The Six-Figure Tax Bill

A routine sales tax audit turned into a six-figure nightmare that consumed ten months of Heather's life. In this episode, we walk through exactly what happened, what it cost, and the systems every photographer needs before the government comes knocking.

What to Listen For:

• Why your state's taxable rules change constantly
• The records every photographer needs right now
• How one auditor taxed every dollar in and out
• The plea bargain that saved five figures
• Why fighting the appeal wasn't worth it
• How Profit First covered the entire bill
• The case for collecting every client's address
• What a tax controversy attorney actually costs
• Turning a horrible audit into a family vacation
• Why distance makes everything look lucky

Whether you're worried about an audit or just want your business buttoned up, this conversation is full of takeaways you can use today. Give it a listen and start building the records and savings habits that protect you.

CONNECT + LEARN MORE:

Explore all things photography education at nicolebegleyedu.com

Ready to build a profitable photography business? Visit freedomfocusformula.com

Master the craft of pet photography at hairofthedogacademy.com

Follow along on Instagram - @nicolebegleyofficial 

Transcript

Nicole Begley (00:00)
In today's episode, we're not only giving an update on Heather's little tax situation that we talked about on a previous episode, we're also digging into things that you might want to consider running your business on ways to protect yourself from any future run-ins with the tax ban. If you're in business, this one is definitely a must listen. Enjoy!

Nicole Begley (00:22)
I'm Nicole Begley, a zoological animal trainer turned pet and family photographer. Back in 2010, I embarked on my own adventure in photography, transforming a bootstrapping startup into a thriving six-figure business by 2012. Since then, my mission has been to empower photographers like you, sharing the knowledge and strategies that have helped me help thousands of photographers build their own profitable businesses. I believe that achieving $2,000 $3,000 sales is your fastest route to six-figure businesses.

that any technically proficient photographer can consistently hit four figure sales. And no matter if you want photography to be your full-time passion or a part-time pursuit, profitability is possible. If you're a portrait photographer aspiring to craft a business that aligns perfectly with the life you envision, then you're in exactly the right place. With over 350,000 downloads, welcome to the Freedom Focus Photography Podcast.

Nicole Begley (01:23)
Welcome back to the Freedom Folks Photography Podcast, everybody. I am your host, Nicole Bagley, and today on the podcast, we have the one, the only, the about to be tax abated Heather Lautnan.

Heather (01:35)
About to be tax abated.

Nicole Begley (01:37)
Did I use that right?

Is that a is that a verb? Can a baited be a verb? What does that even mean? I think it works.

Heather (01:41)
we could make it a verb. Yeah,

I think so. Tax abated. Yes, I'm here for that.

Nicole Begley (01:48)
So okay. If you guys have been listening to the podcast for a while, you had a similar experience. When did this whole tax thing start? You know that that Heather had a little a little that's just interaction with the PA Department of Sale of Revenue with the sales tax audit. I myself had a sales tax audit a few years ago. Probably from start to finish, it was at least a year.

When when did this start for you?

Heather (02:17)
This started about ten months ago. So yep. Yeah, we are. Yeah, it's crazy.

Nicole Begley (02:18)
Okay, coming up on a year. Yeah. A year of so much

of your brain focused on, like off to the side, which is like more infuriating than than anything else.

Heather (02:31)
No,

listen, this is true. I will agree with you on this is that this low level hum in the background of having to deal with it, and sometimes it was a high level hum, depending on where we were at it in the process, is one of the things that has irritated me the most because it's a distraction. And it's like this fly that just keeps like coming your face, you swat it away, it disappears for a few minutes and then comes right back. And you you try to kill it. You try to, but I don't know. It

Nicole Begley (02:40)
huh.

Heather (02:58)
could survive like a nuclear war and it comes back and it just is it's infuriating because it's impacting I think it's impacting everything because now that I'm almost not quite but almost on the other side of it I can see where I will be liberated in my in my brain when this is like done and behind me and I'm at the point where I am almost not quite willing to do anything just to get it over with.

Nicole Begley (03:27)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, no, I get that. I get that for sure. because we only have so much mental bandwidth. And when you have that going on in the background, even if you're not focusing on it that day, like it's it's still there. And it's, I think one of the most challenging pieces of this is that it was such an unknown. And finally, you have a known thing. So that's why we wanted to record this to give you guys a little update.

But I want to start off before we jump into that with a little public service announcement for all our photographers out there. as a reminder that if you are in business, you need to be registered to collect sales tax in your state. And the rules for this change all the time. So even if you've been in business for eight, 10 years and you're like, I know what's taxable in my state. Do you? Do you? Because since I've been in North Carolina for eight years,

Heather (04:18)
No, we don't. We don't.

Nicole Begley (04:21)
what's taxable has changed. So when you were going through this, and even though I just went through a sales tax audit a couple of years ago, I was like, I should double check what's taxable now in terms of digital sales. And turns out pretty much all of the programs that I sell are taxable. So I'm sorry for all of you guys in North Carolina that you start seeing sales tax on your purchases. But but I was like, let me switch that so I'm compliant because I I don't want them to come knocking again and

me to get surprised with the big tax bill. So you need to double check if your sales your session fee, like are session fees taxable? In North Carolina, we don't like to do things straightforward in terms of sales tax. in North Carolina, the session fee is not taxable unless they buy something. And that could include digital files. So essentially the sales fee is taxable or the session fee is taxable. And all digital sales are taxable here too, which I would think

Heather (05:11)
What? Right. Yes.

Nicole Begley (05:20)
Is the majority of states now as taxable for digital files?

Heather (05:24)
I think you're right. And as always, we do not dispense any type of medical or sales tax advice. You need.

Nicole Begley (05:32)
I am not your financial planner nor your accountant.

Please check with a professional accountant for how it impacts your situation. This is for entertainment purposes only.

Heather (05:38)
Yeah. Yes.

It does and it does feel like entertainment and it feels

like there is a camera following me around, you know, like I'm being punked. That's how ludicrous this has been. Like it's almost like every time I would talk to you, we were both like, This can't even be for real. How is this real life? It's I I kept saying this is fake news. This is not real. Yet.

Nicole Begley (06:04)
So when

did this start? This started about 10 months ago. Just let's give everybody kind of the high level. I think when we left last time, you had gotten the main like the original assessment and you were starting to kind of push back on some things that should not have been included there.

Heather (06:23)
Yeah, I'm not even sure in the last episode where we were at amount-wise in terms of my tax liability because it has shifted multiple times. But this started last August. I got a phone call from the PA Department of Revenue, specifically from the auditor himself who was going to be auditing me. I can tell you exactly where I was when I took that call. My daughter and I were driving to a mall of all things, and I answered on CarPlay, you know, in the speaker.

My daughter is an accountant. She specializes in audit. And I answered the phone and she's shaking her head and she's saying to me, Don't say anything. Don't, don't, don't say anything. Do not speak. It's like very limited. So I referred him to our accountant. You and I have the same accountant, which is super helpful because he's familiar with our businesses. And I honestly, I mean, in the most naive way possible.

thought that this would be so simple and straightforward because I keep very good records, my books are clean, I follow the law and the code, or so I thought. I assumed he would just look at everything and be like, yeah, okay, maybe I missed something small. I I mean, listen, they're looking for money. I'm go and and Matt said to me from the beginning, Heather, you're gonna owe something because they're looking for money. So I

Nicole Begley (07:29)
Uh-huh.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Heather (07:51)
I I was like, okay, I'll pay whatever I owe. That is true, you know, I will, because I want to sleep at night. And I mean, I was like childlike. I was a child thinking about how I was ten months ago. So, so, so naive and uninformed. It's almost embarrassing, except how would you know? And he started digging in and it it just got wilder by the the month.

What he kept coming back with. And I would say the first assessment that he came up with was in December. So August through December. He asked us repeatedly for multiple documents, which I delivered every single time he asked by his deadline, every time without fail. Some things I didn't quite understand. So I would submit and he would come back and we'd resubmit. Okay, fine. In December, he decides that.

It it's just so unclear what I sell, you know, coaching. I sell coaching services. But it's so unclear and so confusing. He decided, I kid you not, to put six percent PA sales tax and use tax on every single dollar that came in and went out. So every every dollar I was paid from every client all over the world, he deemed that taxable. And he also deemed every purchase I made. So for instance, I purchased software.

Well, he says that's use tax. You need to pay six percent use tax on the software unless they collected it and remitted it, which Facebook does, but Kajabi doesn't. So you have to figure out who does what.

Nicole Begley (09:30)
However,

even Facebook though, for the Facebook ads, they do, but it's not it's not listed on your invoice. S it I mean it's infuriating.

Heather (09:36)
Correct.

Yeah, so that I that was that was one of 10,000 rabbit holes that I had to go chasing down to prove that Facebook, you know, this like massive corporation is paying PA sales tax. Why is that burden on me? I shall never know. But okay, we did that. He also decided that any coaching or professional education I purchased, so I hired coaches. This audit period was three years.

Nicole Begley (09:43)
Huh.

Heather (10:06)
Over those three years, I spent $70,000 on private coaching, business coaching, a service. He said that's taxable. I was like, your face is taxable. No, it's not. There's no way that that's all taxable. So at this high level, if everything that came in and went out of my business is taxable, he said, you owe $82,000 plus penalties and interest for a total of about $160,000.

Nicole Begley (10:36)
Or a house. Like what you want my left arm? What what?

Heather (10:39)
This news

was so astronomically insane. And we we knew it wasn't true or right, Matt and I, but like now you're working with the government. So it's not really easy to fight or negotiate with the government. And I I was he he delivered that by the way on a Friday at like 5 p.m. He sent Yes. Yeah. Correct. Yep.

Nicole Begley (11:07)
Like right before Christmas too, 'cause he was getting ready to close up for the year and like,

here, yeah, Merry Christmas. Yeah.

Heather (11:14)
It was a week before Christmas. It was the Friday

before Christmas. He sent that. And it was devastating. It was devastating because I thought, what how am I going to fight this? What to your point a few minutes ago, you said the worst part of this is the uncertainty. And I would agree with that. I worked extensively with my coach, who I still pay, talking about how can you create certainty for yourself when circumstances are uncertain in your business or your life.

How do you create it for yourself? What do you need to think or believe to generate certainty? And let me tell you something. The character development in the last 10 months has been crazy and necessary and good for me because I've had to really work on my mind management because that is a life-altering tax bill.

Nicole Begley (12:05)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Heather (12:08)
I mean, I I I don't even want to talk about what how would we pay that? What would that look like? I mean, we were looking into do they offer payment plans? Well, sure, but there's interest on it, and there's interest on the interest, and it just compounds. It's worse than a student loan in that regard. So that was December, and Matt called me right away and he said, Heather, it's not this is not true. This is not real. This is to scare you, it's to intimidate you.

These guys are not good people. I'd rather deal with the IRS than PA. I pro Yeah, he said he's still he said that today. I taught to him today. He said, We we'll figure this out. I don't want you to be he's he said, I don't want you to be distracted by this.

Nicole Begley (12:40)
No cheese.

You're like, I'm distracted. Is there a word for more than distracted? Like 'cause that's that's it.

Heather (12:58)
Yeah, I said, Okay,

but all right, so back and forth we went for another few months. Also, he assumed that every client was in Pennsylvania.

Nicole Begley (13:09)
Yeah, right. I think that's when, like, right after the New Year is when you feverishly sent out to everyone in Elevate and everyone that has been a private coach of yours of just like, Can I please get your address? because Yeah.

Heather (13:22)
Yes. Yes. I was actually

on the hunt for about 5,000 addresses. And so when I sent out emails about this, I got some replies from people that were like, Is this really you? This seems like a scam. This seems like fraud. So they wouldn't reply. And I'm like, no, I'm like in t Nicole, I was in tears. And I'm like, please, I'm begging you. I just need your address for that fifty dollar sale three years ago.

Nicole Begley (13:29)
Mm.

you're like, No, it's really me, I swear. Please help.

Heather (13:52)
You know, because those sales started to really add up and it

Nicole Begley (13:56)
Mm-hmm. Well, and that's

that's also where you might notice if you've purchased anything from I think either one of us now that you have to give us your address. I'm sorry. Sorry, not sorry. Sometimes on like Thrivecart will allow me to just do city state zip, which is all I really need. but like a job he doesn't have that option yet. So yeah. Yeah.

Heather (14:04)
Yep. Yeah, yeah, that's

Sorry, but yeah, we we we have

to do that. And I should have been doing that from the beginning. I just

Nicole Begley (14:22)
And and this is, can I jump in with another public service announcement? Make sure you have this information for your clients. You likely do for private clients, because hopefully they're signing a session agreement and all of that stuff. but make sure you have that as well because I also, when I went through mine, I had a

a letter from a tax attorney when I moved to North Carolina, I hired a tax attorney just to give me what I my tax liability was for my business here in this state. And so when I got my tax, my when I had my sales tax audit, I set all my initial paperwork with the finding from that lawyer. and so I was freaking out basically for what happened to you. I was like, my God, what if they try to say everything that I've ever sold is taxable?

I didn't even think about everything I ever purchased. Like, what? and so then they didn't even I sent that in with them, they didn't even look at them. But I think like my experience with North Carolina was very different than your experien experience with PA. They seemed like reasonable people and and like they were just like they didn't, once they had that letter, they didn't even look at any of my online education sales.

Heather (15:15)
Right. Right.

Nicole Begley (15:38)
And instead it was just all of my private clients, but I have a lot of private clients that are out of state that that come down here. And I it was very, very helpful to have that on my invoices. So like save photographers out there, create your invoices and whatever your accounting software is, like any photography sale, I still have in my QuickBooks their name, their address, their session fee credit.

Their like exactly what they purchased, artwork, album. So like you can have a legit actual PDF. like you want a record of every sale in your business. And if you have another portion of your business that's doing anything else, any digital products, like online courses, or if you have, I don't know, some other business that's all rendered under that umbrella, just make sure that you have records.

And same thing with any purchases you make, like save those receipts. Create a process. Even if you don't necessarily connect it to your books, which sometimes they've made it easier, you can just forward it onto your books now and it connects it. But at least like just forward it into a folder in your Gmail. I have a receipts folder in my Gmail. Any receipt comes in, I just forward it in there. And yeah, if I have audited and I need to go through all that, it's gonna be

Heather (16:54)
No.

Nicole Begley (17:02)
one heck of a project, but I but I have it. So like figure out what your what's the simplest, easiest routine that you can stick with that you can manage if you need to actually go and connect the dots later.

Heather (17:17)
I think that is fantastic advice because my books are pretty clean and good and I was missing stuff. And I'm like, if Wow.

Nicole Begley (17:25)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I was missing stuff too when I had mine. I ended up having to

pay use tax on a couple of things that I know that I paid or that weren't taxable. They weren't taxable. But whatever. Yeah.

Heather (17:32)
Right. Yes. Yeah.

So okay, after Christmas, we mad dash for the addresses and we're able to get the tax amount down from so eighty-two was the tax liability plus there's penalties and interest. Okay. We were able to get the eighty-two down to I think it was around sixty. Sixty.

Nicole Begley (17:58)
Mm-hmm yeah, I was gonna

it was high fifties, I think. Yeah.

Heather (18:00)
Yeah, 58, maybe 60. But

whenever I give these numbers, you have to double them for penalties and interest. So 60 is 120. And whilst this was better, it was still my and and for the record, my accountant and I, more so me, and I just ran it by him, I went through everything with a fine-tooth comb and I

Nicole Begley (18:06)
Right. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Still six figure tax bill.

Heather (18:27)
Calculated that I owed $5,700 in use tax that I had not paid. So legitimately, they had a case for up to $5,700. I would like that would have been fair to me and true, by the way. No, that was not the case. He was still taxed. he was taxing me paying you and the coaches. He was taxing that. Sorry, what? What?

Nicole Begley (18:50)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And paying your overseas contractor. Yeah.

Heather (18:56)
No, so I'll tell you what was so aggravating about a lot of this was that it was, I believe, fraudulent on the part of the PA Department of Revenue. They were stealing, they are attempting to steal money that does not belong to them. I am willing to pay money that belongs to them. I am not willing to pay money for someone who purchased Elevate in Australia. I'm not going that's craziness.

Nicole Begley (19:23)
Mm.

Heather (19:24)
So back and forth with that, more documents, more calls, back, back, back, forth, forth, forth. Okay. Ad nauseum. Finally, he gets this down to around 30. So we're 30K, double that to 60. But still, we're just I'm I'm swinging, man. I'm just not tolerating this. Our last call was maybe eight weeks ago, maybe two months, and it came down to.

What he submitted, the auditor has to submit a final report to the PA Department of Revenue, at which point we can appeal. And by this time, we had decided, Matt and I, that we have fought the good fight with this guy. And there he was, he kept asking me to explain private coaching. And I kept saying,

Nicole Begley (20:13)
Which

obviously he has never hired a private coach. He might be one.

Heather (20:17)
I said, I get

we gave him like business coach analogies, sporting metaphors. They people pay to talk to me. It's a service. He just, he really, I don't know if he was, you know, we'll never know. Was he playing dumb? Did he really get it? Or did he really? I don't know. I don't know. So he submitted his final report about two weeks ago. And that total is 19,000. I'm looking at it.

Nicole Begley (20:28)
Mm-hmm.

Heather (20:47)
Audited liability is 19,000, 3,000 in interest, about $6,000 in penalty for a total of $28,000 is like final. This is what I'm submitting. You sign off on it, and that's when you have the right to submit for an appeal, which the appeals process could take up to another year.

Nicole Begley (21:05)
Mm.

And requires hiring a lawyer.

Heather (21:12)
And requires hiring a tax controversy attorney. So about an hour before this recording, I was on a Zoom call with my accountant Matt and my new friend, Steve, who is a tax controversy attorney. And we presented all of this to him, and he was saying,

You know, I don't know how much luck we would have at the Board of Appeals level. I tend to think we would get somewhere with them. But the truth is we're not going to get anywhere until we go to the second level of appeal, which is with the finance appeals group in PA. He said, but at that level, you're working with some really reasonable people who will interpret the code in a reasonable manner. So he he gave us the impression that we had a good shot at at fighting some of this.

Nicole Begley (22:02)
Uh-huh.

Heather (22:04)
you know, to the

Nicole Begley (22:04)
But at how much time and cost?

Heather (22:06)
probably one to two years, he said. And, you know, he was estimating

Nicole Begley (22:12)
And your penalties

and interest are still gonna accrue on that. Or do you pay it and you get it back later? Yeah. huh.

Heather (22:15)
The interest, yes. The interest will accrue. Yeah.

So he he said it would probably he couldn't guarantee anything. He couldn't guarantee we would win it, and he couldn't guarantee what it would take to win it. So he's like, You're probably looking at about five thousand dollars in attorney's fees. Okay. In the meantime, we get a letter from someone else of the PA Department of Revenue.

Nicole Begley (22:33)
Yeah, minimum. Yeah.

Heather (22:40)
Who says to us like this? This is what I hear. Okay, it was an email. Let me tell you what I heard in my brain. Psst. Hey, hey, you guys, hey. If you accept this plea bargain for manslaughter, we will not charge you with homicide. But if you appeal this, this deal is off the table. You have 30 seconds. What will it be? Okay. So this reminds me of people.

Who have to plead guilty to a crime they didn't commit. They're innocent in order to avoid a higher penalty. If we do not take this plea bargain and we go to the Board of Appeals, that that's off the table. You can't go back. I'm glad you asked, Nicole. Thank you. This was, for the first time, the best news we've heard. This this is the best possible case scenario. They gave it to us. They will listen to this remove.

Nicole Begley (23:13)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

What is the plea bargain?

Heather (23:39)
100% of the penalty, $6,000. And they will take 25% off of the audited liability of 19,281, taking it down to 14 and some change. Interest still has to be paid at 3,000. So okay. Correct. Correct. So the bottom line is you owe $28,000. We'll take it down to $17.

Nicole Begley (23:56)
Plus interest. Yep. So seventeenish, seventeen thousand ish. Yeah.

Heather (24:08)
Because what I'm told by my friends who know things, like accountant and attorney, is that PA doesn't want to deal with an appeal. It's very costly. Yeah. Right. Right. Right. So this is what Steve said to me. He said, Heather, this is an okay deal. It's not the best deal, but it's okay. And if you are the type of person, no, he said it like this. He said,

Nicole Begley (24:16)
Yeah. It costs more to them. Nobody wins. The only people that wins are the lawyers. Yeah.

Heather (24:36)
If there's a person who is risk averse and doesn't want the distraction and headache and would rather just have it over with, yeah, I was raising my hand. I was like, it's me. It's me, Steve. He said, Yeah, you could take it and I would support your line of thinking. I I totally see where that's at. Let me tell you how this could play out if we won. And he starts throwing all kinds of numbers at me. And the bottom line, it came down to this. Are you willing?

Nicole Begley (24:49)
Yeah.

Heather (25:06)
To spend five thousand to save ten with a net of five in possibly w one to two years of a headache. No. No. Right. Right.

Nicole Begley (25:13)
Yeah. Yeah, no. For five thousand dollars, no. Like it's a net of five. Like he's

not like he doesn't there's n like if he was like, I think we could totally wipe this completely away, okay maybe. But like they they're not gonna wipe everything away. They're still gonna hold fast on parts of it. So

Heather (25:33)
And keep in

mind that if we do all of that and lose, I'm back to twenty eight.

Nicole Begley (25:37)
Yeah, right.

Plus the five thousand dollars in lawyers fees that you paid. Plus how much time is gonna be spent regathering new evidence and paperwork for new appeals boards. Like, no.

Heather (25:42)
Plus five thousand and

And he tried

to he tried to like talk it down. He said, I I'm gonna be honest with you, it really won't take much work on your part. You've already done the work. I would just get all the documentation from Matt. And it he said, Really, this is about like s he didn't use these words, but about your mental health.

Nicole Begley (26:01)
Yeah.

You're like, that is worth five thousand dollars. Done. Sign it.

Heather (26:13)
And then he says,

we could, we could delay this and do this and give you time to pay. And I said, brother, I will submit payment this afternoon. I have the money in my tax account. I will pay it. I want it done. He laughed, you know, and he said, Yeah, no, I get that. I get that. So it looks like I am taking the plea because I would love to hear from anyone listening to this what you would do if anybody would take that risk. I just

Nicole Begley (26:41)
I don't think I would for just a headache. Just the headache piece. I'm not necessarily risk averse, but the the headache mental bandwidth piece. Yeah. And the fact that you have to pay more to do that. But they're already offering you a d like yeah, I would do the I would do the same thing you're doing.

Heather (26:42)
I know, I I can't imagine.

Distraction.

And then I thank you. I appreciate that. And then I I talked Matt separately and he said, I am prepared to deduct. He gave me a number from your taxes next year. So actually this will save you money in the taxable. So you're looking at a net of I can't even remember the number. And I said, Thank you. I am grateful to have you and Steve on my team. could we just wrap this up and put a bow on it? Just give how about just send me the link?

Nicole Begley (27:32)
Love it.

Heather (27:33)
And I will pay. So I hope to he had there's more submissions and more letters and more whatever. And I said, just let me know when the time I need to log in and pay it. I know where and how to do that. I will transfer the money. So okay, there, you know, we've been sharing lessons throughout this, but I think one really, really, really important lesson I teach this in elevate is to use profit first in your business. I use profit.

Profit first to save money for taxes in a separate savings account that I never touch and I oversave. Because of my risk aversion over savedness, I have the money to pay this, this $17,000 bill. Now, if it was, you know, $100, that's different.

Nicole Begley (28:09)
Uh-huh. Uhhuh. You do everything.

Yeah.

Yeah, it's not oversaving that much. No, this is really good. And I I think it's there's a double-ended sword here because yes, like we've talked about this before of that you tend to be towards oversaving, but then something like this happens and you're like, Well, it's a good thing I'm an oversaver. Like we joke about this all the time because my husband is very much like, let's like double checks the stove, double checks this, like he double checks all the things before we go anywhere. Every once in a while, like it's like

it's a good thing you check that. Like, no, it just it feeds that that paranoia that we have, or that like not a I don't want to say a bad habit, 'cause it's not a bad habit, but maybe a habit that could be t eased up on a little bit. Like it it reinforces us to be like, no, lock it down.

Heather (28:56)
Yeah, right.

Yeah, no, you know this about me because we often talk about it. My my conservative nature with the saving is like a little bit over the top,

so guess what I decided to do? Actually, I talked to you about this yesterday, and then you said.

Nicole Begley (29:26)
yeah. Yeah. Okay.

I know exactly what you're talking about and it makes me so happy because there is nothing on this planet I like more than when you voxer me for permission to take an owner's draw, especially when it's for a vacation.

Heather (29:42)
I said to you, we're gonna redeem this situation. So I have oversaved in the tax account. And because this is coming in a little bit less than I had, you know, sort of reconciled in my brain, I'm going to take an owner's draw and schedule a trip for next spring for our family to go on some amazing vacation. You know, I'm in in my head, it's like thanks to the PA Department of Revenue. Because I survived this.

And we figured it out and I managed it. So I said to you, Hey, what's that island you love? Like it's

Nicole Begley (30:18)
No, no,

no. You said you said, I would love to go to Hawaii, but like, I don't know. It's just so far. Like, where else can I get kind of a Hawaii feel, a tropical, like adventure, things to do, snorkeling without the, you know, ten hours flying time from the East Coast. And I said, I got you. I got you, girl. Cursor. Where I just went for a spring break and no, it's amazing. And it does all of those three and a half hours from Charlotte. Check.

Heather (30:44)
Done. So I did all of the research and like really quickly yesterday afternoon. I don't I'm not the type of person that has to research things for, you know, hours or weeks on end if I if correct.

Nicole Begley (30:53)
Well and you just ask me and I say, Yeah, go stay right

here and do this thing and you're like, Great, book it.

Heather (30:58)
Correct.

That's what I told Craig. I said I looked at it. Nicole verified. And then I'm going. So I saved the house. I'm going to book it probably today. I'm probably, yeah. And I'm I'm so excited about it. And I knew this in the middle of this situation. And I work with all of my clients in this regard. I say, if you can give yourself some space, time, distance, this will work out in your favor. You'll

Figure it out and there will be something good that comes from it. And I'm all I'm starting to sort of see that line of thinking come to fruition.

Nicole Begley (31:34)
Well, and isn't it good that it happened now before you had the million dollars and coaching revenue coming into your business where this would have been a much bigger tax bill and a much bigger headache, even at that higher income, like once the income goes higher, often our expenses go a little bit higher too. So anyway, getting this locked down now is clutch.

Heather (31:38)
Yes. Yes. Yeah.

my gosh, it's just brilliant. And I so, in that regard, truly, I know this is hard to say. I'm grateful for the experience because of the character building and what I've learned. I had said to you, I know so much about the tax code now. I know so much more about QuickBooks, reporting, kajabi, all of it, because I've had to figure things out. It's, you know, all the way around the fact that the PA Department Revenue is stealing money from me, besides that.

All the way around, it's a good thing.

Nicole Begley (32:28)
Yeah. Well, and I know we've had a lot of conversations too about like you'd be stressed about the just the fact that it's this open loop, which I live in the world of open loops. Hi, I'm Nicole, I have ADHD. I've lived in open loops my whole life. And so it's just like this conversation of just like, how can you learn to be comfortable with the fact that we don't have all the information yet? And you don't know how this is going to play out, but like, how can you stop giving energy?

Heather (32:35)
Mm, yeah.

Nicole Begley (32:58)
to an outcome that we don't know is gonna be that outcome yet.

Heather (33:02)
I got this. I actually have an answer to this, not only through the example of what I just lived. So I have evidence. You everybody has evidence of this. I just read Conscious Luck by Gay Hendricks. He wrote the big link. Yeah, we love him. So in that book, he said, with enough distance, everything can be viewed as lucky. And I truly believe that. What he's saying is that if you can zoom out, because a year from now, five years from now,

Nicole Begley (33:13)
I love gay Hendrix. Uhhuh.

Mm.

Hmm.

Heather (33:31)
You will be able to look at this as a lucky event. He said everything with enough distance can be viewed as lucky. I believe that.

Nicole Begley (33:35)
Mm-hmm.

I have a I have a friend

that that is stage four terminal cancer and she is the most positive, amazing person and says all the time that has been a gift because she has like totally changed how she looks at her life. And she's in her fifties. Like I it's it's it's so inspiring to be like, if she could do it, like certainly we can do this for a little bump in the road, like

Heather (33:54)
Amazing. Yeah, that's unreal, right? So

Correct.

Yeah.

Nicole Begley (34:06)
You know, it's it's not the end of the road. And at the end of the day, even if they did come in at that higher amount, it's not the end of the road. You're not gonna lose your house. Like it's gonna be it's gonna suck. You're not gonna like paying it. it's gonna be frustrating and and rage inducing. But like at the end of the day, you're still safe, you're still fine. So yeah.

Heather (34:14)
No.

At one point

I was walking in the woods with my husband. This is maybe four months ago. And I looked at the ground and I said, He can't take this from us. We have thirty-five acres of beautiful woods and he can't take you from me. You know, like there are things that he all he can take is money. And w we can figure out how to make more money. And so, you know, we often talk

In in our coaching and our mindset work about finding thoughts that serve us that feel good. And my grounding thoughts are I'll figure this out. I always do. But really, really, this thought that I think is the most important is with enough distance, everything can become lucky. And just just like absorb that into your being. And so listen, it doesn't, it doesn't make it.

Nicole Begley (35:12)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love that.

Heather (35:19)
you know, easier or sometimes less rage-inducing. It's still miserable. That but that's not the end of the street you're judging the book by this one chapter. And that chapter in December for me was horrific. It was it was the worst news I've ever received as a as a business owner. You I'm I'm thinking, am I gonna bankrupt my family? Like what bec

Nicole Begley (35:43)
Great. Yeah.

Yeah, your your head goes to some crazy spaces.

Heather (35:46)
Crazy. But that was, and I knew, I knew that was just a chapter in a book that we were only halfway through. And so here we are, you know, Lord willing, about to close this book. I mean, you know, it's not over till it's over, but once I submit that payment, well, you're gonna be the first person I'm gonna tell.

Nicole Begley (36:06)
I love it. I love it. And speaking of luck, I've got some luck of the Irish to go catch because I have a plane leaving in seven hours that I have not packed yet for. So I'm gonna go pack for my trip that I'm leaving for the airport soon. So

Heather (36:20)
Good idea.

Nicole Begley (36:24)
Amazing. I will thanks Heather for being here. Thanks for sharing your experience. I think there were a lot of really great nuggets for you guys out of this episode. So we'll see you next week. Bye, everybody.