Coronavirus Update May

On today's episode we check in with Tony on how things have been going through the month of April for his clients, his team and himself.

Important Links

Website: http://www.yourplanningpros.com

Call: 844-707-7381

Transcript Of Today's Show:

Marc: Hey everybody, welcome in to Plan With The Tax Man with Tony Mauro. Thank you for tuning into the podcast. We've actually been missing for a couple of weeks, because there's been a lot going on. And so, Tony, how you doing buddy? You hanging in there?

 

Tony Mauro: We're hanging in. It's been a whirlwind about month and a half here.

 

Marc: Absolutely. You were telling me, just before we got started, so we're just going to do this week's podcast on just the state of things, how things have been going for you and the business, and your clients, personally. Obviously, tax season, and then Corona virus, and then just wham, wham, wham. How you been getting through with everything?

 

Tony Mauro: Well, it's been no shortage of information, that's for sure-

 

Marc: That's for sure, yeah.

 

Tony Mauro: ... with all the virus stuff going on. Really, for us, here in the Midwest, started about the last week of March, when all of this started happening. And to think, just that long ago, life seemed to be as normal and everything seemed to be going very well.

 

Marc: Oh yeah. I mean, the record declines from the highs. I mean everything just a super whirlwind.

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah, and out of everybody's control really. The first thing that came, at least here, and I know that now it's all over the country, is many of the governors have shut down most of their states as far as business goes. Around here, with all the small businesses we serve, it's been very difficult for some, depending on what business they have been in. I think it's going to touch us all, including us, in certain respects because they can't get out and earn a living. Yeah, the last few weeks have-

 

Marc: The ramifications a few weeks from now, I think, are going to be even more interesting, couple months from now.

 

Tony Mauro: It really will be. In the last three or four weeks, we've been spending a lot of time not only with our small business clients, trying to help them decipher how to get some federal help with all these PPP funds and different SBA loans, which literally they've been making up the rules as they go.

 

Marc: Exactly.

 

Tony Mauro: And changing them about every day as well.

 

Marc: And changing, yeah, exactly. I mean, with you guys doing tax planning and and being EA and a CFP, I mean, it's just the information overload has had to been interesting for sure. So, trying to appease and talk through clients who are worried about their retirement, as well as talk through clients on the tax situation, and how do I get some government assistance, I imagine you have been cooking.

 

Tony Mauro: We have bee. So, we have that first of all, and then the IRS, which I think they did the right thing of... It wasn't them, it was Congress, but extended the filing deadline on the individual side to July 15th. And so, that has changed a lot of things. And then, they had the stimulus, and they were still getting tons of questions on the stimulus. Where's my money? I don't have this. I moved. What do I do? The bad part is for the first time in a long, long, time we don't have a lot of answers on some of these things, because we just don't know. The IRS has kind of been shuttered as well. They don't have anybody working, and so we can't get answers. It's hard to tell clients, well you've just got to be patient and you get what you get type of thing. They don't want to hear that.

 

Marc: Right. And then, you were telling me you're actually doing stuff in the parking lot and stuff in order to try to like work around the social distancing. I mean, I have this mental image in my head. I imagine that was strange.

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah, it's still going on. We have a sign in the door. People come in if they want to drop off things. They honk a couple of times and we go out. We kind of feel like the old A&W waiters and waitresses for those of you that have been around long enough to know what those are.

 

Marc: Hey, those are great though, right? I would take that in a heartbeat right now. But yeah.

 

Tony Mauro: So yeah, we have been doing that and doing a lot of business in the parking lot, and just to try to be on the safe side.

 

Marc: Sure. Yeah, yeah.

 

Tony Mauro: I mean, we could let people in, but we're trying to keep everybody, the staff safe, and the clients too.

 

Marc: Right, right. Well, and your demographic is a little different than just a straight retirement planner who primarily has older folks, because you do taxes and things for businesses. You have a bit of a wider demographic. But in some ways, again, you still want to be cautious of that, because you don't want to be that facilitation point. Are you doing Zoom meetings with clients as well, like most everybody else is doing now, or go to meetings or whatnot when you need to contact somebody and talk them through whatever's going on?

 

Tony Mauro: We do. I've been using Zoom meetings for a long time.

 

Marc: Yeah. You and I've been ahead of the curve. We've been doing this on Zoom for a while.

 

Tony Mauro: For a long time. I mostly used it with accounting clients and payroll clients for our monthly or quarterly meetings.

 

Marc: Gotcha.

 

Tony Mauro: It's forced us, on the retail tax side where we normally have clients come in and we do their appointment while they're here, to basically use electronic means, using portals, and then Zoom meetings, and whatnot. For a lot of them, even some of the older folks, have really caught on and say, "Wow, I think I want to do this every year now. I didn't know this was going to be this easy."

 

Marc: The side benefit, there's all these things we're learning about what business may or may not look like in the future, and that's some of it. I mean, did you see the interesting story, Tony, that sales of tops and blouses and things were up but pants were not?

 

Tony Mauro: No, I did not see that. That's interesting. Oh, yeah.

 

Marc: You only have to look nice from the waist up, because you've got your laptop open, and the camera, and you're being filmed for a business meeting, or like you're talking about, working with clients and stuff. So, people are at home with their jammies on, and then they've got a nice dress shirt or something like that. So, all these interesting things that have come out of this. I imagine that clients have embraced some of that said, "Hey, okay." I imagine, for some people, once they get over the fear of transferring documents securely, which I mean, your information's been out there for a while now. I mean, if you basically have filed taxes in the last decade, your information's out there.

 

Tony Mauro: It is. Even we store all the client copies out on a secure portal [crosstalk 00:06:08].

 

Marc: Right, right. But, just in general, people are always amazed that... They're like, "Oh, I don't want my information out in the cloud." And it's like, if you pay anything electronically ever there's a lot of information out there on you. I'm glad to see that people are embracing it. I'm seeing that. You know I talk with people all across the country and doing this different kinds of shows and I see different pockets of areas where maybe retirees, or pre-retirees that are really close, they're a little leery of that at first. They're like, "Well, okay fine, we'll do the webcam meeting, but I don't want to send any documents." That started to, like you said, it started to ebb and flow, and people are realizing, hey, this may be... A, it's easier once they get over that initial concern. And then, it may be just the necessary evil for a while.

 

Tony Mauro: I think it will be on a lot of fronts, I know for us, especially now with our electronic portal on the tax side. Before, people I think were a little apprehensive uploading documents, because, A, a lot of them didn't have scanners or the right kind of scanners, and then having to save it somewhere, drag it here, drag it there. But now, with the software, if we can get them to just take pics, they all know how to do that. If they could just take a picture of that document and then hit add, it makes it very easy for almost any age. Because, even some of the retirees, they know how to take a pic and send it to their grandkids. It has forced us to do some things like that, which in our mind, on a business side, on the tax side of things, we've been wanting to do this for several years. It's been slower than we wanted and this has accelerated it for us.

 

Tony Mauro: I find it interesting too, I've actually spent on a personal level, probably just as much or more, because I'm a big, the people that know me, a big wine guy and so I like to drink wine. I like to collect wine. I like everything about it. Well, I remember when the fires happened in 2017 in Napa and everybody was caught out there, and they lost a lot. Now, the wineries have gotten out ahead of it and saying, "We're doing virtual tastings." I've been on a lot of them.

 

Marc: Really?

 

Tony Mauro: And virtual cooking.

 

Marc: Interesting. See, that, I have a hard time with, because it's like, how are you supposed to know what it... You can't taste it.

 

Tony Mauro: Well, you have the wine or they'll sell you some wine ahead of time. And then, you get on with the wine maker, and just like you were there, you're tasting the same wines, you're talking about them.

 

Marc: Oh, okay, okay. So, they're sending it to you.

 

Tony Mauro: Yes, yes.

 

Marc: Okay, interesting. But, if you hate it, I guess you're stuck with it, right?

 

Tony Mauro: You are. I mean, you have to be into it [crosstalk 00:08:42].

 

Marc: Got to be a little picky. Yeah, understand what you're getting into. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, yeah, we're seeing it like it was virtual tours of museums, and zoos, and all these kind of... Since there's nobody in the zoos, they're now going around with the different cameras and whatnot, and they're filming the animals, and then letting kids and adults as well take virtual tours of the zoo. All that's great, I think, to have really helped. But at the same time, it's also like the part of you, depending on your age, I'm sure as well, but it's like, no, this is not what life's supposed to be.

 

Marc: We've got to turn that corner and get back to doing... And maybe there's some positives, like we will learn to not sardine each other in everything. Like, maybe the airlines, they're talking of taking out some chairs, not cramming as many people into as they can just to increase the dollar amount, I guess, of what you're making per flight, or what you're making per restaurant, or whatever type of thing. Maybe there'll be some nice benefits from that. I think, at the same time, as humans, we're still social creatures. We still want to be around other folks and see other things. Even if you're a bit of a home body or people going into public places sometimes causes you stress, I think we all still miss a level of that.

 

Tony Mauro: I do too. I really do. The thing I miss the most, with my wife and I, is at going out to dinner, which we generally would do every weekend. We've done a lot of takeout, try to help local restaurants, but it's just not the same. It's not the same ambiance, and there's the social aspect of it, yes, is missing bad. I'm not a guy that goes out, does a lot of mall shopping.

 

Marc: Yeah, I'm not a big partier, but there's like a weird disconnect isn't it? It's like a strange feeling to go, "Well, I'm going to go to Lowe's to get some stuff," but then you go and you think, "Well, now I feel bad because I went to Lowe's and I probably shouldn't." It's like there's this weird disconnect in the whole thing. Hopefully, we'll be seeing the elimination of that or the scale down of that, which we're starting to see already.

 

Marc: We're taping this, folks, here, right here at the beginning of May. So, let me also go ahead and say happy Mother's Day coming up here shortly. I think, we're going to put this podcast out about two days or so before Mother's Day. So, happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there. Thank you for all you do. But yeah, it's the beginning of May, so we're beginning to see some phase down. We're also seeing a lot of unrest around the country. It's going to be interesting the next, I think, another four to six weeks, it's going to be really interesting to see how our country, as a whole, starts to react pocket by pocket, because every area is a little bit different. It'll be certainly interesting, and I'm glad that you guys are doing well. Anything else that we should touch on this quick episode? You've been talking with clients. How's clients been overall? They've been concerned with everything that's been happening or feeling pretty good, because they knew they had a good plan in place with you, or how's that been going?

 

Tony Mauro: Our small business clients, for the most part, I think it's been really eye opening for them, because while they have most of their financial affairs in order, one thing that many, and even on the individual side as well, don't have the necessary emergency funds in place. I've been shocked, even at the small businesses, most of them haven't had but maybe two weeks worth of bills set aside. In other words, monthly expenses set aside. Of course, this is an unprecedented event, but we all should be, and even on the individual side, the old financial planning adage of getting an emergency fund, that three to six months worth of expenses sure would be very handy, especially if you've been laid off. Hopefully, it's only going to be a month, month and a half here. I think clients in this city and in Iowa are worried, but they're pretty positive that they're going to get back to work pretty quick.

 

Tony Mauro: The stories are starting to come out now of people that have been laid off that may not be able to return. Their jobs may be eliminated and whatnot, and they're looking at a rough patch. And so, I think a lot of them at least have woken up to the fact that, I need to start planning a little better.

 

Marc: Well, what we do when we do the podcast [inaudible 00:12:59], Tony, is we talk a lot about planning. We talk a lot about the various different things to take into account, whether it's business tax planning, personal tax planning, retirement planning, all those things we go through. I think, hopefully, people will start to learn and start to move more. I mean, obviously, the market doing what it did in March and early April certainly... Especially early March was really a lot of the heavy falling. Interestingly enough though, April finished with one of the better Aprils than it's ever had in that rad?

 

Tony Mauro: [crosstalk 00:13:29].

 

Marc: I think people, they missed that piece, because there's so many other things went on. March was so, obviously, super bad, but then it was... What was it? I think it was 28% or something like that for April.

 

Tony Mauro: Yeah, very, very, close to that.

 

Marc: Yeah. That's an encouraging sign as well. So hopefully, we'll start to pull these things back together. But if you do have those questions, you do have those concerns, you haven't taken some action, or you haven't followed through on some steps or whatever, as always, Tony and the team are here to help. Obviously, they've been swamped, but they are here to help. Whether you're an existing client, you already know that, or if you're been listening to our podcast and thinking about reaching out to them, you can. Just let them know that you need to talk and they'll help you out.

 

Marc: You can go to yourplanningpros.com, that's yourplanningpros.com. While you're there, you can subscribe to the podcast, Playing With The Tax Man, on Apple, or Google, or Spotify, or whatever platform you choose. Or you could just call them as well. If you have questions or concerns, before you take any action, you should always talk to a qualified professional like Tony and his team at Tax Doctor Inc, (844) 707-7381, that's (844) 707-7381. I guess, with that, we'll wrap up this week's podcast. I'm glad that we were able to get back together and talk. I know we're going to do another one here in a couple of weeks. So, you guys stay safe, you stay sane, and we'll look forward to seeing you soon.

 

Tony Mauro: All right, sounds good, Mark. Thank you.

 

Marc: Thanks, Tony. I appreciate you folks. Make sure, again, you subscribe to the show. We'll see you here again soon on Plan With The Tax Man, with Tony Mauro of Tax Doctor Inc. We'll see you next time.