Self-Employed? You Could Be Owed Thousands in Pandemic Tax Refunds with Ryan Umina

0:02Who's ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire, brought to you by the HubSpot. podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like Truth, Lies, and Work. Today, we'll be talking about being self-employed. You could be owed thousands in pandemic tax refunds. To drop these vibe bombs, I brought Ryan Umina into EO Fire Studios. Ryan is a top 40 under 40 lawyer, champions justice for self-employed Americans, and is helping them claim pandemic relief tax credits before they expire. In financial, we will be talking about those tax credits, family leave, sick leave, why they matter, the process, and oh, so much more.

0:42Let's put some money in your pockets. As soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lance, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Looking for an easier, safer way to manage passwords than a million Post-it notes?

1:15Welcome to LastPass, the most accessible and easy-to-use password manager on the planet. Visit lastpass.com slash fire for a free trial and get started today. Every login lives in LastPass. Ryan, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. What's up, Fire Nation? So happy to be here. One of the things I think that most people or a lot of people might disagree with is that your other relationships have to suffer on the road to becoming a successful entrepreneur. And what I mean by that, I think that a lot of entrepreneurs and myself included as a young one, you're so laser focused on the goal that a lot of times so many other aspects of life fall to the wayside.

2:09And where I've come, at least on my journey full circle, it's those other aspects of life, those other parts that make you whole, that are actually critical in you staying in the right place to really be the most successful entrepreneur and kind of human that you can be. Fire Nation, we're talking with Ryan today about the fact that you could be owed thousands in pandemic tax refunds. And you were lauded, Ryan, as a top 40 under 40 lawyer in the US. And you actually shifted to become the CEO of SETC Pros. Tell us that story. Absolutely. So, you know, I truly, being a trial lawyer, It is a it's a passion of mine.

2:56I mean, I absolutely love it. I was I was really fortunate in my early career that I had an opportunity to try some pretty significant cases early on. And I mean, I truly love trial work when I was in law school. You know, that's what I really focused on. And so I was I was prepared when I got out there. And then I had some opportunities come in front of me. And and I've loved it. And I think the thing that I mean, truly that I've loved the most about it, the things that I'll remember, you know, when I'm old is it's the people that I've helped. It's the people's lives who I have legitimately changed the entire trajectory of through that work.

3:48And there's I mean, there's just no better than that. And, you know, as I move forward from there, I always had an entrepreneurial spirit. So I opened my own practice just about three years out of law school. I had a lot of great success with that in the first year, but I was already getting into some entrepreneurial endeavors, starting out smaller scale. Very first one was a commercial cleaning company. Myself and another attorney and then a gentleman who was in the business put something together. I was very young and I financed half of it on my overstock.com credit card. 48 months, same as cash.

4:37So I've had a lot of different journeys. And then around the, you know, a little bit in real estate, a little bit in some other things. But then around COVID, I, when it started, there was a huge need for folks to get wills, power of attorney, medical powers of attorney. And no one could get them because they needed to be witnessed and notarized. And the people that are the most high risk, they were in quarantine. And what I noticed was they rapidly started changing notary laws to allow for, even though the documents had to be wet signed, they could be witnessed and notarized virtually. And that was my first kind of big swing into something that would be, I guess, you know, more national.

5:31And really, I mean, just learned so much through that experience and gained just so many skills and such a great knowledge base that ultimately, when this came in front of me, and you know, I'd continued in some other different entrepreneurial ventures or having a piece in it. I just really enjoy growing and building businesses. And especially if it's service and you're making an impact on people's lives, it's just what gets me out of bed in the morning. And when this opportunity came in front of me, we had a problem to be solved. And the problem to be solved was you have 40 to 80 million Americans, self-employed, and that includes 1099 contractors, which is a huge, huge part of the workforce.

6:27They are eligible for billions of dollars and they have no idea about it. And I guess the more concerning thing was come April of 2025, the ability for these individuals to claim any of these credits is going to pretty much be gone forever, except for some very, very rare circumstances where someone filed their taxes way late or something like that. So there was a real sense of urgency to create something that is what it needs to be from a quality place, from a trustworthiness place that we can get the word out to the masses and help them get through the process as easily as possible to claim the funds that they all owed.

7:22All right, let's not bury the lead here because we've kind of brushed the topic a little bit, but I really want to dive in more here, which is the fact that our listeners can be owed thousands in pandemic tax refunds. I mean, this is really interesting stuff. And as you just mentioned, I mean, this could be going away in 2025. So there is a timeline here, Fire Nation, You need to understand that, I mean, it's really important that you at least are educated and knowledgeable about what you're owed, if you're owed. I mean, I know that I would want to know these things. So let's talk about sick leave.

7:57Let's talk about family leave tax credits, because I really don't think that many listeners have any idea about this. Absolutely. This isn't something, the concept of tax credits for small business owners, self-employed people. This isn't a new concept, right? Congress passes different legislation all the time to attempt to strengthen the economy, help the self-employed small business owners around the country, but there's not an educational component. So these specific tax credits, they were originated with the FFCRA. It was like the first big piece of legislation. But in the beginning, they had created it for employers to pay their employees.

8:44And then later it was expanded to include self-employed America. So when we look at these two specific credits, you have the sick leave credit. Now, that is really all things COVID related. So you're talking about quarantine, government shutdowns, a lot of specific types of businesses were mandated shut down for long periods of time. And just really a whole host of events that would be COVID related. Now, the family leave tax credit, that's really more focused on parents, caretakers, other folks who were self-employed, but schools are shut down. Daycares are shut down. Even the neighborhood babysitters, you know, maybe somebody has a handful of kids that they watch in the neighborhood.

9:39But all of those things were really shut down. And this is what what Congress created for them. So with the sick leave credit, the maximum is five hundred eleven dollars per day. That's capped for twenty twenty one. It's broken down into two time periods. You have the first quarter of twenty one and then the second two. And it's up to 10 days in each of those. So you can get up to a little over ten thousand there. And then the family leave credit, it's$200 a day. However, it's cumulatively 50 days in the first quarter, 60 days in the second. So you're talking about 110 possible days at$200 a day maximum benefit.

10:27So the total maximum benefit for folks is$32 ,220 under this. Fire Nation, I hope you can tell that this is meaningful dollars for a lot of people. I know for a lot of people listening right now. So it's important to know what you're owed, to know your rights. And I want to really talk about why these credits matter, Ryan. I mean, what kind of financial impact can these credits have on self-employed individuals? Because I know you have a pretty cool example to share. It's been amazing, John. So, you know, again, self-employed, it's a it's a wide range in terms of how that's classified here. Right.

11:11So I'll give you one example. So just the other day, something I like to do is is randomly call our customers. I'm able to see that when the refund is being issued, typically before they are unless they're checking with the IRS. So I saw one of our customers, they were going to receive$19 ,000 tomorrow that's going to be issued. So just last week, I picked up the phone Friday evening, gave him a call. He was a construction professional out of Houston, Texas. And I got to deliver him the news that he's receiving$19 ,000. And he's so grateful, has kids. He said construction's been slow. And in something to point out here to John is a tax refund, so it is not taxable.

12:02They what's happening is the US is paying back the self-employed person as though they overpaid their taxes for 2021. And so not only do they receive those funds tax-free, the IRS typically pays about 16 % interest on top of the number that we quote. Fire Nation, this is powerful stuff. This is life-changing for certain people in certain circumstances. And again, it's going to be welcomed by almost anybody for obvious reasons. So we have a lot more to talk around this topic. when we get back from sharing our sponsors with you. Picture this. You're at a party and someone asks you what you do as a marketer.

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14:42Visit lastpass.com slash fire for a free trial and get started today. That's lastpass.com slash fire. Ryan, we're back, and I want to break down the mission of SETC Pros. Simplify the process of claiming these credits is what you're doing for so many people. But how do you do it? What's the mission? Our mission, very simple. Get as many self-employed people as much money as possible. And the key component of doing that is education. It is getting the word out to people so that they understand and know that this is real. You know, kind of how I ended up down this path, my law firm was actually eligible for pandemic era tax credits for the employer retention credit because I kept people employed and checked all of the other boxes.

15:41And that's kind of how I started learning about this. There was a day that I had no idea about these tax credits because, and especially self-employed folks, they're really focused on their thing. People are running businesses. A lot of self-employed people have multiple income streams. So just not educated about it. And when I asked myself, well, there was a day I didn't know anything about this. And I was thrilled to learn about it. And so education is the first part. And then the second thing that we sought to do is we wanted to make the most secure, efficient system and process for people to get the documents that they need to claim this credit.

16:25So what we have done, it's really been amazing. We have an awesome team, developers. I mean, just so many folks that have made such huge contributions. And we ended up in a really, really excellent corporate partnership that allows us to pull all of the data that we need for the customer directly from the IRS. So our customers don't have to upload their old tax documents, upload, you know, any kind of other documents, worry about security, you know, these are sensitive things. And so we have a very simple two-step verification process that allows us to pull the records directly from the IRS. We receive those in about five to seven business days.

17:16And then we're able to take the input from the questions answered by our customers and generate all of the documents that they need. They're delivered through a secure customer portal. We don't store anyone's full social security number, other sensitive data. We don't store any of that. And the best part is, I think, for the overwhelming majority of our customers, they don't have to pay anything until they receive their refund from the IRS. So it's really, in terms of the value proposition, it costs nothing to apply. If you're eligible, all we need to do is verify payment for later. That's all done through a secure portal.

18:09And then when they receive the money from the IRS, we debit our fee within about five business days. Now, the folks who owe a substantial amount in back taxes or just want to take advantage of a discount, we offer an upfront payment model. But again, well over 90 % of our customers pay nothing until they receive their refund. If they receive more than we quoted, we do not charge anything additional. And if they receive less for any sort of adjustment, we adjust our fee down. Fire Nation, this seems like a no-brainer to at least check out. I mean, we're talking about a company that has an expert team, proprietary software, no upfront fee model that you can take as an option.

18:55Of course, like you mentioned, massive back taxes, then it might be a different conversation to be had, but that's in less than 10 % of the cases. And if you win above their quotes, you don't pay that difference. But if you get adjusted downwards, you're only going to pay on what you actually get. So a lot of cool things going on here, Ryan. And if somebody listening wanted to get started, what does that process look like? We created a special link just for Fire Nation. So you just visit setcpros.com forward slash EOF. And really, it's about maybe a 15 minute process if people need to find dates or something like that.

19:37But they can do it from their smartphone. They can do it from their computer. They can do it from a combination of the two. So if someone's on their computer and say they need to scan their ID, do a face scan for verification, it'll just pop onto their phone. And what we have done is streamlined the process as much as possible. So really within about 15 minutes, they can submit the necessary information and then they just sit back and wait. And we will let them know what they are eligible for in the next steps. I mean, I'm literally filling this out, Fire Nation, as he is chatting. I mean, I even see our cute little Entrepreneurs on Fire logo at the top there.

20:17So S-E-T-C-Pros, P-R-O-S.com slash E-O-F. Go check it out. It's a short form. They'll get back to you and then you're off to the races if it makes sense for you. So we did kind of talk about the deadline, But let's kind of close with that, Ryan, and any final takeaway you want to make sure our listeners get. Absolutely. One thing I do want to mention, we also created a discount code for Fire Nation. So we're going to do a 15 % discount on top, no matter which way they pay. And then the coupon code is just going to be EOF, tell a friend, share it. the deadline, the deadline to have the forms to the IRS is going to be April 15th of next year.

21:07However, it can take anywhere from eight to 20 weeks to process. So I highly encourage everyone to start the process as soon as possible, because there is a bit of a processing time with the IRS. And again, it can vary, but the IRS paid out over a thousand of our customers in the last few weeks, millions of dollars. When I say that there are billions of dollars available, I am not remotely exaggerating. We have assisted Self-Employed America in obtaining tens of millions of dollars so far. I'm sure very soon that number is going to get into the nine figures. And that is, it's one of the most amazing feelings in the world.

21:59We truly built this from a place of service. It was to get the word out to as many people as possible and to give them a platform that they can easily claim this, that's safe, that's secure, that guards against, you know, any sort of invasion of their privacy. We don't share their information. I mean, we really built this with self-employed America in mind. And again, April 15th is the deadline. EOF is the coupon code. We really hope everyone checks it out and at least sees what they might be owed. Fire Nation, that's an additional 15 % off. And like you said, tell your friends, you don't need to keep this just to people that are listening right now.

22:46Share the love, share the dollars. I don't think I've actually ever met a person who's been upset when you show them away to put money that they are owed in their pockets. So Ryan, I just want to say thank you, brother. And one more time, give us that URL for Fire Nation. Absolutely. It is setcpros.com backslash EOF. And I want to say too, for the folks out there, a lot of the small business owners and others who work in affiliate marketing, we have an amazing affiliate program as well. There's a link on that page for that. So feel free to check it out. We'd love to get to know you, work with you, and get the word out to everybody.

23:33Fire Nation, you're the average. Of the five people you spend the most time with, you've been hanging out with R, J, U, and J, L, D today. So keep up that heat. For links to everything we talked about, visit eofire.com. Just type Ryan in the search bar. The show notes page will pop right up. And Ryan, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, and your value with Fire Nation. For that, we salute your brother and we'll catch you on the flip side. Thanks, John. Thanks, Fire Nation. Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Ryan for sponsoring today's episode. And Fire Nation, successful entrepreneurs are great at three things, productivity, discipline, and focus.

24:10That is why I created the Mastery Journal so that you can master these three things in 100 days. And we're talking step-by-step. Visit themasteryjournal.com. And I'll catch you there or on the flip side. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lance is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts.

24:44Looking for an easier, safer way to manage passwords than a million Post-it notes? Welcome to LastPass, the most accessible and easy to use password manager on the planet. Visit lastpass.com slash fire for a free trial and get started today. Every login lives in LastPass.