Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 143 posts

Re: Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

#51

Post by qzw »

markvdb wrote: post #12

The HN audience, friendly as it is, is probably not your best advisor on these matters. Your accountant or tax adviser should have advised you about this ages ago. Either improve communication with your current accountant or fire him and get a new one able to properly answer this question.

You have to know at least some things yourself when talking to an accountant or tax adviser. When I was looking for a CPA, I met with several with good reputations before deciding on one. What I found was that all but one was deficient in some of their knowledge when it came to my specific situation, despite all of them having years of experience in small business accounting. One gave me outright illegal advice as a "tax optimization" strategy. So I would say it's essential for the business owner to have some knowledge before going to meet a financial professional (or any other kind of professional, really).

Re: Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

#53

Post by hellbannedguy »

Serenacula wrote: post #30
meetingthrower wrote: post #5

If you have it as an LLC, any profits will pass through to you through your schedule C, and you will be taxed at regular income tax rates. Your accountant will help. But tax optimization can REALLY matter, and as a small business you have massive opportunities to very legally and ethically optimize your business and tax. Top of mind, what you should really consider is: a) setting up a 401K under the business to shelt…

I don't think the spirit of the question was "how do I avoid paying taxes", but more along the lines of "what the hell do I do with all this money I don't need?". I would suggest giving it to charity, OP. My mother always said even poor folks should be giving at least 15% of their income to charity, but if you have more than you need, no reason not to increase that number.

No post body was provided.

Re: Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

#54

Post by alfor »

I feel two part in your question:

1-What is a good use with excess money?

2-How to manage the money?

For (2) I would hire someone good with tax optimisation and also try to understand it myself and I would invest in the stock market.

For 1, you can look into effective altruism and see if it resonate with you. It might be possible to make 1 and 2 work together ex: micro lending, investment in renewable company, etc

You can see the capital as a way to accelerate the change you want to see in the world.

Re: Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

#55

Post by [deleted] »

ghaff wrote: post #45
eaenki wrote: post #15

What a massive waste taking out 14k in salary. Almost everything can arguably be a business expense. Plus, any investment, just use SVPs or other methods where you don't incur taxation: would make no sense to take them out as salary just to invest them to ur name rather than a company's name. One day you'll pay the capital gains (which can themselves me minimized) and just buy a villa for business events, a range rov…

What you're advising sounds at least borderline fraudulent. Yes, they should absolutely be taking out any halfway reasonable business expenses (discuss with an accountant if it's not obvious). But I'm pretty sure buying a villa for the events that their 2 person company holds isn't in the reasonable expense category.

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

#56

Post by colinmhayes »

Clubber wrote: post #39
Serenacula wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the spirit of the question was "how do I avoid paying taxes", but more along the lines of "what the hell do I do with all this money I don't need?". I would suggest giving it to charity, OP. My mother always said even poor folks should be giving at least 15% of their income to charity, but if you have more than you need, no reason not to increase that number.

Sadly, many charities are borderline fraudulent. Always ask what their administration fee is. I remember getting a call on Memorial Day asking for donations to veterans. I asked what the administration fee was and he said 90%. I said, "No, I mean what do you take to process these payments and make the calls?" He repeated, "90%." I was floored. Anyway, to answer the OP's question, you need to save at least some of it.…

Administration fee is less important than overall impact, which I assume is what people who worry about overhead actually care about. There are plenty of evaluators that skip worrying about overhead and get to them meat of the issue, how much does this charity help per dollar.

Re: Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

#57

Post by remram »

colinmhayes wrote: post #56
Clubber wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, many charities are borderline fraudulent. Always ask what their administration fee is. I remember getting a call on Memorial Day asking for donations to veterans. I asked what the administration fee was and he said 90%. I said, "No, I mean what do you take to process these payments and make the calls?" He repeated, "90%." I was floored. Anyway, to answer the OP's question, you need to save at least some of it.…

Administration fee is less important than overall impact, which I assume is what people who worry about overhead actually care about. There are plenty of evaluators that skip worrying about overhead and get to them meat of the issue, how much does this charity help per dollar.

What's the difference? What portion of your dollar is neither "help" nor "overhead"?

Re: Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

#58

Post by colinmhayes »

ryanmercer wrote: post #34
dr_dshiv wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Baloney. You need to know what to ask your accountant for. That's why it is useful asking on HN.

A competent account, with the information OP gave and a little more, can give OP the best advice for their situation in their city/state/country.

Finding a competent accountant might be easier said than done.

Re: Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

#59

Post by markc »

Clubber wrote: post #39
Serenacula wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think the spirit of the question was "how do I avoid paying taxes", but more along the lines of "what the hell do I do with all this money I don't need?". I would suggest giving it to charity, OP. My mother always said even poor folks should be giving at least 15% of their income to charity, but if you have more than you need, no reason not to increase that number.

Sadly, many charities are borderline fraudulent. Always ask what their administration fee is. I remember getting a call on Memorial Day asking for donations to veterans. I asked what the administration fee was and he said 90%. I said, "No, I mean what do you take to process these payments and make the calls?" He repeated, "90%." I was floored. Anyway, to answer the OP's question, you need to save at least some of it.…

An easy solution to "what charities should I give to": https://www.givewell.org/

Re: Ask HN: How do I manage the profit of a successful website?

#60

Post by pkrotich »

Serenacula wrote: post #30
meetingthrower wrote: post #5

If you have it as an LLC, any profits will pass through to you through your schedule C, and you will be taxed at regular income tax rates. Your accountant will help. But tax optimization can REALLY matter, and as a small business you have massive opportunities to very legally and ethically optimize your business and tax. Top of mind, what you should really consider is: a) setting up a 401K under the business to shelt…

I don't think the spirit of the question was "how do I avoid paying taxes", but more along the lines of "what the hell do I do with all this money I don't need?". I would suggest giving it to charity, OP. My mother always said even poor folks should be giving at least 15% of their income to charity, but if you have more than you need, no reason not to increase that number.

It was obvious OP didn't know simple facts about taxes and income... based on his/her post. Getting that right is more important for the longterm and I think the parent was on point.
Post reply on HN