[Top Giver Series] The Smart Tax Strategies Every Business Owner Should Know With Courtney Epps

Courtney Epps, EA, PhD, is the Founder of OTB Tax and a nationally recognized tax strategist, international speaker, and TEDx speaker. With nearly 20 years of experience, she helps entrepreneurs and businesses — from startups to $100 million companies — use strategic tax planning to legally reduce taxes and drive financial growth. She is also the Founder of Tax Rebels, an educational platform and community that teaches entrepreneurs how to use proactive tax strategies to keep more of what they earn. Courtney is the best-selling author of More Relaxing, Less Taxing and What’s Your Plan B?.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [4:19] Courtney Epps explains the focus of OTB Tax and tax strategy services
• [5:55] The Augusta Rule and renting your home for tax-free income
• [8:44] Using your kids in your business to shift income and reduce taxes 
• [21:30] Why taxes should be the number one financial focus for business owners
• [27:15] Saving a client millions using advanced charitable tax strategies
• [31:14] Common deductions business owners overlook, like meals and continuing education
• [34:12] What happens during a tax strategy session with OTB Tax
• [36:11] Why Courtney created the Tax Rebels community for business owners

In this episode…

Taxes are often treated as an unavoidable cost of doing business, something entrepreneurs simply accept each year. But what if many business owners are paying far more than they legally need to? The real question is: are you using the strategies that allow you to keep more of what you earn?

For Courtney Epps, a recognized tax strategist and financial educator, many entrepreneurs miss key opportunities to legally reduce their tax burden. She explains that common mistakes, such as improper business structure, incorrect salary payments, and overlooking eligible deductions, can cost business owners tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars each year. Courtney highlights strategies such as the Augusta Rule, which allows business owners to rent their homes to their companies tax-free, and hiring children in the business to shift income into lower tax brackets. When used correctly, these strategies help entrepreneurs keep more of their income and accelerate long-term wealth building while making tax planning a critical financial priority.

In this episode of the Inspired Insider Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Courtney Epps, Founder of OTB Tax, to discuss smart tax strategies every business owner should know. They explore common tax mistakes entrepreneurs make, how strategies like the Augusta Rule and hiring your kids can reduce taxes, and why tax planning should be a top financial priority. Courtney also shares real-world examples of saving clients millions through advanced charitable tax strategies.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Courtney Epps, EA. PhD. on LinkedIn
• OTB Tax Website | Blog | YouTube
• Tax Rebels
• Tony Robbins
• Personal Power
• Awaken the Giant Within : How to Take Immediate Control of Your Mental, Emotional, Physical and Financial Destiny! by Tony Robbins
• Les Brown
• $100M Offers: How to Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi
• $100M Leads: How to Get Strangers to Want to Buy Your Stuff by Alex Hormozi
• $100M Money Models: How to Make Money by Alex Hormozi
• Inner Circle For Life
• The Masters Mastermind
• Breakthrough Mastermind
• The 80/20 Principle: Achieve More with Less by Richard Koch
• 80/20 Sales and Marketing: The Definitive Guide to Working Less and Making More by Perry Marshall
• Mann Relief
• Time Collapsing-The New Art of Speed, Money, Power & Meaning by Ed O’Keefe

Special mentions:

• Alex Hormozi on LinkedIn
• Robert Kiyosaki on LinkedIn
• Keith Cunningham on LinkedIn
• Ed O’Keefe on LinkedIn

Related episodes:

• “[Top Giver Series] Doing Business Beyond Self with David Gonzalez of Simply The Coolest” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “Re-Release [Top Giver Series] Beyond Giftology: The Art and Science of Gifting With John Ruhlin” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Giver Series] Tips for Effective and Efficient Financial Planning With Justin Krane” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Giver Series] Crafting Winning Teams for Growth With Patrick Ropella” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Giver Series] Relationship Building and Referral Marketing With Philip Hill and Steve Beecham” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Giver Series] Making Powerful Connections Through Warm Introductions With Joe Mindak” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “[Top Giver Series] How to Triple Your Profits and Impact with Dan Kuschell of Breakthrough3x” on the Inspired Insider Podcast
• “The Five Daily Practices Guaranteed to Change Your Life with David Meltzer of Sports 1 Marketing” on the Inspired Insider Podcast

Quotable moments:

• “Accounting makes more money, so I’m just going to be an accountant.”
• “Americans get zero benefit from charitable giving because they don’t have enough to itemize.”
• “Condensing time and putting money into me is the best money that I could possibly spend.”
• “Most people don’t know this, but taxes is our number one expense.”
• “There is truly a different system for the middle class, comparable to the billionaires.”

Action steps:

1. Review your business structure with a tax strategist: Ensuring your business is structured correctly can prevent overpaying taxes and unlock significant savings opportunities.
2. Use the Augusta Rule for business events: Renting your home to your business for up to 14 days annually can create legitimate tax-free income.
3. Employ your children in your business: Paying your kids for legitimate work shifts income to lower tax brackets and reduce overall family tax liability.
4. Track and claim all eligible business deductions: Documenting expenses like meals, travel, and continuing education helps maximize write-offs and lower taxable income.
5. Prioritize tax planning throughout the year: Proactively managing tax strategy rather than reacting at filing time can significantly increase retained earnings.

Episode Transcript

Intro: 00:15

You are listening to Inspired Insider with your host, Dr. Jeremy Weisz.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 00:22

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, Founder of Inspired Insider.com, where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders. Today is no different. I have Courtney Epps. You could check her out at OTBTax.com and TaxRebels.com. We’re going to get into it.

Before we do, Courtney, I always like to point out other episodes of the podcast people should check out. Okay. Yes. You don’t know this, but like I kind of consider this part of my Top Giver Series. I do a top giver series when I meet someone and they just want to provide value. They just want to help people. So you kind of fall into my Top Giver Series. I’m thinking, who else was on my Top Giver series in the past, and when you, when someone listens to these, these are about people who really value relationships.

Okay, so we have, if you’re looking at the screen. We have David Gonzalez, you know, one of the best in the business. He’s in Austin, Texas. He’s got events there. John Ruhlin, may rest in peace. He wrote Giftology and he was a friend. You know, unfortunately passed away too young. Justin Krane is another one. Patrick Ropella. The one I wanted to get to though, Courtney, is Phillip Hill. He is, we both know Phillip. The reason I met Courtney was because of Phillip, and he’s all about relationship building, right? So that’s an amazing interview. And the other one I want to mention is Jo Mindak, who runs The Connective. I think honestly, Courtney, with what you do, we’re going to get into. And the sexiest topic is taxes. But really it’s about saving money and not paying taxes. But I think all the people in The Connective would really benefit from what you do. So I want to just say, hey, Joe, like, you should meet Courtney as well. So check out that there’s so many more here. Dan Kuschell has become a friend and mentor, but check those out. 

Before I formally introduce Courtney, this episode is brought to you by Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses connect to their dream relationships and partnerships. We do that in a few ways. One, we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast. We do the strategy, accountability and the full execution behind the scenes. And number two, we’re an easy button for our company’s gifting. So we make gifting and staying top of mind may it be for clients, partners, prospects, even staff from a culture perspective, you just give us the addresses, we’ll do everything else. And it’s not like a one off gift, Courtney. It’s kind of like picture a series of gifts. So maybe a gift every four months for five years type of thing. And we like to send food because people like to get food.

So, you know, for me over the past 15 years, you know, really the best thing in my life is the way I build relationships. And I found no better way to profile the people I admire in the podcast and send them sweet treats in the mail. So go to Rise25.com or email [email protected]. 

I’m excited to introduce Courtney Epps and she’s really a nationally recognized tax strategist. She’s an international speaker. Courtney, I know you’ve spoken at Tony Robbins events and multitude of Les Brown and others. She’s a best selling author, and she’s spent more than 20 years helping business owners legally and ethically keep more of what they earn. And she’s a co-owner of OTB Tax. I mentioned Tax Rebels and OTB wealth, which we’ll get into. But she really has built this multi entity financial ecosystem. And what that does is it integrates tax strategy business structure, investment planning to really accelerate wealth creation. So Courtney, thanks for joining me.

Courtney Epps: 04:02

Thank you so much for having me on.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:04

Let’s start off with, there’s so much to go into because I’ve watched, who knows, 12 of your videos or more online. But I’m going to bring up OTB Tax to show people, but just talk about OTB Tax and what you do.

Courtney Epps: 04:19

So the focus, you know, we’ve had OTB Tax now for 15 years. And we just our, our focus is strategy on freeing up money for people. But essentially we are an accounting practice. So we do payroll, we do taxes, we do bookkeeping. And then I do the tax strategy piece. And then I have a team of people who are actually in the process of either learning tax strategy or doing tax strategy for our firm as we continue to grow.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:47

How does, talk about the tax strategy? Like when I go to the site, what sticks out is a tax strategy session. Right? 

Courtney Epps: 04:54

Right.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 04:55

So talk about maybe some of the mistakes you see people making and how that works.

Courtney Epps: 05:00

So they’re the three things that I see that people, especially when we’re first on a call, is there are three high levels, one is the structure. So a lot of business owners especially are improperly structured and they’re not having conversations with their accountant or accountant doesn’t know, which is a lot of the issue. And so they’re not structured properly. So they’re overpaying in taxes. When they are structured properly, they are paying themselves way too much in a paycheck.

And then the third thing is that they’re overpaying. They’re not writing off expenses that they’re entitled to take for their business. So those are kind of high level. And honestly, we have gone back just on those three things and found people upwards of $110,000 a year.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 05:47

What’s the most missed expenses that you see people not using or utilizing?

Courtney Epps: 05:55

So I would say that the Augusta Rule, which is where you can rent your house out 14 days a year, you don’t have to pay tax on it. That’s a big one. A lot of people just don’t know about that at all. So if you’re using your house to have guests over, to do presentations, to do masterminds, retreats, things like that, like you want, you want to actually force yourself to use your house for business purposes so you can write it off. You can also add to that business use of home. 

And then the even bigger picture, I think, is hiring your kids, right? So that’s a way to income shift. You’re shifting income off of you and on to your kids at a much lower level or zero taxes, you can actually pay them up to $16,000, $16,100 a year without them having to pay taxes on it at all. So there’s that piece. And then one of the biggest things that never really came up for me up until this last year, I got involved in a mastermind and we started talking about tax free accounts and forcing money into retirement. And a Solo 401(k) is massive. So not a step, but an actual Solo 401(k). That’s probably one of the most powerful retirement plans you can do, because you can backdoor up to 70 grand a year into a Roth, and then you never have to pay tax on that money. So I think those are probably my top three right now.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 07:13

What’s the, from the Augusta Rule, is there documentation involved in something like that that people have to think about?

Courtney Epps: 07:20

So definitely you can easily go on ChatGPT and type in like give me a rental agreement essentially. But you know, if you’re keeping good track on a calendar of I had this event at this time with this group of people, then you could easily go back and create a rental agreement that says, okay, me personally, right? I’m renting this house to, or this event center to my company for $10,000 a day, depending on how big your house is. And obviously, I don’t know if you’ve put together events, Doctor Jeremy, but I am currently doing an event right now and it’s coming up in October, and I’m on the hook for 150 grand for three days. So, you know, I’m renting my house out for $15,000 a day to host events.

So when we launched Tax Rebels back in August, you know, I had that first event at my house. So, you know, I charged out $15,000 a day for the Friday, Saturday and Sunday that we did that event.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 08:25

Yeah. And then the hiring kids perspective, is there any at what point maybe does it make sense or not make sense? Does someone have to be a certain income level? Or is there someone that doesn’t fit in that category where you tell them, yeah, it doesn’t make sense to hire your kids.

Courtney Epps: 08:44

So if you are attempting to earn income, right? I mean, the expenses are, the goal is that you have to be attempting to earn income and that you have to prove right. If the. If you were to ever get audited, you are attempting to earn income and the intention is there. So if that’s the case, it doesn’t matter if you’re making money or not necessarily net income after expenses. It just matters the intention. 

I’ll tell you to. Just this morning I got a text message when I woke up . The AI guy that I’m working with built, I sent him pictures of my daughter, my 11 month old, and I’m like, this is what I want you to do. I want you to build an AI with me talking in my voice. And I want it to be talking about hiring your kids and the importance. And so he sent that to me this morning. He’s like your, your daughter was busy making content this morning. So now, you know, that solidifies her being the model for OTB Tax and for Tax Rebels and OTB Wealth, which I’ve already like I use her in everything that I do when I’m posting video content, I’m talking about her. I’m bringing her to events, people are connecting with me. So essentially, I’m, you know, my daughter works for me. All of my children actually work for me, but that’s what I’m using her for right now, which is pretty fun.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:02

It’s funny, I was talking to someone, Courtney, and this was just like a side conversation after a podcast. And they just noticed this booth, marketing booth and the line was like out the door. And he looked closer and someone was holding their baby at the booth. It was just because they had their baby there, right. And, and then he went back, looked like ten minutes later, I guess the baby had to go take a nap. And maybe they didn’t get a babysitter that day or whatever. And the line evaporated. So he came up with this business. He’s like, rent a baby. Like, do you have the baby?

Courtney Epps: 10:42

It’s hilarious.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:43

And the lines out the door because everyone wanted to see the baby. Hold the baby?

Courtney Epps: 10:47

Yes.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:48

And then the baby got tired. So anyways, there’s like a separate business there. Like people can actually rent their baby. No, not.

Courtney Epps: 10:54

Rent my baby out.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 10:55

Right, exactly. But I do want to touch on. You have seven kids. Okay. That alone, just having one kid, having two kids, having three kids and a thriving business. What are some of the ways that you, I don’t know, segment your schedule or stay on top of everything with these multiple businesses and the kids? What are some of your, you know, secrets? I don’t know.

Courtney Epps: 11:23

So one, I mean, one of the biggest things is we homeschool our kids. And we have for 12 years now and my husband has been a stay at home dad, not because he wanted to, but it was just for me in the tax side. It was super crazy to send our kids off to school and pay for, you know, pay for babysitters and things like that and him have to pay more money in taxes. So it’s like, that’s not correct. That’s crazy. When we first got started, because, you know, we, we obviously struggled for many years until we got to a point where we are today. 

And then with the kids not having to go to school every single day, they go to a co-op twice a week, which is great. And now my kids are honestly 23, 22, 21, 20, 18, 13, and 11 months. So they kind of occupy themselves for them to work for us full time. And, but we just learned it was like a system. I worked, that was essentially my job. I’m going to go out and work and I’m going to build this business, and then the kids are going to help clean up. My husband’s going to make sure we had food, right, because there’s times I probably would not have eaten. And so they run the house and then I run the business. And so it’s worked out really well for us.

But I mean, that’s been hard, you know, and there was some level in the beginning of a resentment, like he was able to stay at home and be with the kids and but now it shifted over, like they’re working with me and I get to spend more time with them. And, he actually sacrificed a lot of his time for things that he really wanted to do in order for me to build this dream that I have. And now he gets to build his farm. So we bought a farm and, and he’s going to be building a house on top of our mountain. So he’s super excited about all of that as well.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 13:12

I don’t know if this is for everyone, so I’ll only speak from personal experience on this, but from my family life, there is like a certain, I think mother’s guilt, like from my wife works and it’s like, well, when I’m at work, I feel bad with the kids. When I’m with the kids, I feel bad that I’m not working. And it’s like, maybe I just don’t have that guilt. But it is a true thing, at least in our households, you know, no matter how much someone spends in our household, as much or as little as the kids, there’s still that guilt around it. And that, that is I’ve heard you say this. That is a tax strategy, having more kids, it’s not like a replication, you know.

Courtney Epps: 13:57

So duplication is key, right? I mean, it definitely does help that they now work for us. You know, when.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:05

You get on the tech strategy session, you’re like, just have like four more kids. It’s fine.

Courtney Epps: 14:08

Right? Exactly, exactly. Need more employees. Have more kids, right? Eventually. Right. They have to grow into that. So.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 14:16

But you know, like you mentioned, like now things are thriving. It wasn’t always that way. Can you talk a little bit about the humble beginnings? Right. And that kind of gives you a perspective on what you’re doing now?

Courtney Epps: 14:29

Yeah. So I, you know, 15 years ago, I had a thriving insurance agency and accounting practice had about 3500 clients. But I was new and I was young. And, you know, if anybody out there has tried to actually get funding when, you know, you’re young and you don’t look like on paper that you’re making any money, it’s very hard. But then when you don’t need the money, it’s like they want to give it to you, right? So that was kind of where I was at.

I was about $2,000 short in cash flow. I needed to either fire an employee or make more money. And I was just drowning and then got in the middle of a custody battle with my ex husband. So I ended up selling my business. The guy sold it to stop paying me, I lost everything. I was a quarter of $1 million in debt, honestly could not afford to. I filed bankruptcy and they told me I had to voluntarily withdraw my bankruptcy because I wanted to pay some of it back. And they’re like, you have no ability to do that, so you cannot do that. 

So for about six and a half years, I tried to do anything but accounting, anything but being a professional, I was scared to death to make a wrong decision because I’d spent 120 hours a week roughly working and building something, I thought for three and a half years that I was going to give to my kids. And then I just out of the blue, I didn’t hire an attorney. I was scared to death too. I didn’t want to hire an attorney because I didn’t want to look bad on paper. And so he would have probably said, Courtney, this is not a good idea. And I just needed that hope. Right? So anyway, I ended up going to a Tony Robbins event June 30th of 2017. That shifted my whole mindset. I realized I was selfish.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 16:09

Which event was it? What was the event called?

Courtney Epps: 16:12

It was a $50 because I couldn’t have afforded it either way. If it would have been anything else, it was Success Resources America. So he was actually just speaking for about four hours at this event. And I just knew like, I have to get myself together. And so I showed up to this event making $0 like I was making nothing. At the time, I was kind of shut down at that point for about six weeks, went to the event. Everything he, you know, was like one, I undervalue my self limiting beliefs. I was self sabotaging myself.

And the biggest piece was he did like he would play a happy song and he would be happy and you’d play a sad song and you’d be sad and you’re like, your brain is stupid. Like literally this is crazy right now. So anyway, for me, it just hit me like I get to choose. And if I’m choosing to be depressed, that would be crazy. Why wouldn’t I choose to be happy? And I went from that meeting, the next day I got $7,500 a month in accounting clients doing fractional CFO work.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz: 17:20

I’d love to hear some of your recommendations. It could be masterminds, conferences, books. I’m a big fan of Tony Robbins. I’ve listened to Personal Power one, Personal Power two, Awaken the Giant Within. I used to listen to audiobooks in my car. I know I’m dating myself, but you know, I love that stuff. Some of the resources, some of your favorites. I know Les Brown is one of them. What are some of your favorite resources?

Courtney Epps: 17:45

Tony is great. I’m actually a platinum partner with him, which is like 85,000 bucks a year to be a part of that and higher level mindset, get to go on vacations within three times a year. So that’s pretty awesome. I was just in his house about three weeks ago. But I love Tony. I also, I love Les’s stories. He’s a great storyteller. And then other than that, really in the business world, I listen to Alex Hormozi I, you know, I think he’s, he’s great when it comes to marketing and sales. And that’s one of the pieces that I really am committed to solidifying this year. It’s like something I’ve just kind of put on the back burner and allowed other people to get involved. And I’m like, man, I’m really going to own that this year. So I love what he does. He has a lot of really great content.

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