On the website for Axium Wealth, Charles Dombek tells us that: “Most CPAs are historians that tell their clients how much they make, how much they owe, when and where to file their taxes, and oftentimes how to write large checks at the last minute when you least expect.” When it comes to Axium, though: “We help clients recover dollars they unnecessarily pay in State and Federal income taxes.” Axium also helps clients diversify capital into off-market passive real estate and alternative investments. Before Axium, there was The Optimal-Financial Group LLC. Of course many of the readers of Think Outside The Tax Box are CPAs, or EAs or others who both help their clients be compliant and advise on ways to minimize their liability. When I was practicing I would call the things I might suggest my “bag of tricks.”

Lessons Learned from the Tax Court: The Root of the Issue
When is a business really a business? As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart said in 1964, “I know it when I see it.” The US Tax Court, however, maintains a slightly less subjective standard. The Roots were pretty sure they were running a bona fide business; the IRS, however, didn’t share the sentiment. And since we’re reading about them in a segment called “Lessons Learned,” one should assume it did not go the way the Roots would have liked.


