March On Gardening, Avoiding Tax Audits

0:00You have a plan for your life. You know where you want to go. Are you looking to be happier, healthier, and wealthier while having more fun every day? Meet our Empowerment Architect and Goddess Gardener, Cynthia Bryan, as she engages in energetic exchanges with success birds, bringing you research, innovations, strategies, and techniques to strengthen your life, business, and personal spaces. Be inspired, motivated, encouraged, and empowered. Lend us your ears right here on StarStyle. Be the star you are. The party starts now. Hello and welcome power partners. It's our informational Barnyard. It's StarStyle. Be the star you are with me, your host, Cynthia Bryan, brought to the airwaves under the SPC's of Be the Star you are, Charity, and coming to you on Voice America Media, the Empowerment

1:04Channel. The miracle moment for today brought to you by Be the Star you are. You can visit the charity at Be the Star you are.org is from Mahatma Gandhi. The pure love of one soul can offset the hatred of millions. We do have to show a lot more love these days in this turmoil of a world. But we are not going to talk about that today. In our first segment, we are actually going to go into the March Garden because spring is the time to look forward and coming up March 20th, March the Vurnal Equinox. California has been actually enjoying an early spring since the beginning of February. Yellow is the predominant color. There's so much wild mustard, acacia trees, oxalus, Mexican stone crop, daffodils, dotting roadways, gardens and hillsides. I'm going to stroll through the March landscape and give you the low down. Then in our second segment, you know, tax season is coming up and we want

2:07to avoid any tax audits because receiving a notice indicating that the IRS is going to audit your tax return could be upsetting. I was looking at Schwab investments and they offered tips on how to report correctly so you can avoid any issues and decrease your chances of being audited. I think that is a really good idea. So that's what we'll be doing in segment 2. Well, I say let's march forward. Alan Cohen said fascination is fertilizer and wherever you place your attention, it's going to grow and I totally agree. Well, the rain didn't come to the end of February and then we had several warm days. It reached into the high 70s. It felt like bathing suit weather to me and I tell you I was tempted because fascination is fertilizer. I am really tickled with the signs of springs. It's really warm today and the last couple days

3:10we've got it up until the 80s but it's been beautiful. Bird song and chance me throughout the day, there's that magical music, energizing creativity. There's the buzz of the honey bees. That fills the morning air, the croaking of the frogs reverberates throughout the evening. The pollinators are busy. They are savoring the sweetness of the flowering peach, my crab apples and of course the viburnum in full bloom. And you know, the vernal equinox is just around the corner. Yet here in my part of California, we've been enjoying an early spring again since the beginning of February. Yellow is the predominant color of March, I think. And as I just said, it's the wild mustard, the acacia trees, the oxalus, the mexican stone crop, and the daffodils that are just ubiquitous. Now, if you wonder what the difference is between daffodils and jaunquils, I will tell you that

4:15daffodil is the common name for the genus narcissus. While a jaunquil is a specific species and it has several strong scented yellow florets and their leaves are rounded and they all look like daffodils, but they are they're scented and that is what's so beautiful about the jaunquil. Now, the daffodils and jaunquils that I have have very throat colorations. They summer frilly, roughly, their petal markings decorate my landscape and my floral arrangements. Now, depending on what a garden expert you might speak to, there are anywhere between 40 and 200 different species, subspecies, or varieties of daffodils with thousands of hybrids. I know it sounds weird that you can say that it depends on who you talk to and it can vary as much as 40 to 200, but that is the truth about the way that people think about daffodils. Daffodil bulbs and blooms are poisonous to deer, squirrels, and rodents and what makes them so great for the garden is

5:21they're tolerant of all types of weather and they grow beautifully in sun or shade and they actually naturalize when they're planted in drifts and they make them, they really are the true trumpets of spring of this vernal equinox. Spring is the time to look forward. Now, the 2026 Garden Trends Report from the Garden Media Group names Lemonating as the gardening theme of the year. Lemonade. That's another March yellow, right? Lemon's lemonade. The philosophy is rooted in turning challenges into opportunities with creativity, joy, and intention. So Lemonating is about curiosity and play transforming setbacks into opportunities through mindfulness. Now, since I was a young girl, I have always embraced what I call Lemonating. The idea that life gives you win life gives you lemons. You just make lemonade because gardening is filled with examples. It

6:23doesn't matter if one is an accomplished green thumb or a beginner mistakes and disappointments always occur in the garden. Plants will get diseases, deer will devour the roses, beloved plants will die. It's part of the cycle. So instead of giving up, mantra has always been failure is fertilizer, put the blunders and plunders on the compost pile, build a new garden. Now people I meet often tell me that they cannot grow anything. I have been told, I have a brown thumb, everything I try withers and dies, but I got to tell you, I really don't buy that response because that narrative is just a belief that these people have told themselves. Try planting a plot of sham rocks, also known as exalis, and you'll be celebrating St. Patrick's Day every year. Dig a few bulbs in your garden bed and be surprised when blooms magically appear. Shift to succulents

7:25or cacti, with almost no maintenance required, wherever one places attention growing and thriving will occur. Now the early show of spring transpired in February, but March is showcasing this spectacular. While many trees remain bare, chameleons, tulip magnolias, crab apple, red buds, peach, Bradford pear, and plum blossoms sweeten the sky. Dutch iris, color lilies, virginia, sedums, rosemary, Chinese fringe flower, and numerous spring flowering bulbs engage our sentence and our senses. Optimism and reflection soar with the flamboyant and the mystical quality of the sweeping spring landscape as we welcome this month of rebirth. The quiet crunch of gravel underfoot as I gather a bouquet of fluffy plumes reminds me to experience the calmness as well as the beating pulse of the floral abundance of my spring garden,

8:29and how grateful I am for a stroll in the serenity of nature with its twinkling patterns of wistful beauty, lemonade life, and march forward. And as the goddess gardener every month I offer a gardening guide, and this is the guide for March. Buy azaleas, chameleas, and rhododendrums now so you can choose colors that will complement your landscape. Fertilize all plants throughout the month. Apply snail bait around plants susceptible to snail and slug damage. Spray roses, fruit trees that have not budded, and citrus with a combination of mineral oil and liquid copper to kill overwintering insect, eggs, and disease spores. And wash any citrus fruit with warm water before consuming it after it's sprayed. The spray won't hurt your citrus food and it won't hurt you, but wash everything. Treat fibrinums and other plants that may exhibit powdery mildew. An effective

9:34organic spray is to mix one tablespoon of baking soda and one teaspoon of non-detergent soap into a gallon of water. The soap helps the mixture stick to the leaves and neem oil is also a useful organic fungicide. It's time to monitor irrigation. Now rain is predicted throughout March, but water your landscape only when necessary and watch to see if it is getting dry. Prepare flower beds by enriching the soil with compost, earthworms, and mulch. Don't forget to weed weed weed because weeds are stealing the nutrients and moisture from your favorite flowers. Gather the tender leaves of wild mustard and miners lettuce and add it to your salad bowl. I am still gathering a rugola which is still growing in my garden and I'm adding that to my salad bowl which I love. Sharpen and clean garden tools because you'll be busy next month and collect fallen

10:36chameleon florets. Rotting flowers left on the ground encourage petal blight. Cut a few branches from flowering peach or plum trees to enjoy the slow release of the sweet smelling beautiful blooms. Get a tetanus shot if you haven't had one in the past 10 years. Digging in the dirt doubles the hazards. Now it's time to aerate your lawn. The soil is compacted from winter rains and foot traffic. Leave the plugs to add nutrients back into the grass and it also time to fertilize lawns anytime throughout the month with an organic high nitrogen mixture specifically for spring growth and you'll get your grass growing really nice and deep green. Soak any bare root shrubs, roses and trees in tepid water for four hours to rehydrate them before planting. Buy seed packets from catalogs or your favorite garden center and be brave and explore new samples

11:40and then don't forget on March 17th to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a container of sham rocks also known as exalis and you know make sure to say the Irish phrase and go bra which means Ireland forever. So happy gardening, happy growing wishing you the luck of the Irish throughout the month of March and don't forget for more seasonal gardening tips and inspiration you can grab a copy of growing with the goddess gardener at my website CynthiaBriand.com forward slash books if you click on the star style store you will you can order that book as long with chicken soup for the gardener's soul or any of my other 10 books that I've written 12 so far but they're they're there I only have lists 10 of them including the Stella Bella's Barnyard Adventures newest book Flap Forward Fly Free. So again that's at CynthiaBriand.com click on the

12:44star style store or just go to books. Well I'll be back in our next segment and we're going to talk about tax editing so until then grab a cup of tea or do something that is fun for yourself for a couple of minutes and I'll be right back. You're listening to CynthiaBriand this is Star Style Be The Star You Are. I'll be back in a bit. Follow us on Twitter for more great ideas at Voice America Empowerment. Get autographed copies of New York Times bestselling author CynthiaBriand's books at www.starstyleradio.com get inspired and motivated to be your best cell with be the star you are 99 gifts and be the star you are for teams by cases at a deep discount to give away as gifts and premiums visit www.starstyleradio.com or call 925-377-Star 925-377-Star 925-377-Star

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14:50voice be heard on the radio program express yourself a show by teens 14s and about teens no topic is off limits as you connect with teens with attitude check out express yourself on the voice America kids channel and join our global community where teens talk and the world listens www.btsya.com you can express yourself business fights here CynthiaBriand you've done the work your idea is strategic it's well-reasoned and it's ready to move to the organization right now you presented at the meeting clearly and everyone in the room listens but listening isn't deciding and too often is interest doesn't turn into action and here's why executive teams aren't just evaluating your idea they're navigating their own web of priorities politics and timing and for your message to gain traction it has to reflect their reality

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16:55or send checks to p o box three seventy six three seven six moraga california nine four five five six be the star you are dot org dare to care follow us on twitter for more great ideas and voice america empowerment it's power time on star style be the star you are with your passion purpose and possibility producer CynthiaBriand now back to the power party well we are back on star style be the star you are and i am your host CynthiaBriand in this segment we're going to be talking about how to avoid a tax audit and so many of these tips come from from Schwab investments their information

17:57it's a company that i do like and i think that what they have to say is really helpful and nobody wants an audit because when you get a federal tax return that says you have been selected for examination usually you get a letter in the mail i mean that is a piece of correspondence that evokes as much anxiety as just about anything after all not only can the IRS audit be extremely time consuming it can also be extremely expensive it can also result in additional taxes interest and even penalties and certain taxpayers business owners the self-employed and the wealthy historically have been flagged for examination and that's because the tax returns of the influent are generally more complex and therefore they're more likely to contain some red flags for their IRS so taxpayers with more than five million dollars in income are by far the most likely households to

19:00be audited now most of us probably do not have five million dollars in income i know that i don't but we're still going to talk about what are some of the the IRS top audit triggers because we want to get you ready for tax time if you haven't already filed your taxes you might want to be you know you might have to file an extension but here's our things that will help you when you are doing your tax planning so one of the things that is definitely looked at is any missing if you have derived income from regular wages automatically and you have taxes withheld employers report those taxes to the IRS however taxes aren't normally withheld from non-wage income and that could include any business income capital gains dividend interest rental income royalties and that makes it more prone to discrepancies and then you get an examination by the IRS

20:03so what do you do your financial firm will usually send out 1099 forms for capital gains dividends interest and that must be accounted accurately on your return so if you have an investment company whether it's at a bank or someplace like Fidelity or Schwab or or Merrill Lynch or anything the income that doesn't pass through an intermediary such as business or rental you are required to document and report it yourself if you under report income it's often due to a missing or out of date 1099 and inaccurate accounting practices maybe sometimes both but whatever your sources of income you need to ensure that your return reflects them all don't miss a dollar don't miss a dollar you want if you have income from dividends interest payment for goods and services distributions from annuities of pensions or retirement your regular wages social security

21:06rental incomes if you're an independent contractor if you sold any securities like stocks if you have digital assets if you have proceeds from a real estate sale or income from a partnership interest and all of that has to be reported so if you have that many things you may not be able to do it on just a very easy report you might have to have an account and help you with it and individuals whose income fluctuates significantly from one tax year to the next can also find themselves in the IRS sites this is the second one this is called large swings and income and that can be the case for those who are self-employed or who own a business and big changes in income are a huge red flag for the IRS because they sometimes signal under reported income either in the current year or in previous years so what you need to do is consider including a note or an

22:07explanation with your tax filing if there are really large fluctuations in your expenses or incomes if you're a business income plunge because you lost a larger count or you had these big tariffs you want the IRS to take that into consideration when determining whether an audit is warranted and if you're filing electronically most tax software allows you to add supplemental documentation and schedules to help you explain your situation so definitely take advantage of that also business losses I mean turning a profit can be challenging for anyone especially if you're just getting off the ground but if you year after year after year after year you know claim a loss then they may decide that you just have a hobby because businesses are supposed to make money and if yours doesn't the IRS wants to know why so keep really careful records for at least seven years that detail every dollar coming into and going out of your business and if your business

23:09is a sole proprietorship the IRS may question you know whether it's more of a hobby as I said in which case the losses are not deductible if it's a hobby and then be careful of questionable deductions most of you deductions are probably correct and well founded but sometimes they might trigger a second look by the IRS especially if there are too big of outsized charitable deductions because charitable deductions are capped at 60% of your adjusted gross income for cash at 30% for stocks and other properties if you have passive losses on rental property if the cost to operate a property exceed the rental income it generates you may not be able to claim a loss and so you got to check with that and then any unqualified office deductions unless you're self-employed and conduct the majority of your business from your home you really can't deduct

24:13office expenses but people who do work from home might assume that they can take the deduction but unfortunately regular employees if you are employed by someone that doesn't qualify even if they pay at a pocket for all or part of your home office setup so what you have to do is you need a supporting documentation for any deduction on your tax return especially those that are significant or subject to special rules like rental losses and you can always avoid well no you can't always avoid you can't always avoid an audit but with thorough records that support your deductions you might be able to appease auditors and then the other thing that could trigger an audit is undervalued assets like a estate tax returns tend to be audited at a fairly high rate and the biggest reason undervalued assets the IRS has very professional seasoned valuation

25:19experts and if they think the estate has valued its assets too low they may decide that they want to audit you so when valuing assets with no public market price like real estate or art or you know even a business executors of larger states should average the estimates from two or three qualified appraisers now just always remember you as the tax payer as the business person the buck always stops with you so even if you hire a tax professional to prepare your return you are responsible for the accuracy of your filing it falls on your shoulders and I know I just filed my star-style productions return and with my and I do everything within accountant and when I got the return back I didn't understand a thing the way that he had done it so we had to have a meeting and he went over every single item so that to make sure that this was what was correct

26:24so going through these steps they might help reduce the likelihood of an audit but just remember nothing nothing is guaranteed so if you follow the rules and you retain good documentation and you have a good trusted tax advisor to represent you the process could go actually quite smoothly and for that I do think having an accountant or someone who helps you with your taxes is really very very helpful the IRS also has three main types of audits some are more painful than others there's a correspondence audit that's probably the most common one it typically is just conducted by mail sent for reasons like there's some missing information or maybe of a small balance due or you need to identify who you are and just be aware there's scammers out there so be really really careful with anything that you get in the mail because it has been known that scammers send fraudulent letters to collect funds from unsuspecting taxpayers there's you want to

27:30identify fakes and it's not always so easy but in red flags would include a demand for immediate payment threats of jail time grammatical errors misspelling and you know if you're ever unsure of a letter's authenticity I would just contact the IRS here's their phone number 800 8291040 800 8291040 or visit its website and then confirm a letter's legitimacy and you can also report an incidents now the second one is an office audit and in that type of audit taxpayers receive a written summons they have to go to an IRS office they have to meet with an agent and this one is usually for more complex tax returns or if the return has multiple items that are questions the most comprehensive one is called a field audit and this is in person meeting typically at the taxpayers business or home to conduct a thorough examination of the return in questions

28:36and those audits can last several weeks or months depending on the issues being reviewed and the complexity of the tax return but for every type of audit the IRS will provide in advance a written request for the specific documents it wants to see and for that reason it's just so important to really keep good documentation and for those of you who are self-employed or working from home as a self-employed person where you could take a deduction for your office just remember that it has to be a designated space where you do your work it can't be just a nook somewhere where you're also watching TV and doing homework and it has to be specifically designated as an office so hopefully these tips will help you avoid tax audits get your taxes in on time and hopefully get some money back from Uncle Sam instead of having to pay well that is our show for today

29:39I thank you for joining me here on Star Style be the star you are I like being a personal growth success coach for you and hopefully can help you make your life better and help your dreams come true while you live with lots of smiles and happiness if you want to make a donation to be the star you are you can visit be the star you are dot org you can even make donations with credit card or with your if you're I don't know what age is it is it 72 when you have to make a mandatory IRA you have to take the mandatory distributions you can do that through your iris to be the star you are and that is be the star you are dot org if you're interested in any of my books or to find out more about star style productions you can visit Cynthia Bryan dot com my aim as always is to encourage inspire inform amuse and motivate see beyond your physical being

30:44and know you are already the star you dream to becoming cherish the past dream of the future and celebrate every moment of your life and read a book this week a book is like a garden in your pocket so until next week when we play here on the star style playground and in my barnyard remember that love always wins kindness always prevails and smiles will keep us happy I am Cynthia Bryan for star style I thank you and encourage you to be kind be inclusive tell the truth live with integrity embrace cultures love unconditionally encourage others be generous read lead succeed communicate collaborate innovate and most of all every minute of every day be your unapologetically authentic self because everyone counts go out into the world and be the star you are

31:48enjoy this early spring weather and have a wonderful week thanks for joining me it's been a pleasure bringing you our life changing program star style be the star you are we have you on our radar as it's our goal to inspire inform entertain and motivate you to be the star you are born to be for more information visit star style radio dot com and to make a donation to the charity go to be the star you are dot org ignite the flame that burns rightly within take charge of your life and coach yourself to success with our dynamic host and empowerment architect Cynthia Bryan every Wednesday at 4 p.m. Pacific time 7 p.m. Eastern time right here on the voice America Empowerment Channel for another serving of champagne for the spirit and a power

32:51boost to live with star style until we celebrate together next week be the star you are you are the star you are the star You