If you’re a small business owner, here’s a fun (and slightly infuriating) fact:

You might be cutting a check to the IRS that’s way bigger than it needs to be.

Not because you messed up.
Not because you’re avoiding taxes (calm down, Karen).
But because nobody ever bothered to tell you the rules of the game.

And yes, it’s a game.

A big, bureaucratic, paper-cut-inducing game with a million pages of tax code … and about six people in the entire country who actually understand it.

One of those six? Julio Gonzalez, CEO of Engineered Tax Services (and our guest on a recent episode of The Liquid Lunch Project).

The conversation went from “Wait… that’s legal?” to “Oh damn, I’ve been leaving money on the table for YEARS.”

So let’s break down the biggest wealth-building tax moves that real small business owners can (and should) be using—no Fortune 500 badge required.

1. The R&D Tax Credit Isn’t Just for Silicon Valley Nerds

R&D sounds like something that happens inside a lab coated in wh...