Year-End Tax Delegations ⇪

Our aim at Athena is to help you achieve more by becoming an advanced delegator.

In each issue of our newsletter you’ll get unique delegation tips, including:

• Level Up → Vicarious feedback

• Delegate This → Year-end tax optimizations

LEVEL UP

Vicarious Feedback

The most effective way to turn your assistant into an extension of yourself is real-life feedback, but traditionally you’re limited by the number of actual scenarios you encounter.

The vicarious feedback tactic trains your assistant with real interactions you have where the other person could have delegated more effectively. When you see something great, or bad, show them.

The goal is to workshop better ways of operating, and feedback about someone else’s work can be easier to internalize in the moment. Your assistant won’t feel triggered or defensive, because the feedback isn’t about them.

You can take it a step further — set up an agreement with your assistant by telling them:

Over time you’ll naturally align your assistant's thinking with yours without constant corrections. The more examples you share, the faster you'll see results.

DELEGATE THIS

Year-End Tax Optimizations

As we approach the end of the year, you may be surprised by how much your assistant can help get your financial house in order.

Here are some recent examples from Athena members:

1) Maximizing 401(k) contributions → A solopreneur realized her solo 401(k) contributions were only partially made for the year, as she never had time to contact the plan administrator. Instead, she had her assistant:

• Check her current contribution amount(s) for the tax year

• Verify IRS contribution limits for her age and plan type

• Call the plan administrator and patch her in so she didn’t wait on hold

• Draft a quick email for her to confirm everything with her financial advisor

2) Capturing business expenses → A small business owner was concerned he wasn’t comprehensively itemizing his business expenses. He has his assistant take a first pass by:

• Reviewing all his credit card and bank statements and tagging expenses (advertising, travel, home, etc); the assistant was able to integrate her knowledge of his travel calendar and business meetings

• Reviewing vendor invoices by cross-checking for large business services (software, contractors, etc.) with payment records to ensure they were captured

• Flagging any missing receipts or unclear charges and asking TaxGPT for expense categories as supplemental info to consider

3) Tax planning → A CMO at a services company had outsized realized gains this year so had her assistant research tax optimization strategies that she later confirmed with her accountant. Her assistant was able to help her implement some, which included:

• Set up a Donor Advised Fund (and complete all the paperwork), which included identifying highly appreciated stock to make donations to her children’s school

• Identify the annual gift tax exclusion of $17,000 per recipient

• Prep donation and gift documentation to hand over to her accountant

By opening up the books to your assistant and having them help with year-end finances, you’ll gain confidence knowing you’ve taken important steps to optimize your financials.

Liked this issue? Let us know by voting in the poll below. And expect to receive more delegation tips to help you build leverage every few weeks.