In this episode of the Modern Direct Seller Podcast, we chat with Kimberly Tara, a CPA and certified tax coach who has spent over a decade helping business owners keep more of what they earn. Kimberly makes the case that if you’re a direct seller, you’re a business owner in the eyes of the IRS, and that one shift changes how you handle your money all year long. We get into the mindset that helps you catch deductions you didn’t know you could take, when it’s time to get serious about a real tax strategy, and the story behind her new software, TaxMove. It’s a warm, surprisingly fun conversation that makes tax season feel a whole lot less scary.

Want to learn more from Kimberly? Check out TaxMove and take your free tax savings assessment to see what you might be overpaying. And if your business is living on social media right now, it might be time to give it a real home of its own. Grab your free capture-and-convert homepage from Oh My Hi, a website that’s actually yours.

Time based notes:

How to Stop Overpaying on Taxes as a Direct Seller with Kimberly Tara

Most sellers avoid taxes until April rolls around and the number on the screen makes their stomach drop. For a lot of direct sellers, that panic comes from a quieter belief underneath it, the sense that they’re not really running a business anyway. Kimberly Tara, a CPA and certified tax coach, is here to gently blow that idea out of the water.

Yes, You’re Already Running a Business

Kimberly’s core point is that if you’re getting a 1099-NEC instead of a W-2, then in the eyes of the IRS, you’re a business owner. She’s clear that it doesn’t matter whether you call yourself a direct seller, an affiliate, or someone doing this on the side. Because the tax code treats you like any other business owner, and all the strategies bigger companies use are available to you, too.

That reframe matters to her. When sellers think of themselves as employees, they leave money on the table. When they own the title, they start asking better questions about every dollar.

Get Your Mindset Right First

Before any strategy, Kimberly says the real work is mental. She wants sellers looking at their spending through a business owner’s eyes and asking one question, how does this benefit the business? In her experience, plenty of people are stunned by what they could have been writing off all along.

The second shift she pushes for is tracking. Kimberly wants income and expenses logged weekly and monthly, because you can’t make smart decisions without knowing your numbers. In her view, every forgotten receipt is a deduction you don’t get to take.

The Deductions You’re Probably Leaving Behind

Kimberly’s list of what you can legitimately deduct is longer than most sellers think. Travel for work counts, and so does a meal where real business is discussed, whether it’s with an upline, a downline, or a competitor. She points to mileage as one that gets missed constantly, and even though it’s tedious to track, it adds up to real savings by year’s end.

Then there are the everyday tools she sees overlooked. If you run most of your business from your phone, Kimberly says a big chunk of both the bill and the device itself comes off your taxes, and the same goes for laptops and iPads. Supplies count too, from party food and decor to the products that go into a raffle basket for a church or school.

Marketing is the category Kimberly says is most underused. If a kid’s soccer team wants sponsors, she wants the business to step up, get its logo on the shirt, and turn that into a dollar-for-dollar deduction. She’s adamant that raffle baskets get recorded as supplies or marketing rather than donations, which do far less for you. And she calls the home office one of the biggest missed opportunities out there.

Business or Personal?

One trap Kimberly runs into is sellers keeping expenses personal, so the business looks more profitable. It feels good to see bigger numbers, but she warns that paying personally instead of through the business hands roughly 30 to 40 percent of that cost straight to taxes.

She does acknowledge seasons when looking more profitable helps, like buying a home or a car, or selling the business. Her advice is to log everything through the year and adjust at the end if needed, since it’s always easier to remove an expense than to hunt for forgotten ones in April.

When It’s Time to Get Strategic

So when does this start mattering? Kimberly’s answer is simple: the minute the business turns a profit. And she’s quick to say you don’t need anything wild to begin.

The two most basic strategies, she explains, are yours to handle. Track income and expenses so you stop missing deductions, and make quarterly estimated tax payments, because the IRS won’t wait until April. And skipping them means penalties and interest. Once those habits stick, Kimberly says you can hunt for missed deductions and eventually bring in a strategist for the complex stuff.

A Tool for Sellers Who Feel Too Small for This

For years, Kimberly wanted a way to help owners who weren’t yet at the multi six figure mark, the ones doing everything right who still couldn’t justify a pricey strategist. That’s why she built TaxMove, a software that hands you one clear tax move at a time instead of a hundred confusing options.

It walks you through eligibility, tells you how much to set aside each month, and shows you what to pay each quarter, plus a discovery tool that runs through hundreds of write-offs you might be missing. If you’ve ever felt too small for real tax help, you can take a free tax savings assessment to see what you might be overpaying.

The Real Takeaway

Kimberly’s closing message is that you’ve built something real, and you deserve to keep more of what you earn. Owning your identity as a business owner, tracking your numbers, and using the tax code the way it was written for you protects the profit you’ve worked so hard to build.