#402 - Tax Max: Why 2026 Could Be Your Biggest Tax Season Ever
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So, the point is, for all these dealers listening, it's like you really have to take the shot this
tax season.
So, it's going to be a really good one.
Hello and welcome to the independent dealer podcast.
Luke.
Yeah.
What time is it?
What time is it, man?
It's Jeff's and Bill's favorite time of the year.
And what time is that, Jeff?
It's tax time, buddy.
It is tax time.
Doesn't that sound good?
Doesn't that feel good?
It does.
You know what's great is that Jeff is a, Jeff and me both are true believers in our vendors that we use.
And today we have Bill Nyland, who is, he's a dealer's kind of vendor.
He's always there helping.
He's taking, you know, dealers out to have booze every once in a while.
And he's got a great product.
And that's what's, Jeff, I know you love to use this product.
I'm not smart enough to use this product, which, and what's funny is his product is really easy to use.
Well, that's what we're going to do today, Luke.
Bill and I are on a mission today to at least convince you to use tax max this season.
And we're going to give you a whole bunch of reasons.
First off, when you, when you mentioned Bill being a guy of the dealers, a vendor of the dealers,
he is, he'll give you the shirt off his back.
He will, he steps in, he sponsors the podcast.
He's at every association.
He's always there when dealers ask.
So he's one of the good guys.
There's, we know there's a handful that are always back.
And side note, when you corner him at one of these conventions, ask him for a stock tip.
Because I was going to bring this up pre-recording Celsius, right?
Oh, we can't give it away too quick.
He has made more than I will make in tax max this year.
So thank you.
Thank you, Bill.
What's funny is I was, I was standing there at the same time the stock tip was given
and I did not, I did not seize.
I didn't, I didn't know about Celsius at the time, but Bill, I have to say
in the afternoon now I drink a Celsius and I'm like a rocket ship.
Okay.
I don't drink it.
I just like the financial fundamentals about it.
Yeah.
He doesn't mess around with that stuff.
Same with, same with all that marijuana stock that he owns.
I'm not a user.
I'm a financial writer.
Anyways, Bill, let's get into it because what we really want to know is
will there be a tax time?
We always talk about like, ah, tax season's over, tax season's over.
No one gets tax returns.
The money's already out there, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
What, use your crystal ball.
What do you see coming for us?
So there's a lot of new things on the tax max side, but the landscape of
tax season this year is going to be very interesting.
So obviously everyone's aware of the big beautiful bill and all the tax
law changes in the big beautiful bill, but no one's talking about.
So actually JP Morgan Chase has come out and said that tax season's
going to be a huge stimulus in Q1 that they're actually, the Fed has
considered slowing the rate decreases down because Q1 to be such a stimulus.
And everyone knows about the no tax on tips, no tax on overtime.
But what people aren't talking about is the payroll tax with
holding tables did not change.
So if you are paying an employee overtime, they are still having
25 to 30% withholdings on that overtime.
When they file their tax return, they will get to deduct that income,
but they're going to have this huge bucket of withholdings.
Same thing with no tax on tips right now.
Servers are claiming their tips.
They're having taxes withheld from those tips.
They're going to get it all back in their tax refund.
That's wild.
I mean, that I never, I never thought about it.
They're not changing the withholding.
That's going to really, I mean, that's a, that's probably a
thousand plus dollars per, per refund extra, I would think,
or maybe two or three thousand.
So if you look at overtime, there's no tax on overtime
up to twelve thousand five hundred dollars.
It's twenty five thousand for married falling joint.
But let's just say that they're withholding 25% because you
have to withhold higher on overtime and bonuses.
So let's say just 20% to make the math easy.
That's twenty five hundred dollars in withholdings and
just twelve thousand five hundred income from overtime.
Wow.
Is it, is that, does, does that cover the whole year of
twenty twenty five or does, or did it start at a certain
point during the year?
I believe it's the entire year of twenty twenty five.
That's right.
It's retroactive, but it caps out at twelve five.
So the same thing happens with no tax on tips taxes are
going to be withheld.
So if you're, you know, an employee makes tips and
overtime, I mean, that there could be an extra thirty
five hundred dollars on top of the eight thousand for
earned income credit, they've increased the child
tax credit to twenty two hundred.
So I mean, people in the right sweet spot could
get a refund of fifteen thousand dollars if they
make thirty five thousand dollars.
They won't even need to find out with us.
They'll just pay cash.
Correct.
So, so the point is for all these dealers listening
is like, you really have to take your shot at this
tax season.
No, it's going to be a really good one.
That's what I answered a question or there was a
bunch of people answer a question last night on one
of the Facebook groups and the guy was like, should
I go all in?
Should I go all in on tax season?
And in my comment has been like this before Jeff, we
talked about this a couple of episodes back, but the
only the people who don't have good tax seasons or the
people who don't prepare for tax season and part of
your preparation is getting your advertising down,
getting your inventory right and getting a way to
harness those tax returns, right?
And if I can say one thing though, you can go all
in on tax season, but you have to go in smart.
You can't change your underwriting at all that
that if you if you are saying, wow, this guy's
got like you said, this guy could pay cash for $15,000.
But if he doesn't have a job job or whatever, don't
take the five grand down and finance the other 10
when he can't make the first payment.
Yeah, you're right.
Can't emphasize enough because that's when I talked
to dealers.
Oh, tax season sucked.
I sold this guy with no money down and I got
$5,000.
He didn't have a job and he owed me, you know,
$500 a month is his payment.
You just set the whole thing up to fail.
Hmm.
Yeah.
Yeah, for sure.
And a side note for that is I find that my the only
tax deals I've had that have failed are the ones
where the customer says, well, I'm not sure who
files or maybe he's going to file this year.
Maybe I'm going to file and it's like, whoa, whoa,
whoa, wait.
You are not have been married for any period of time
and you don't know who's filing or what your
last return was.
That's a bit of a red flag.
Well, that that's when they start garnishing wages
too.
Yeah, it's like half way through the year.
How's your husband going to run out and file without
you knowing like that's that's nonsense.
You're either lying to me and just trying to get
around it or you really got some problems.
Hey guys, just to jump in and talk about
Buckeye risk services.
They've been one of our sponsors forever.
They're great to the industry.
They're one of your sponsors.
You don't even know it every time you go
to a convention or something like that.
They're there helping out in that right Jeff.
Yeah, absolutely.
I have not seen a company so willing to get behind
the dealers from an education from a support
standpoint.
I mean, there's a handful that we see in our
sphere that are very active and always have our
back, but Buckeye really sets the standard.
So when you're looking for a reinsurance company,
if you've decided it's time to get into it,
you've got to call the guys and girls over at
Buckeye.
I promise you will not regret it.
Yep.
Reinsurance for savings account, wealth building,
tax playing, all these things go together.
So call Buckeye.
What's interesting, Bill, and I want to talk about
this with the big, beautiful bill.
I want to paint this similarity.
And two years ago when I talked to Luke about
getting in on the EV tax credit,
Luke said to me, that's a nonsensical government
tax cash grab.
You greedy capitalist.
And I said to Luke, yeah, buddy,
like the government's giving out money.
Thank you.
My hand is out.
I would like some, you know, so what it did was, you
know, I did almost $700,000 in EV tax credits.
That's $700,000.
I didn't have to put on the street.
That's $700,000 more cash flow in my business
because I didn't put that money on the road and
try to collect it and then charge it off 18
months later, whatever the case may be.
So I want people to hear that because when you
think it was hard to jump through the hoops to get
set up as a clean credit dealer, or you didn't
want to sell this, that or the other, you didn't
want to change your underwriting or your cars
or your processes, like just realize
getting your money on getting your hands on
that money sooner is worth the hoops you
have to jump through.
It's worth signing up with tax max.
It's worth training your sales staff how to
talk to people.
You don't even have to file this stupid taxes
anymore.
Bill's going to talk to us about how it's
all automated with the customer.
It's incredibly easy, but it's cash.
You have to get your hands on because things are
tight.
It is expensive to run a dealership.
Cash costs us more.
You're going to go out of business most likely
within the next couple of months.
Any so get that cash in your dealership.
It's everyone's struggling and they're like, oh,
how do I do that?
It's like, here it is.
Here's a simple answer to just help yourself
out.
Speaking of a struggling, what is the government
shutdown going to do with this tax season?
There's any anything right now because we're
we're two weeks in, I guess.
And who knows when that's going to end?
Yeah, and I'm going to put a pin on that for one
second to what Jeff said.
No, I want to add to what Jeff said.
We've had a lot of dealers call us in their
number one goal this year is to deleverage.
They said, Bill, how can I use tax max to
deleverage?
I have to deleverage.
They're listening to me Jeff.
They are listening to Luke.
My credit line is being constricted or you
know, in jeopardy, whatever you want to call
it.
So anyway, I just want to throw that out there,
but back to the government shutdown.
That's an excellent question because right now
for what I'm hearing, this may be a long one
and I almost feel like they want to break the
record.
So the record was 35 days and everything
everyone just seems like we're going for the
record.
You know, so with tax max, it's going to cost
me a fortune because we have to pay for every
refund advance that gets submitted to our bank
before the IRS opens.
But we have to pay $79 for every tax return out of
our fees that we charge the customer to get them
an application for refund advance.
So we will perceive business as usual starting
January the second printing those $7,000
refund advance checks.
You know, if this government shutdown goes
on for two more weeks, then maybe the IRS
opens two weeks later or if this guy and I
heard today something about the insurance
premiums renew, I guess December 1st and that
if the shutdown may last till December the 1st,
that means tax season may not open till March,
which means the IRS wouldn't release refunds
till April.
So it coincides perfect timing for us.
A new thing that we're launching all these new
things with tax max that like it's so different
than it was even six months ago.
So we're launching our tax season consulting
groups starting the first Tuesday in November
and it's going to go on through all of November,
December, January, February and March.
It's five months.
We're going to talk about every week for 30
minutes about what's going on with tax refunds
and government shutdown is going to be high
up on the list.
Well, it's going to be like training or is it
going to be or I mean, is that something
where I train or you have your regular
webinar still that'll be training.
So we have a normal webinars that will be
training, but these are going to be groups
hosted by me and I'm going to tell your sales
people, your collectors and your advertising
and marketing people, business owners, what
you should be doing this week of this month.
It could be January the 15th and I may be
talking about things that are going on
with the government shutdown and delays.
The first topic we're going to talk about
in November is going to be how to navigate
our website and all these little hidden
jewels that are in the website.
So I'm not necessarily going to be training.
I'm going to be telling each person what they
should be doing with advertising.
Tax Max offers all these digital, you know,
digital pieces for advertising.
It's all included and we've got a countdown
to tax season for Facebook.
We've got all these little cool things that
we're doing that it's all just included
and people just don't know where to find
these little hidden gems.
Yeah, that's I'm glad you this is going
to be great for for dealers because you
always see them on the on the website
is going to where's tax season?
What's going on?
So it's great that this is going to be out
there, but one of the key things to use
in tax max is to have a really good
marketing program behind it because we
still we haven't we haven't I don't
think done any actual filings for a couple
of years just because I hadn't had the
staff to do it and people still call us
all the time because of the original
advertising we put into this process.
It builds great, great value if you can
do it, but you hit the nail ahead.
We are a marketing program.
We're not just really a tax service.
We say we're a tax marketing program.
You're marketing and advertising to these
customers who are waiting for their tax
refund telling them you can put them
into a car early, whether it's October,
November, December or January and
February before the money comes out.
So I'm going to take questions from
all people on these calls and they
can ask what they want.
One thing I found out is, for example,
Jeff, you sign up with tax max in October
and I don't see you again until
buyer pay united in April and you say,
Hey, I had this problem.
Well now in real time, you can tell me
what your problems are and I can get
you guys back on track.
Maybe had a GM that left.
Well, we can take it offline and I can
take my training people and reach out
to you directly to get your training
people or your people trained back
up to speed or you're having no
response.
We can take that offline or you
can say, Luke, you say, Bill, I think
you're full of crap.
I want to talk to one of your dealers
who succeed at this and then they
will chime in on the taxis and consulting
groups and say how they're having
success, whether it's sales, collections,
how they did the deal, the customer
buy-in, the employee buy-in.
We're going to talk about bonus
structures for the staff every week.
You guys might get homework.
Hey, you know, we're going to have
big time advertising.
No homework on every call and say,
hey, on your cell phone, see how long
it takes for the tax max ad or application
to to come up on your on your phone.
Maybe there's an issue with other things
besides just tax max itself.
Mm hmm.
I think it's important that dealers
understand that yes, you cannot wait
until tax time to learn tax minutes.
I got that's too late.
We have the most success in the
fourth quarter program because that's
really the beauty of a buy here pay
here operation is being able to
defer that down payment with some confidence.
So we really get very aggressive
December 1st, you know, we'll tease
it out through November.
And but that means that my team
has to be learning now how to do it.
That means that I need to get
the assets in place now.
I need to get my website updated.
I need to get Facebook campaigns
updated.
I need to train them on how to
talk to customers and how to
handle the underwriting because
it is a little bit different.
But the fourth quarter program
for me is the magic because
that's when I can really help
people that want to get into a car.
Earlier, if they wait, then
they already got their cash.
They're buying from Luke.
Let me let me let me ask this
question, Jeff, because it was brought
up in that post yesterday.
Your static pools for the fourth
quarter program, I'd be willing to bet
you are better than your taxi
or than your actual February, March.
Have you ever looked at that?
Um, yes, but I have not.
I don't know that my tax max
penetration is large enough
in either of those pools to really
say, Hey, so if I if I look specifically
and I'd have to look at just
the tax max deals fourth quarter
verse first quarter, maybe
that would be more of a better
pool to look at and say, OK,
out of my tax max deals specifically,
how many succeeded,
how many defaulted,
was there a difference
between fourth quarter deals
and first quarter deals?
My idea, my thought is,
Bill, and you might get back
us up on this is that the fourth
quarter deals go probably
better because it's probably
a lot of your customers
that you're getting in sooner
and and they're just better customers.
Bill, do you have any data on it?
Yeah, so what we saw
with our larger clients
who actually measure that
the people you sell to
in October, November,
December perform better
because you're really
getting a double down payment.
So if a customer puts
a thousand dollars down in November
and then they take another
fifteen hundred dollars out
of their ten thousand dollar
refund in February,
they now have twenty five hundred
dollars down plus the weekly
or bi-weekly, whatever
how you do it payments
for October, November, December
and January leading up to it.
These customers last longer
in their loans.
I think by your pay here
the average default is 18th month.
I think if there was a
tax season payment on it
and they collect it,
I think that the default
goes all the way up to
I think 28 months.
Wow.
These loans perform better
for many reasons.
Now, Luke,
you brought up a good point.
This fourth quarter program
isn't for everybody,
meaning that
if they're a customer
that can barely make
their payment,
maybe never even seen them.
You know,
some dealers will only offer
this to prior customers
and say, look,
this program we offer
is only for our prior customers
because you know them.
You know, the biggest thing
I hear is,
Bill, I hate your fourth
quarter program.
I'm never doing it.
So I'm not using
tax max at all.
But we have four parts
of our program.
You know,
if you don't want to use
the fourth quarter program,
you could still use
the other three parts.
So that's another
big misconception.
But if you do a fourth
quarter deal,
it's not a zero down
promotion.
That's another mistake
that people think.
I'm going to take
nothing down
and then just get
$5,000 in March.
That deal is going to fail.
They have to meet
your normal underwriting
criteria.
They have to have money down.
And what I usually suggest
is when you know,
all right,
Luke,
I'm going to sell you
this car
and here's the keys.
I'm going to ask you
one question.
Would you like to skip
the last four or five
months worth of your car
payments?
You're going to say,
of course,
I would.
How do I do that?
Well,
I can estimate
your tax return
and take a small portion
of your future tax refund.
Which is that
something you'd like to do?
Doing that
will shrink the term
by 15%.
So if you have
a 40 month deal,
let's say a 50 month
term
how you can shrink this
to a 43 month term.
That customer
saved seven months
worth of payments.
That's yeah,
I mean,
that's these loans
are definitely going to
perform better.
You don't want to
what the other
the other caveat
I'd say
when we talk
about not doing
this as a zero
down deal,
that's not good.
You're doing it.
It's almost a double
down payment
and we'll mention
that earlier.
I'm going to do
this deal anyways.
Right.
I'm going to
underwrite this deal
in November, December.
Anyways,
the other thing
you got to be careful
of is don't try to
use it as a way
to
dig them out of negative
equity.
Right.
You're going to
take an internal
trade.
Oh,
I'm going to
roll over this
extra three
grand of negative
equity onto your car.
And then
you'll just come
in at tax time
with an extra
three grand
to get yourself
out of it.
And it's like,
no,
that doesn't work either
because come
come February
March,
they know
they're upside down
and they're
taking that tax
return elsewhere.
And these
will be things
we're talking
about on the weekly
tax max consulting
group calls.
So we're going to
be real time
information.
You mentioned
so with the fourth
quarter program,
we did a test pilot
with a
group that had
six locations.
And what we
did was
is that
when they
did the estimator
they
and they knew
they're going to
sell the car
to the customer.
They texted
the secure
closed video
to the
customer's
phone.
So we've
always had
this secure
closed video.
It's a video.
It's two
minutes long
that just
kind of
it's an
avatar
that explains
that there is
a special
taxies
and payment
due from you
and in your
contract.
To
this is the benefit
to you,
the consumer
about this
special payment
and three
about how
you can make
that payment.
So one
that creates
customer
awareness.
The second
thing we
did was
in our
system,
we asked them
to tell us
does
Luke Godwin
have a special
taxies
and payment
with this
with his
sale
when they
do the
estimator.
They may
hit no
meaning
I didn't
sell
Lucca car
at all
or be
that
Luke doesn't
have a special
payment.
The
customer's
cell phone
number
and their
email
address.
We created
a drip
campaign
introducing
tax
max
who we are
and telling them
we're going to
send them a drip
email
campaign
every month
about a
tax law
update
that will
increase their
refund
and then
come January
we send them
an email
with their
special
link
for
to
you know
whether it's
Godwin
motors
or to
four seasons
or to
whatever dealer
for them
to get a
free estimate on
the tax return.
And then
what we did
when
we called
the customer
from tax
max
to say
hey
I'm just
calling to verify
that you receive
the link
that we emailed
and texted you
now all the
email link
and
texting permissions
are in the paperwork
we included all that
it's all compliant
so we call them
to say hey did you
get the link.
Yes I got it
thanks we tell
me you get
a free estimate
you know
there's no charge
until you go ahead
and file
if they said
they did not get it
while we have them
on the phone
we will text them
this group had
245
fourth quarter deals
and they collected
241
of the
45 deals
and I'm pretty sure
I know the group
and they're probably
the largest
privately owned
buyer pay here
in the country
at this point
and
and
they get it done
and that's
that's awesome
that you read
what I mean that's
those are real numbers
right there's a real
numbers and honestly
I told them
I said look
don't expect
I'd be happy
if you collect a 90%
because in
buy here pay here
you only collect
72%
hey real quick break
to make sure you guys
know about
Blitz pay
it's who I use
to take all the payments
at my buy here pay here
dealership
we've been with them
for almost three years now
and it is
absolutely amazing
it's great
yeah
the product is so simple
even an idiot like me
can use it
but
you know
even when my collector
is out
and I'm just taking
a phone call here and there
no matter where I am
I can log into Blitz pay
and I can take that payment
I can see the
customer's text
and they'll say hey can you run this
or
whatever's going on
it's always on top of it
and the money's in the bank
almost the next day
and that is
to me
so important
and the support is great
if we do have a charge back
or a dispute
we get an email
that says
hey there was this dispute
and then their team
goes to work to help
us resolve it
they don't just
dump it back on your
table with some
random notification
or email
and barely ever see
like my previous processors
yeah
it's so helpful
and a lot of times
it's because
our
our customers did something wrong
but
when it's not
they'll fight to the end
with you
and get that money back
in your account
yeah so
give them a call
the guys and girls
over at Blitz pay
great partner to have
definitely an
essential tool
to have
if you're a buy here pay
here dealer
we've been talking a lot
about sales here
we want to hop in
to how this can help
with
with collections
during
fourth quarter and first quarter
yeah so
every dealer has
five buckets
to collect
what I always say
and what you do now
as you run a report
out of your DMS
here's all my past
two accounts
now you can text
the customer
and email
the customer
your special link
that I was talking about
specific for
your dealership
and then
follow up with
your collectors
to say hey did you
get the tax
or did you get
a tax max
no I didn't get it
let me send it to you again
and say hey you get
a free refund
estimate with tax max
no obligation
but this is how
we can now get you
current
with your
your car payment
same thing with repair
notes or side notes
you're running that
same report out of
your DMS
you're changing
the message
right hey
we've got a special
with tax season
we can give you
40% off your balance
of your side note
just to get rid of it
or repair note
because we know
they don't really
care about it
it's an offer
for the customer
you send them
a mass text
a mass
email
and then you
follow up
and see if they
got it
same thing with
repos right hey
we want to get back
on a recent
repo
run that report
let's put you back
into your vehicle
recovery
someone maybe
you charged
off or
you know
they totaled
their car
a year ago
they owe you
five grand
in their
payment cycle
with you
run that report
same thing
send a text message
and email out
change the message
hey we can take
a small portion
of your tax refund
and your trade in
and upgrade you
to a new vehicle
so
I'm a little
slow bill
so I'm going to
have to
walk through this
in
very easy terms
you're saying
I can take
all those
buckets of
customers
all the places
people owe me money
I can take
a specific
link
to my dealership
they will
physically get it
by email or text
and then
they will
self help
file
I'm not
calling them
trying to punch in
their junk
like
they will just
use the link
they'll file it
directly with you
or by text
and then
I just get an
email that says
money's in the bank
print a check
that's it
the dealer
literally does
but
but I still get to print
checks right
yeah
they have the money
on a debit card
Jeff loves
whenever he gets
all those checks
in case you haven't
seen it
anybody
listening
or watching
Jeff will take
and just line
those checks up
like
he's making it rain
in his dealership
with the
tax max
checks
I give you
a lot of credit
because
the first
refund advance
we printed
it out
and
we got
the full
$7,000
and it was
an EV car
they got
the EV credit
$500
I mean
what a
start to
tax season it was
great job
Jeffrey
I did pick that
car up
did you
well
you were
you were
in it right
when you
picked it up
as I was
that's funny
because
my salesman
yeah exactly
so it was
it was a killer deal
man
and yeah
it was a win-win for everybody
oh man
I'm going to be doing
a lot more
of this
this tax time
so
I do plan on
going heavier into
some of these
EVs
come December
January
and that's going to
help me a
lot
because people will
put up
their tax return
for
a good car
the right car
for the right car
people will
put up
their tax return
and
they will
put up
their tax return
whether it's
a Silverado
Z71
or a Tesla
or something
with wheels and
tires on it
like
I think
that's a big piece
to the
puzzle
even
six months later
when their tax return
gets deposited
you know
they're not
thinking about
running out and
trying to file with
someone else
they're not
getting into the car
and you got the whole
7000
if she filed somewhere else
and got a $7000
refund advance
she probably would have
showed up and told you
she had
1500 bucks
and you probably
would have taken the
1500 bucks
with the 7500
EV credit
and only got
9000 down
instead of 14000 down
that's how you
win
in this game
with tax max
it's a marketing
program
but the money's
in your hands
and you're negotiating
with power
what else we got Jeff?
well
what it makes me think
about is
I've got to get
all my
I've got to get my ducks
in a row now right Bill
so tell the dealers
like
where do we go to
sign up
what do we do
do we get a
special code
because we know you
where you gave us
some stock tips
like
what are the first
steps as a dealer
to getting
the culture
because that's
really the biggest part
and
rewind all this
and wipe it all away
it doesn't work
unless your salesman
have buy-in
so you might have
to do something
because they just
want to do
they want to do the least
amount as possible
and Bill's made it
very easy to file directly
from the customer
to tax max
back in the day
my guys had to enter
in all the information
into the system right
and the salesman
were like
that's an extra step
blah blah blah
you were going to
improve the deal
the deal anyways
why are you
making me get more down
so
you're going to struggle
with that part
but getting the buy-in
is super
super important
Bill how do they
get started
so what I recommend
is go to taxmax.com
I wouldn't even
say sign up now
I'd say if you go
to the very top
it'll say car dealers
and then hover over
overview
and then just
set up a demo
the demo could
just be having
a conversation
let's have a conversation
I'd like to hear
I really challenge
dealers who don't
like me
or don't like tax max
just
book a demo
and say look
this is what I hate
about tax max
and odds are
it's about something
that happened 20 years ago
that's what we're finding out
to be honest
so
I'd love to have a conversation
my team would love
to have a conversation
if you do
just want to go to sign up
now
click on sign up now
when you're checking out
use the coupon code
VIP
we made it real simple
just VIP
that'll give you 35%
off because you
saw me on the podcast
hey
VIP
very important
make sure you use it
because we need to
make sure
and also
just to let you know
tax max is going to
help sponsor
our
our collections boot camp
in
in Dallas
coming up in December
and I'm sure
at that boot camp
we're going to talk a little
bit about how to use
tax max to
to collect better Jeff
what's all this
R stuff
R
and I talked to Luke
Luke's
Luke's not
not Jeff's
sorry
we're working on
that's
hot** right now
but that's going to be
a game changer
I kind of shared it
with Luke
and we're hoping
to unveil
that information
at Luke's
collections
boot camp
workshop
whatever you
wanted Corpor
that's
that's pretty
awesome
I'm sure him
and the three other
people in the room
will really
appreciate that
insider information
it's going to be
a big deal
you got a
because if you're
in collections
what it is, but I told him what it is and it's a big deal. It is good. It's a big deal. I'm a
big deal. Bill, any closing parting words, appreciate your time. And again, my parting
argument to everyone is we need liquidity. You need cash in your dealership right now. It's
not going to get better. Like honestly, if you're still in business come January,
thank goodness you made it. But all I can think about, man, we see it on the news every single day
what trichlor is done, what the auto parts people have done to the credit crunch and these other
lenders and we're getting hit from all angles. So if you don't get more cash, cars are not
more affordable. Our customers don't have more. Like it's going to be a big deal to get that
money and get as much as the least amount of cash on the street as you can absolutely handle for a
while. There's a credit crunch coming. I listen to CNBC all day and I think I heard Trichlor
mention at least a dozen times every day for two weeks. The bank stocks are scared. I mean,
you got Jamie Dimon talking about cockroaches. Private credit people, they're cockroaches.
Thank you, Jamie. But the point is, like you said, if you're looking to deleverage or just
lower your credit line, get yourself in a position because one thing I don't think is possible,
you're not going to be able to extend your credit line past what you have. And if it doesn't
get reduced, you're going to be in good shape. So deleverage, now one thing I tell people too,
you don't have to use all four parts of tax max. If you don't want to do the fourth
quarter program, fine. You're crazy not to do it for collections. Run a report, send your customers
a mass text and an email that takes 20 minutes. And then follow up with your collectors and making
a call. They're calling them anyway. No brainer, no work. Q1, throw the banner out on your website.
They follow us. We now send you a lead to your CRM. You schedule an appointment. The
lead's labeled a tax max lead. So you know there's tax money coming along with that
lead and that customer that you set an appointment with. And if you hate all three still, it's still
worth the money to do the tax season consulting groups. We're going to know five days in advance
before when the IRS releases the money. Let's say it's because of the government shutdown,
it may be March the 30th that the money comes out this year. Well, I'll be able to tell you
March the 25th, five days in advance, be ready here it comes. But tax max, if you're doing
the Q1 program, regardless of when the IRS opens, we'll have money starting January 2nd.
I have one more question on one follow up comment. Are those consulting groups free? Can
anyone get in even non-tax max dealers? Only for tax max dealers only. So you just have to register
and sign up. If you don't want to use any part of the program, I don't care. As long as you're
a tax max dealer, you can sit in the consulting groups. We're going to expect hundreds of
people in these groups. Sounds like a party. The second comment I wanted to make was we
didn't really distinguish or differentiate between the buy here, pay here dealers and the retail
dealers and which ones to take advantage of that because as a buy here, pay here dealer,
the fourth quarter program makes absolute sense. You have to have to do it. As a retail dealer
or a CAC dealer or subprime dealer, fourth quarter program doesn't really work because
the banks do not like that. You cannot defer a down. It's very dangerous with outside
financed. But the first quarter program works because guess what? Bill is printing checks on
January 2nd. So you are physically printing a refund advance check. Like Bill said, I had a
6,000. I had a 4,000. I had a 3,000. I had in 2025 like 30 where my refund advance checks,
I had like almost 20 or 30 grand of refund advance checks printed, which means that was cash
that got deposited that day. It is a true down payment. So when you go to CAC
or Bank of America or Chase Wells Fargo, whoever, that's literally a down payment. It's non-recourced.
It's right. It's their money from day one. So a retail dealer can't do the collections program
and can't do the fourth quarter program, but they can do the other two parts, which is the Q1
and the taxis and consulting groups. One thing, I'm glad you brought this up. So the buy
here, pay here consulting groups will start in November. There will be a separate retail
taxis and consulting groups starting in December. Both groups will go through March,
but they will be different, meaning that we'll be talking buy here, pay here,
best practices in January, February, and March. In March, we'll be talking about,
all right, let's talk about what deals went bad. All right, should you start picking these
customers up or, you know, we're going to talk about, well, this customer is making their
payments. There's an issue with their tax return. Well, you either want to rewrite
the deal because they're making their payments or do you just want to let this special taxis
of payment go late for a little while longer? And once again, every week, they're only 30 minutes
long, but they're going to get right to the point, plenty of questions and answers. And,
you know, I've said it before, you're crazy not to do it. You have nothing to lose in
everything to gain. I agree. Yeah. So smart. Luke, this has been great, Bill. Thank you.
I think Luke has a different tea time. I got a tea time. I got to get two more.
Not a tax time, but a tea time. The second best tea time there is other than tax time is
literal tea time. I'm not a golfer. I don't have the patience for golf.
All right, guys. Thanks so much. Thanks to everybody. Really appreciate your time.
About this episode
Tax season is shaping up to be a significant opportunity for dealers, with insights from Bill Nyland on maximizing returns through strategic planning. The discussion highlights the impact of recent tax law changes, including potential refunds for overtime and tips, and emphasizes the importance of preparation and smart underwriting. Bill shares details about Tax Max's offerings, including consulting groups to help dealers navigate the tax landscape and improve collections. The episode is packed with practical advice for dealers looking to leverage tax season effectively.
Original notes
Tax Season 2026 is shaping up to be one of the biggest stimulus events of the year—and most dealers aren't ready for it.In this dedicated episode, Bill Neylan, founder and CEO of Tax Max, breaks down why this tax season will be different and how independent dealers can capitalize on massive refund opportunities. With new tax laws creating $2,500-$3,500 MORE per customer in refunds, there's huge potential for dealers who prepare NOW instead of waiting until January.What We Cover:Why 2026 is different: No tax on overtime/tips but withholdings weren't adjusted = HUGE refundsThe 98% collection rate case study: One dealer had 245 Q4 deals and collected on 241How Tax Max works now: Customers self-file via text (zero dealer paperwork), refund advances start January 2ndFive collection "buckets": Past due, repos, side notes, recoveries, and low balance customersCash flow strategy: Getting more money IN your dealership with less ON the streetFourth quarter vs Q1 programs: Why Q4 deals perform better and last longerWeekly Tax & Consulting Groups starting November for real-time guidanceGovernment shutdown impact and IRS opening predictions💰 SPECIAL OFFER: Use code VIP at taxmax.com for 35% offCRITICAL REMINDER: "The only people who don't have good tax seasons are the people who don't prepare for tax season." Don't wait until January to learn this system.👇Don't forget to like, comment, and subscribe for more strategies from industry experts!Thank you for listening. We hope you learned something new. Let us know what you think. Leave us a review at www.theindependentdealer.com or @independentdealer.comSupport the businesses that support the podcast:Tax Max - Use code VIP for 35% off! www.taxmax.comBlytzpay for your credit card processing and text communications. Tell them IDP sent you to get 3 free months! www.blytzpay.comBuckeye Risk Services for all your education and reinsurance needs www.buckeyerisk.comPlease subscribe, leave us a review, and share with a friend.Connect with us online:/ independentautogroup/ jlukegodwin/ sendtojeffwListen to all our episodes on Anchor: @pendentdealerGodwin Consulting Group Upcoming Event: Collections Boot Camp - December 10, 2025, Dallas, TX (Sponsored by Tax Max)Register: godwinconsultinggroup.com/trainings
The Independent Dealer Podcast
Jeff Watson & Luke Godwin
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37:52