Episode 1332: The Hidden Cost of Reactive Tax Planning with Chris Miller

Most successful entrepreneurs focus on making more money, but without proactive tax planning, taxes can quietly become their biggest wealth destroyer. In this episode of Sharkpreneur, Seth Greene interviews Chris Miller, Founder and CEO of One Atlanta Tax Solutions, who explains how proactive tax planning can help entrepreneurs, high earners, and business owners reduce unnecessary tax burdens and improve financial efficiency. He explains why traditional once-a-year tax preparation isn't enough, how wealthy individuals use legal tax strategies to protect their income, and how a year-round tax plan can dramatically impact long-term wealth. Chris also discusses common tax myths, the biggest mistakes successful people make as their income grows, and how strategic tax savings can create more opportunities to invest, grow, and build wealth. Key Takeaways: → Why taxes are a year-round strategy, not a once-a-year event. → Taxes are often one of the largest financial burdens for successful entrepreneurs. → Regular conversations with a tax strategist can reveal new opportunities. → How everyday high earners can benefit from the legal tax strategies wealthy individuals use. → Partnerships among CPAs, financial advisors, and tax professionals can help them serve clients more effectively. Chris Miller is the founder and CEO of One Atlanta Tax Solutions, a firm that provides advanced tax strategies for accredited investors, business owners, and high-income professionals. With more than 16 years of experience, he is a Certified Tax and Business Advisor who helps clients legally reduce their tax exposure while improving capital efficiency. Chris founded the firm to address the limitations of traditional, reactive tax planning. One Atlanta Tax Solutions focuses on proactive strategies, including leveraged charitable structures, alternative investments, and advanced tax mitigation frameworks that preserve and reposition client capital. He works closely with a national network of CPAs, financial advisors, and strategic partners to identify and execute high-impact opportunities. Chris remains actively involved in client strategy, partner development, and firm growth. Connect With Chris: Website: https://www.oneatlantataxsolutions.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cmiller33367/

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Welcome to the Sharkpreneur Podcast with Kevin Harrington and Seth Green. Kevin Harrington is the inventor of the infomercial, one of the original sharks from the hit TV show Shark Tank, and has generated over $5 billion in TV and digital direct response sales. Seth Green is the world's first trusted authority on cutting-edge direct response marketing, a bestselling author, and the only three-time marketer of the year nominee. On the podcast, Kevin and Seth interview sharkpreneurs who share straight talk on what it takes to explode your business.

• 0:38Speaker 01

  Forty-nine faces looked to him in triumph. Over the last 12 months, they had each taken turns and promoted his business for a week at a time, driving over $987,342 in revenue. What if you had a network of 50 centers of influence who promoted your business every week for a year? Grab your copy of the number one Amazon bestselling book, The Ultimate Guide to Growing Your Business with a Podcast. It's 33% off the Amazon price by going to ultimatepodcastbook.com. Again, that website for 33% off the Amazon price is ultimatepodcastbook.com. Welcome to the podcast. This is your co-host Seth Green. Today, I've got the good fortune to be with Chris Miller from One Atlanta Tax. Chris, thanks so much for joining us.

• 1:19Speaker 02

  Thanks for having me, Seth. I really appreciate it.

• 1:21Speaker 01

  Our pleasure. So, let's go back in time a little bit. How did you get into the tax world and eventually build One Atlanta Tax?

• 1:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, thanks for asking. So, we started out almost 20 years ago. My father's my partner, original partner. He's actually been at it for 30 years. We were traditional planners, so selling, you know, financial products, securities, annuities, insurance, you know it. And we realized that when the market would have a correction and our clients would lose money, they would innately blame us. Like, oh, why didn't you see this coming? Why didn't you liquidate? Why didn't, why didn't, why didn't? It's like, kind of scratched our heads. You know, it's like, we have a magic eight ball like Nancy Pelosi to know when to buy and sell. So, we went back to the drawing board and we realized, well, for our high-network clients, our high-income clients, we had been implementing a handful of tax strategies, you know, 20

• 2:12Speaker 02

  years ago to save them taxes. And what we realized was like, wait a minute, there's a guarantee when it comes to tax saving, there's an ROI on tax savings. If I save someone $30,000 from a $100,000 tax bill, that's a 30% ROI back to them that they would have never seen if it wasn't for me. And if they take those savings and they put it in a 10% fund, they just effectively made 40% of their money, didn't have anything to do with risk. It just had to do with creating efficiencies, and that's really what we specialize in. So, when that happened, that birthed One Atlanta Tax Solutions. So, while we still have all that other stuff, what our really, our main focus has become is being tax mitigators.

• 2:53Speaker 02

  So, we're, we're more educational than anything, and we're like a brokerage firm for tax strategies.

• 2:59Speaker 01

  Awesome. Most people think of taxes, it happens, something that happens like, once a year. Why is that mindset expensive?

• 3:07Speaker 02

  Well, it, it, it's like going to the doctor just once a year when, when you already know you have health issues. You know, if you already have problems, you probably need to go to the doctor more than once a year. It's the same thing with taxes. Just calling your CPA and meeting them once a year when you have a big tax problem is never going to be the solution. So, we try to meet with our people quarterly, if not even more than that. But ultimately, it's about creating a real plan. And I tell people all the time, not to, no knock on CPAs, I got a bunch of them, I love them, they're, they're, they're good at what they do. But most CPAs are glorified paper filers, they're filing returns, they're doing bookkeeping, they're doing payroll, that kind of stuff.

• 3:49Speaker 02

  And they're not proactive, they're reactive, the majority of them. And again, it's not a knock on them, it's how they were trained. So, they're just doing how they were trained to do what they do through schooling. In reality, I joke, but I tell people, man, they really work for the IRS, they don't work for you. So, with that being said, we really hone on the importance of having a holistic tax plan and how that is for, for successful and wealthy people, even like yourself, Seth, that is your greatest wealth creator, that is your biggest financial burden is taxes.

• 4:23Speaker 01

  Amen to that. What is the biggest tax mistake successful entrepreneurs make as their business and their incomes grow?

• 4:31Speaker 02

  That's a good question. I, I mean, ultimately, I think is that they don't have a real plan. I think, I would say, what I've seen doing this for 20 years is that their CPA is their high school buddy or golf buddy and their friends, and so they don't want to mess up that relationship. But when I go and meet with them and I'm like, all right, Joe, how much do you make a year? A million bucks? Okay, well, what was your tax bill last year that your great CPA, you know, his work, what was the result of? He's like, I paid around $300,000. And I'm like, you didn't get any good advanced tax planning, you just paid a normal tax. And I literally had a client one time, they paid $3,000 to CPA, they decided to double-check their work and see if they could do it their, do it themselves.

• 5:16Speaker 02

  They used TurboTax and got it within $100. So, again, it's not a knock on them, it's just that they're, what I really say is this, is do the ultra wealthy no ways of saving taxes that are legal. It's, it's that simple. We're bringing those strategies to the, to the normal, everyday people who make good money, but they're not multi-multi-millionaires.

• 5:39Speaker 01

  That makes sense. What's the biggest tax myth you hear from business owners?

• 5:45Speaker 02

  Um, that's a good question, too. I would say, um, you know, a lot of people think when they retire, they're just not going to have a tax problem anymore. And I'm like, you, think about it, it's the perfect storm. You have no deductions, you have no children dependents, you have a giant qualified pot of money, it's more than likely your biggest nest egg. And then everything is impacted, that's all impacting your social security, your Medicare, all that stuff is all being impacted. So, every time they're pulling out a dollar, Uncle Sam's saying, here, give me 30 cents, give me 30 cents of that dollar. So, I would say that's one of the big myths that people don't fully understand, is taxes are just as bad in the future.

• 6:29Speaker 02

  And I had plenty of clients that are 70-plus years old that still have tax problems that are worth tens of millions of dollars.

• 6:36Speaker 01

  What systems should business owners have in place throughout the year to kind of avoid that unpleasant tax surprise?

• 6:42Speaker 02

  Really, it's, it's as simple as having someone like me on your team. You need to have a true tax planner that you're meeting with regularly, that's educating you on how the system, how the tax system really works, and updating you on changes. Because, I mean, I would tell you, almost every year, there's probably a couple of new strategies that come out because of the code. Like, what was really popular with the big, beautiful bill was bonus appreciation, being able to be utilized at 100%. You could apply 100% bonus appreciation because of that. So, it became very, very, very popular. But if you weren't aware of that, if you were just so busy working and making money that you weren't focused on that, you would have missed out on an opportunity to save potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes.

• 7:26Speaker 01

  You have helped so many clients over the decades. What's your biggest challenge now?

• 7:31Speaker 02

  What's my biggest challenge?

• 7:33Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 7:34Speaker 02

  Well, I think it's, it's, it's, it's scaling for me. I have private equity groups that call us a lot because they're, that's a big thing for PE right now is buying up CPA firms, which that's not what we are. We're more of, again, in between what CPAs do and the, the top of the level. We're really high-end, but we're at a point now where we have the ability to scale and grow and potentially do an exit, and I think that comes with growing pains. That's a new territory for people. I mean, and obviously, you can speak to that yourself. So, that's probably been our biggest challenge is, you can make really good money and be happy with it, but there's only so much one man can do, you know?

• 8:18Speaker 01

  Absolutely. What is, who's an ideal client for you?

• 8:23Speaker 02

  Yeah, so, really, what we just say is, anybody making half a million or more a year, we can help. It can be W-2, it can be, um, obviously, business owners, it can be someone selling real estate, selling any, any types of long-term, long-term capital gains of a million plus from real estate, crypto, um, stocks, a business, we can help. The big thing, probably are, one of our biggest things that differentiates us from our competitors is that we have solutions for W-2 workers. There's so many people making a lot of money, like the one I called just had yesterday, uh, he's retired, but his wife makes 1.2 million. She works for a big tech company, and so it's all W-2, so she gets crushed.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  So, we really like to hone in on that. But ultimately, what I tell people, Seth, is if you're paying six figures in taxes, we can help you.

• 9:15Speaker 01

  Uh, how are those folks finding you?

• 9:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, so, we have our website, um, that people can come to us, but most of our clients, so, I've been doing this for a long time, the bulk, the bulk of my business is all referral-based. So, I work with CPAs, primarily financial planners, stockbrokers, that's my biggest source, because mo, all of them, they don't really want to talk about taxes, they're not really credentialed to talk about taxes, they don't want to get into the weeds. And so, it's a perfect marriage, because they can send me their high-network clients or their high-income clients, I save them money, now they got more money under management. So, it's a win-win. Everybody's happy, client's happy because they have more money, we're happy because we helped the client, advisor's happy because they got more under management.

• 10:00Speaker 02

  And our goal, like, I'll just to put it out there, our number one goal is to, is to create the biggest amount of net cash savings in the pocket, in their bank account for the client. So, there's a lot of strategies out there where you're moving money from one account to another, or from one thing to another, to pay little in taxes, but the money's tied up, you know? So, that's not our goal to tie up the money. Our goal is to say, like, if you're paying $300,000 in taxes, I'm going to put $100,000 back in your pocket and you can do what you want with it.

• 10:34Speaker 01

  Your passion is obvious. What do you like best about what you're doing?

• 10:39Speaker 02

  I mean, I, I just think, I mean, in light of everything we saw with the Doge and the misuse of taxes, that was like, really, really good for me to see, like, wow, all of our clients, not only did we help them, but they don't have to feel so bad about their tax dollars, their hard-earned dollars being misused. But ultimately, I just, I, I love it because we're really helping people, we're, we're able to change their lifestyles drastically because of the taxes that we're saving them, so they can go on those trips they want to, they can invest more. I can show clients through our structure of investing and tax planning in five to seven years, how to even potentially double their net worth, because there's just so much more to work with when you're creating efficiencies.

• 11:24Speaker 01

  That's absolutely incredible. Do you work with clients solely in the Atlanta area, or do you help people nationwide?

• 11:30Speaker 02

  Nationwide, Alaska, New York, California, Florida, all over.

• 11:34Speaker 01

  All right. This is, we, well, we greatly appreciate your time. We know it's been incredibly valuable. This has been Seth Green with Chris Miller of OneAtlantaTax.com. Chris, thanks so much for joining us.

• 11:45Speaker 02

  Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.

• 11:47Speaker 01

  Thanks, everybody, for watching or listening. We'll talk to you or see you next time.

• 11:52Speaker 03

  Why do so many businesses struggle while others seem to explode overnight? Do you wish you had the secret to this type of exponential growth? Now, I've scaled more than 20 businesses to over $100 million, and it's not just luck. In my new book with Mark Tim, Mentor to Millions, you'll learn the repeatable framework I use in all my business ventures for massive success. Order at KevinMentor.com and get over $1,000 in bonuses. Head to KevinMentor.com.