals. That doesn't that doesn't add up, but I'd love to. I'd love to go down there and think about how many interesting people you could meet and talk to as a radio guy with all 50 states being represented.

SPEAKER_02 5:13

Oh yeah, definitely. That right, you'd be talking with everybody about it.

SPEAKER_01 5:17

I I mean me, it's my I drive my wife crazy, but yeah, I I stop and talk to everybody. That's just what I do.

SPEAKER_02 5:24

I said to my husband, I said, we could easily jump the Accela train out of Boston down to DC. We could drive down, you know, probably be eight hours straight drive for us.

SPEAKER_01 5:36

Yeah, that sounds about right. Yeah, and uh cell is a little pricey.

SPEAKER_02 5:40

What's that?

SPEAKER_01 5:41

It's a little pricey, it's a little expensive.

SPEAKER_02 5:45

Well, the Acela. Yeah, train, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:47

Yeah, it's a wonderful way to travel, but for it's not the most budget-friendly option.

SPEAKER_02 5:52

Right. Um, so it it's really doable, and it's going on through July 10th. So I just want to put it out there, and I'm sure there's so much coverage. And you can go to freedom250.org. That lets you know what's going on every single day, including you know, where to park, where to stay, what's going on. It's great stuff. I wanted to mention that we did get a text from a listener out of Stonington, Connecticut. And she was catching up on the last few weeks of episodes, and I just want to let everybody know. Feel free about texting us at 603-204-0104. Anytime you're listening to the podcast downloads, if you're catching up and we have a poll question you want to answer, or you have a question to some topic we covered, uh it's it doesn't matter if you are coming late to the party, if you think you are, because you're Yeah, there's no such thing. Right, exactly. No such thing. Uh but she was saying that she really enjoyed the show with the Cajun Cook, and that was Memorial Weekend. Um, he is a riot and said, keep up the good work and give our best to everyone in Newport. So uh thank you so much over in 917 Area Code and Stonington, Connecticut. Uh John, you have anything, any text or any Facebook content?

SPEAKER_01 7:28

I do parcel, I guess, with our Cajun friend. And forgive me if I've already shouted these folks out, but Madisonville, Louisiana.

SPEAKER_02 7:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 7:39

We that's that's 3% of our downloads this past week. Uh Albany, New York, we always love seeing them. And of course, who who am I gonna say, Patty? Oh, Ashland. Ashburn, Virginia. Ashburn. There they are. Virginia. And I have to tell you, I happen to be monitoring the uploads and some of the platforms that we see activity on. Apple obviously is 46% of our downloads, but then we have Spotify, we have web browser, and of course, our friends at Downcast, 4% of our downloads, downcast. And then the Apple Home Pod, iHeartRadio, and Google Podcasts running out of list. So I happen to notice when I uploaded this past week's podcast that within minutes we had several dozen downloads, and right there in that top list was Ashburn. So Ashburn. All right, probably close to the mall, right there. If you if you're heading down to DC for the for the fair, right, swing by Ashburn.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

Right? We'll have to reach out and let you know. So down there in Ashburn, so we can get together. I think that'd be awesome. Uh so today we are going to in our next segment, when we come back from the commercial break, we're going to complete our 10 taxpayer bill of rights segment, the series I've been doing leading up to the 4th of July. And we will have our guest today following. And his name is Joe Bernier. He's the owner and pitmaster of Angry Hog Barbecue Smokehouse, Grill, and Catering. So from the Cajun Chef to New England Barbecue, Smokehouse, and Grill.

SPEAKER_03 9:36

So come on back, let's try it again.

SPEAKER_02 10:24

And like I mentioned, we are going to complete now the last of the taxpayer bill of rights. The taxpayer bill of rights is a cornerstone document that highlights the 10 fundamental rights taxpayers have when dealing with the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS wants every taxpayer to be aware of these rights in the event they need to work with the IRS on a personal or business tax matter. I want to give out this website, taxpayeradvocate.gov. Because what I cover here, when I cover these rights, if you are working with the IRS, either as a taxpayer representing yourself or a tax professional helping your clients with their tax problems, you want to go and look up these rights because they're in much more depth and detail than I can cover in just a segment. The last three are the right to finality, the right to privacy, and the right to confidentiality. And the right to finality says that the taxpayers have the right to know the maximum amount of time they have to challenge the IRS's position, as well as the maximum amount of time the IRS has to audit a particular tax year. And the taxpayers have the right to know when the IRS has finished an audit. So one of the points here is what this means for you is that generally you will only be subject to one examination per taxable year. However, the IRS may reopen a taxable year that has been previously examined if the IRS finds it necessary. For example, that there's evidence of fraud. Also, the IRS generally has three years from the date your return was filed to assess the tax. And there are some limited exceptions to the three-year rules, such as not filing a return or filing a fraudulent return. The IRS generally has 10 years from the assessment date to collect unpaid taxes from you. However, there are a number of circumstances where the 10-year collection period may be suspended, such as during a period when the IRS cannot collect. Like if you are you have a bankruptcy pending, if you have a collection due process proceeding, if you have an offer and compromise pending, and if you believe you have overpaid your taxes, you can file a refund claim asking for the money back. Generally, you must file a refund claim within three years from the date you filed your original return or two years from the date you paid the tax, whichever is later. The right to privacy means that you know taxpayers have the right to expect that the IRS inquiry or examination or their enforcement action will comply with the law and be no more intrusive than necessary, and that they'll respect all due process rights, including search and seizure protections and a collection due process hearing where applicable. So the IRS cannot levy any of your personal property in the following situations. They cannot levy before it sends you a notice of demand. They cannot levy any of your property while you have a request for a payment plan pending. The IRS cannot levy any of your personal property in the following situations. Before it sends you a notice of demand, or while you have a request for a payment plan pending, or if the IRS will not recover any money from seizing and selling your property. And the IRS cannot seize your personal residence. A lot of people think they can, including a residence used as a principal residence by your spouse, former spouse, or minor child without first getting court approval. And it must show there is no reasonable alternative for collecting the tax debt from you. The IRS should not seek intrusive and extraneous information about your lifestyle during an audit if there is no reasonable indication that you have unreported income. So that's that under the right to privacy. And lastly, the right to confidentiality. Taxpayers have the right to expect that any information they provide to the IRS will not be disclosed unless authorized by the taxpayer or by law. Taxpayers have the right to expect the IRS to investigate and take appropriate action against its own employees, return preparers, and others who wrongfully use or disclose taxpayer return information. So what does this mean for you? In general, the IRS may not disclose your tax information to third parties unless you give permission. For example, you request that the IRS disclose information in connection with a mortgage or student loan application. If a tax return preparer discloses or uses your tax information for any purpose other than for tax preparation, the preparer may be subject to civil penalties. If the disclosure or improper use is done knowingly or recklessly, the preparer may also be subject to criminal fines and imprisonment. And in general, the IRS cannot contact third parties, for example, your employer, neighbors, or your bank, to obtain information about adjusting or collecting your tax liability unless it provides you, the IRS provides you with reasonable notice in advance. Subject to some exceptions, the IRS is required to periodically provide you with a list of the third-party contacts upon request. So as we get into our next segment, as I mentioned earlier, our guest is Joe Bernier, owner and pitmaster of Angry Hog, Barbecue, Smokehouse, Grill, and Catering. And at this time of year, there's a lot of seasonal businesses running and working in the tourist areas. And at the end of the show, my last segment, I like to call my coaching corner. I'm actually going to discuss seasonal businesses and the particular problems that they can run into and give you some tips and strategies for having a seasonal business, managing different aspects of it as well as how to pay those estimated income tax payments to the IRS. So come on back. Joe was formerly a construction contractor who crafted his own barbecue sauces and started Angry Hog Barbecue Sauce Company in 2011. He eventually developed that company into the Angry Hog Barbecue Food Truck on Lake Winnipesaukee in Meredith, New Hampshire. And now he's become the premier barbecue restaurant in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. So welcome, Joe. Thank you for coming on, especially during your busiest season.

SPEAKER_00 18:59

Thanks for having me, Patty. I appreciate it. Honestly, when we're busy as we are in the summers, I'm also the dishwasher and every other job in between, too. We're always planning for the next day. You know, by the time Wednesday comes, we're planning for the weekend. Because everything we cook has to be done before service, we have to have everything in the smoker the night before or the morning of that we open so that when we do open, we have enough to go. And in order for that to happen, it's probably probably a two to three day kind of thing of planning and preparation before it hits a customer's plate. I guess it first starts with you know sourcing good meat. And uh we've got a we have a couple of really good vendors who take care of us. Um in the summertime, sometimes it's even hard to get good cuts because uh there's a lot of restaurants around and they put a lot of demand on uh on the beef and chicken. And sometimes if you call an hour too late, you can't get the good beef. Then you gotta call somebody else. Try to find the good beef. Um honestly though, in uh in barbecue, we um we'll smoke anything. So uh even though we try to get some of the best stuff in, uh, you can take a nice choice cut of beef uh and it'll taste as good as the prime beef uh that you normally get. So um the challenge is always there. Uh when the meats come in, usually the prep chef and I uh open up the cases, go through it, decide what is going to go on the smoker and end up on somebody's plate, or what we're gonna do to process down some pieces we don't like, whether or not, you know, if something hasn't been cut right, or if it looks overly fatty, um we'll take that and process it into something else like a pulled chicken or a pulled pork. Um and with beef, we simply will grind it into in with the chuck and we make burgers out of it. So we handle all of our meat accordingly, pick the good stuff, put that into the smoker, the rest we process and use um for you know our burgers and and uh sandwich specials, things like that. So uh that's kind of the first part of the process. And then we start making our sides for the day. We start making things like our our chili and all of our pasta dishes and our um potato salad, coleslaw, because that it goes on fresh every day, and we it's always about trying to make sure you've got the right amount for the day because you don't want to have to stop in the middle of the day and have to make more. So in the morning. When we're done processing the meat, um, I will load the smoker with what we call uh short time smoke, which is basically any type of meat that we can smoke in six hours or less, so that we can do it during the day while we're on site. That includes things like ribs, chicken, uh, wings, sausages, and then the smoke will get emptied. We'll clean it out, and then we uh we load up the smoker around six or seven o'clock at night, uh, and that will run all night uh until we come back in the next day, take it, take out the uh the overnight meats and uh start processing those and getting those ready to be sold. So in between all of that, you know, we have all the other things to deal with, a normal restaurant, and um, you know, maintaining equipment, cleaning, uh setting up our our our customer uh play sets, things like that. And it just it's just one big cycle every day. And and we love that we love that the whole thing just kind of starts and we and we cycle through it and and we just keep going until summer season and fall season are over. And then we kind of uh we kind of look forward to to having a couple of months where we can step back and look at the process we used uh and decide if that's how we want to do it again the next season.

SPEAKER_02 23:37

Right.

SPEAKER_00 23:38

Um we've had four seasons doing it here, and we've gotten really efficient at how we process everything, how we uh how we plate, how we serve. Um, and everybody seems to love it.

SPEAKER_02 23:52

Well, it sounds like that everything is made fresh every day, including the sides and two sides that I didn't hear that came to mind were your baked beans and your cornbread.

SPEAKER_00 24:06

Oh yeah. Yeah, I uh my prep chef makes the baked beans, it's his recipe. Um it's instead of a like a barbecue bean, um, we're doing uh a maple and mustard flavored bean. And uh um we call them cowboy beans because we basically will use whatever cuts of meat we have uh left over from trimming that morning. So sometimes brisket goes in the beans, sometimes we put pork in it. Um uh on occasion, when I get spare ribs, we trim the spare ribs down to um St. Louis cuts, so we have a lot of uh rib meat left. We'll cut up the rib meat, put that in the beans. Um and the same with the the beans themselves. Uh if I uh if I get a hold of pinto beans, that's what's in the beans that week. Uh for the most part, uh it's navy beans and red kidney beans, uh a little uh little molasses, a little mustard, a little maple, uh always fresh New Hampshire maple. And um uh and the cornbread, uh I bake that all myself every day. I I make uh four to six loaves of cornbread every morning before anybody even comes in. Um and uh we put jalapenos in it, fresh jalapenos. Uh it's not hot, but it's a nice peppery note that goes along with the really kind of sweet you get out of the cornbread. I've been telling some friends uh lately that it's taken me about a thousand briskets, which is about um somewhere around 10,000 pounds of beef. It's taken me over a thousand briskets, but I finally this spring have nailed it.

SPEAKER_05 25:57

So you know I love that.

SPEAKER_00 26:00

It's like a 10-year journey with brisket. People struggle with brisket their whole lives and never get it right. People don't struggle and they get it right the first time. Um for me, it took me I don't know, it took me about 10 years to get it right where I want it.

SPEAKER_02 26:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

The trick we the trick with the restaurant is you can't cook that brisket all the way to perfection um and then take it out of the smoker and sell it. You have to you have to cook it and then you have to rest it. So it's gotta rest in a warmer a specific amount of hours before it gets served to the customers. So we have our warmer all laid out with a timer sheet so we know that if people are coming in at noon to use the these briskets on top, you know, and uh yeah, we got it nailed now.

SPEAKER_02 26:50

So Congratulations on that. Uh let our listeners know where they can find you.

SPEAKER_00 27:00

Oh well, we're in uh North Woodstock, New Hampshire, right off exit 32. Uh you basically get off the exit and uh you turn in the Woodstock, and we're right on the corner. Uh you can't miss us. Uh big red building. Uh we share the space with a brewery called Twin Barnes Brewing. Uh they handle all of the uh drinks and the beer, uh, and they're the front of house as far as uh our wait staff goes. Um and we handle all the food.

SPEAKER_02 27:32

Perfect, Joe. I've I've had your food, absolutely love it, completely homemade and fresh. I tell everybody to go there, and I also know that Angry Hog is on Facebook as well.

SPEAKER_00 27:46

Yep. Yeah, you can find us on Facebook. Uh you can Google us, and uh um you'll be able you'll find the link to our website. Um basically shows you everything we make. Uh we have a very large catering program, and uh that keeps me busy every weekend, too. So uh I love it. Uh I love I love the feedback we get from the customers. Um and it's something I I'm always going to enjoy doing.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

That's awesome, Joe, because you work very, very hard. Thank you so much for being on. Much success for the rest of the season.

SPEAKER_00 28:24

Thanks, Patty. It was nice to talk to you.

SPEAKER_02 28:52

And in our last segment here, I like to call it my coaching corner because I provide guidance and tips and strategies for taxpayers and tax professionals alike. Seasonal businesses have unique challenges around not just cash flow and staffing and planning, but also paying those estimated uh income taxes, both to the federal government and if your business is in a state that you have to pay also to the Department of Revenue. So this is where, you know, I have to say that the estimated income taxes for seasonal businesses, they tend to trip up a lot of seasonal business owners. And so I want to mention my recommendations for how to handle those. Uh first, you know, I have a basic rule here. The IRS requires quarterly estimated tax payments if you expect to owe $1,000 or more for the year. And the four deadlines are typically April 15th, June 15th, September 15th, and January 15th of the next year. The seasonal problem here is that the deadlines of these estimated tax payments don't align with when you actually earn the money, i.e., it's a seasonal business. We just heard from our guest Joe Bernier of Angry Hog Barbecue Restaurant, and it is a seasonal business up there in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. It is year-round. His restaurant is open year-round. But of course, here we are in the beautiful summer months and going into the fall because it's a beautiful fall season way up there as well. But then you've got all of winter that's very quiet. And so, how you want to handle uh paying estimated tax payments is that you want to set aside taxes in real time. What does that mean during peak season? And here we are for a lot of uh summer and fall tourist locations and uh businesses right now. A common rule of thumb is 25 to 30 percent. That's what you want to set aside uh for taxes. You want to set aside 20 to 30 percent of your net profit in a separate tax account every time revenue comes in. Don't wait until the quarterly deadline, and so just to be specific, net profit is your gross revenue, gross receipts, minus your overhead for this quarterly period that we're talking about here, and you're going to end up with a net profit. With the net profit is where you want to use that common rule of thumb about taking out 25 to 30 percent from that profit set aside into a separate tax account, and they'll be there when you have to pay that quarterly estimated tax uh on the due date. We have the next quarterly estimated tax due date is September 15th coming up. So some people will use what's called the prior year safe harbor method, and that's where you pay a hundred percent of last year's total tax bill across the four quarters. And if your income exceeded on this business, your uh net profit exceeded $150,000, you want to actually pay 110% of last year's total tax bill across the four quarters. You avoid the underpayment of estimated tax penalties by doing this, by using this prior year safe harbor method. Even if you end up owing more, you still will uh avoid this underpayment of estimated tax penalty because, once again, it's a prior year safe harbor method. And this is a useful, as they like to call backstop when income is hard to predict. What does that mean? Is that if income is hard to predict, then go with you know your prior year safe harbor method and pay in 100% or 110% of last year's total tax bill. You also want to match the payment size to when you earn. What does this mean is that the IRS allows an annualized income installment method that lets you pay more in quarters when you earned more and less when you didn't. And this can eliminate penalties for uneven income. The form number is 2210 A capital I standing for annualized income. So for 2210 AI is where you can calculate and use the annualized income installment method. Don't skip what's called the quiet. I do that in quotes, the quiet quarters. September and January payments catch many seasonal owners off guard. The calendar of these payments now and keep the cash reserved for September 15th and January 15th of 2027. So here's a practical setup for you. Open a separate tax savings account and automatically transfer. Do auto transfer of even a percentage of every deposit, that 25 to 30 percent if you would like. Work with an accountant who's familiar with set seasonal businesses. The safe harbor and annualized methods require a little calculation but can save real money. And lastly, track estimated payments carefully. They're easy to lose track of at tax time. So please track these estimated payments carefully so you don't lose track of them at tax time. So it's really this. The core discipline here is treating taxes like they're a cost of each of your sales, it's not just your overhead and paying your vendors and paying your employees. Taxes are a part of the cost of the sale, and not when a bill arrives later. That's how you want to look at this and have the mindset for that. So reserve as you earn, and the quarterly deadlines will become manageable to you. So until our next show, which happens to be next Saturday on the 4th of July, which we're very excited about. Have a great week.