Own two or more franchise locations?
$8,000 in savings or your fee back

Get one tax plan
for everything you own.

Your locations, your rentals and everything else you own all affect your tax bill. Darin Pierson, CPA, looks at all of it together and writes one year-end tax plan for $4,000. If it doesn’t find you at least $8,000 in tax savings, we refund the fee.

Book a free 30-minute call With Darin Pierson, CPA
Year-end tax planAshford Sky CPA
Written tax plan$4,000
Savings the plan has to find$8,000
If we find less$4,000 back
Stay on with us afterward and the $4,000 is credited against that work. Terms in the engagement letter.
Dec31
Some year-end moves have to happen before December 31. Book in October or November so there’s still time to act on the plan this year.
Pick a time →

Why multi-location owners overpay

Your accountant prepares each year’s returns. A tax plan is different, because it looks at all of your locations at the same time and asks how they should fit together.

Some of the savings come from how the locations work together, which is hard to see one return at a time.

  1. Each location was set up on its own

    If you opened or bought your locations one at a time, each one may have its own entity, payroll and bookkeeping. We check whether that setup still makes sense now that you run several.

  2. You pay yourself from several places

    You might take a salary from one location, distributions from another and a management fee from a third. How that mix is set up affects your tax bill every year, so it’s worth planning on purpose.

  3. Big write-offs are sitting in the build-outs

    Every location comes with build-out, equipment and signage. Some of the choices about how fast you write those off are elections, and they’re worth reviewing before you file.

  4. Some of it has to happen before December 31

    Equipment purchases and the salary you pay yourself have to happen before December 31. Some retirement and entity choices have a little more time, but planning now keeps all of them open.

What we look at

Here are the areas we review, across your locations and everything else you own.

How the locations are held

We look at whether your locations sit in one entity or several, whether to combine them, and what it costs to move money between them.

Franchise fees and royalties

We review the initial fees, renewals and territory rights for each location. An up-front franchise fee is written off over 15 years, so year one needs every other startup cost captured.

Build-out and equipment

We review the build-out, equipment and signage at each location, and the elections that decide when you write them off.

Entity and owner pay

We check whether your structure still fits at this size and how you should pay yourself from it. The IRS expects a reasonable salary from an S corporation.

State and local taxes

We look at sales tax, payroll tax and state filings everywhere you operate, and whether they line up with each other.

Estimated payments and timing

We work out what you should pay each quarter and which moves have to happen before December 31.

Rental properties

Rentals and other real estate change your total tax picture, so they go into the same plan as your locations.

How you funded the locations

Loans, seller notes, partners or retirement funds each change how the locations should be set up and taxed.

Tax credits and incentives

We check the federal and state credits and incentives you may qualify for, which owners with several locations often miss.

Year-end offer

One $4,000 tax plan covers all of your locations

The plan has to find you at least twice that in tax savings, or we refund your fee.

$8,000 in savings or your fee back
You pay
$4,000
One written plan covering all of your locations
vs
We find you at least
$8,000
In tax savings, with each move written down

If the plan comes in under $8,000, we refund the full $4,000 and you keep the review anyway.

If we find $8,000 or more

You keep the plan and the savings. Give it to your accountant to file, or stay on with us and the $4,000 is credited toward that work.

If we find less than $8,000

We refund the full $4,000, and you still keep the written review.

Book a free 30-minute callOffer runs through December 31. Refund terms are set out in the engagement letter.

Do you qualify?

If both of these are true for you, book a call.

You own two or more franchise locations

They can be the same brand or different brands, and it doesn’t matter whether you opened them or bought them.

Nobody has planned your taxes across all of them

You have an accountant who files the returns, but no one has sat down before year end and looked at the locations as one business.

Who writes the plan

Darin has bought and sold a business himself

“For an early-stage franchise, the priority in year one is filing correctly. The franchise fee is not an expense you deduct immediately, it gets capitalized and amortized. Alongside that, you want to make sure every legitimate startup cost is captured before you close the books.”Darin Pierson, CPA, founder of Ashford Sky
OwnerDarin bought a business, ran it and sold it, so he knows the owner’s side.
11 yrsDarin is a licensed CPA with 11 years of experience, formerly at Ernst & Young.
600+Darin and his QoE partner have completed over 600 quality of earnings reports for buyers and lenders.
More about Darin and Ashford Sky →
Darin Pierson, CPA

How it works

We write the plan, and your accountant can keep filing the returns. You don’t have to change who you work with.

01

Book a free call

The call is free and takes 30 minutes. Tell us how many locations you have and how they’re set up, and we’ll tell you whether a plan is worth doing.

02

We do the research

We go through your returns, your franchise agreements, how each location is owned and funded, your rentals and other income, and your plans for the next few years.

03

You get one written plan with the return on each move

The plan lists each move in order, what it should save you and what to do before December 31. You can give it to your accountant or let us handle it. If it finds less than $8,000, you get your $4,000 back.

Questions we often get

Do I have to fire my current accountant?

No. The plan is a separate piece of work, and you can give it to your accountant to carry out. If you’d rather we did it, the $4,000 is credited toward that.

Is it one plan or one per location?

It’s one plan that covers all of your locations, because some of the savings come from how they fit together.

How long does it take?

Usually two to three weeks from the day we have your documents. If you want to make moves before December 31, book in October or November.

What do you need from me?

Your most recent business and personal returns, a current profit and loss and balance sheet for each location, and thirty minutes on the phone.

Book your free 30-minute call

Pick a time that works for you, and have your last return handy. We’ll ask how many locations you run and tell you whether a plan is worth doing.

The call is free, and there’s no obligation.

On-demand webinar

Buying a business under $2M?

The financial diligence a smaller deal actually needs, with CPA Darin Pierson.

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