The Dental A Team Podcast

Kiera is joined by Alexis Gallati, founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors, to talk about tax strategy not just for 2025 success, but 2026 and beyond. They discuss asking your CPA the right questions, shifting income from your higher tax bracket down, the Augusta rule, and a ton more. Episode resources: Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast Schedule a Practice Assessment Leave us a review Transcript: The Dental A Team (00:00) Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera and today I am super jazzed. I have an incredible guest joining us on the podcast today ⁓ to talk about last minute tax strategies before April 15th. Like why not? I mean, hey, maybe you were like, you're not the early bird. You were like, shoot, I forgot. Like what things can I do? And so I'm super excited. Alexis Gallati, she reached out to us. ⁓ She is founder and lead tax strategist at Cerebral Tax Advisors.   Ansari Real Wealth Academy. And I was so excited about this topic because I know you guys know I love to geek out about this and I have it on my vision board of tax expert ahead. Like I hate taxes. I love taxes. I believe that taxes are such a beautiful way for us to pay to be in this incredible country. But you better believe I don't want to pay a penny more than I need to. So really figuring that out just a little bit about her is she is got a dual master's degree in business administration and taxation, which is super rad because   Let's be real, she gets the business side of it. She gets the taxation and we were chatting before and she was like, what people make like their top line revenue versus their take home pay are two different things. And I was like, amen sister, preach on. She's enrolled agent, NTPI fellow and certified tax strategist. She also is the author of advanced tax planning for medical professionals. She specializes in high level strategic tax planning and multi-state tax preparation for healthcare professionals and business owners. She's raised in a family of physicians and married to one.   She empathizes with the financial challenges medical professionals face. This personal connection inspired her to create accessible, unbiased tax solutions tailored to their busy lives. Driven by passion and guided by cerebral thinking, Alexis forms Cerebral to help professionals keep more of their hard earned money. Amen sister. That's what we want. That's why you're here. Their approach breaks the mold of traditional financial advice, offering a unique perspective for medical professionals and business owners. So while yes, she's not 1000 % dental guys were in the healthcare world and she's so brilliant. So Alexis, welcome to the show today. How are you?   Alexis Gallati (01:54) Thank you so much for having me. I'm doing very well. Hope you had a wonderful holiday season.   The Dental A Team (01:58) Yes, likewise. And I was so excited when I heard that you would be a guest on our podcast. I geek out about this, Alexis, I know it's like our first day meeting, but ⁓ I just think the world of tax is such the game of monopoly. And I'm like, if you would have just told me that rule, I could have played and won the game better. But I feel like it's always as ever changing, ever evolving. And I know there were some big things that happened in 2025 that are impacting like our our taxes. And so, yeah, definitely a timely and   exciting podcast to throw out there. So Alexis, I know I gave you a very welcomed ⁓ bio and intro, but yeah, tell us a little bit about who is Alexis. You're married to a physician. You're in this world of tag. How does one become obsessive about CPA? I'm truly just curious. How do you like, how does this happen? How did you become this?   Alexis Gallati (02:49) Yeah, so I love law and I love money. And so when I was in undergrad, I took a tax and accounting class and loved more the tax side than the accounting side, I do admit. And so after meeting my husband in college and us starting to go through that full medical journey, was about a year and a half out from him.   The Dental A Team (02:54) you   Alexis Gallati (03:18) from him finishing his residency. And I really saw the writing on the wall. Even at that time, with him being in residency, about four months of his salary was going towards taxes. And I was like, that's not right. That's not right. With   The Dental A Team (03:36) No.   Alexis Gallati (03:38) hard he works and how hard   medical community works in general. ⁓ my gosh, that's not right. So that's when I really dedicated myself to   finding out, why do the Warren Buffets and the Bill Gates of the world have this really low to sometimes non-existent tax bracket? And I really dove into that tax planning. ⁓ And so, you know, what's very unique about, ⁓ you know, the way that I work and my business is that my husband and I are in the same exact position as majority of our clients. And so, yes, I'm looking for   strategies for my clients, but I'm also looking for those strategies for myself.   The Dental A Team (04:19) You're like, hey,   it's me. I'm going to help myself out. I'm very motivated to do this.   Alexis Gallati (04:25) Very motivated. And I love it. I love it. It's like you said, it's ⁓ Congress keeps us on our toes, changing the laws consistently year after year. ⁓ it's like a puzzle. Like, hey, how can I just keep more of what I'm earning?   The Dental A Team (04:43) Yeah, and I, this is what I get obsessed about. what I learned, gosh, it's like, I was so naive when I started the company. was like, marketing is marketing. I just need to hire a marketer they can do everything. And then I was like, oh, there's a content marketer. There's a copywriter marketer. There's a strategist. There's a growth marketer. There's like an AEO marketer now. There's an SEO. Like you guys, this thing is like a web. They're a content marketer. And then I started realizing it's similar to CPAs and financial planners that like,   I thought you hire a CPA, Alexis. Like I'm so naive to business. I'm shocked that I've made it this far. Like truly I'm proud of like the journey we've been on, but like not all CPAs are created equal. And then I realized like CPAs play by different rules. Like it's the same rule, but there's shades of gray. They're how comfortable are you with this and how uncomfortable are you with it? Like there's one CPA that told me like, here, you can totally go skiing in Tahoe. Just like put your logo on your skis and you can totally ride it off and like put your logo on your boat and you can ride it off.   And then there's like the Alexis of the world was like, oh, hard pass. No, you're going to like totally get flagged. But I'm like, what rule is right? And so I realized that there are, like you said, tax strategy and for higher wealth earners. I do believe that there's a game, like you said, how did the Warren Buffett's, how did the Bill Gates, like they're not paying this. And then you get into the real estate game and you get into all these other things. You're like, how can we do this? And so Alexis, I'm just jazz. This is me being nerdy. And I'm going to ask you a bajillion questions and I can't wait.   to learn. So let's kind of talk about most of your clients, what's the size of take home net pay that they do. So that way we know like what brackets were in. So that way right clients come to you. I also learned not all financial advisors take all people. I was like, I make 30 grand. They're like, great. So we're going to help you out just a little bit. And then like, when you get to this level, we'll chat with you. ⁓ tell us kind of that. And then let's dig into how do we keep more money, Alexis, legally.   Alexis Gallati (06:10) I love it.   The Dental A Team (06:39) I'm here for legal advice. I'm willing to go gray, but not go to jail. So that's my line. So as long as we're on the same page, I think we are, I'm here for it.   Alexis Gallati (06:40) Yes.   Definitely, yeah. I am more than happy to play in the gray areas. We just have to feel comfortable defending it in an audit. And so that's our line in the sand. ⁓ But yeah.   The Dental A Team (06:55) Mm-hmm.   She's like, this is why I went to law guys. This is why I like the law side and the CPA.   I like it. I like your style. It's so unique and I just am excited. So, okay, I'm ready.   Alexis Gallati (07:07) Yeah.   Yeah. at Cerebral, we work with those that earn at minimum $400,000 per year in taxable income. So we have lots of businesses, which by the way, 99.9 % of our clients are medical professionals. I think we have like maybe two clients that have zero ties to the medical industry. And so the practices we work with, you know,   generally range from anywhere from maybe about $700,000 in gross revenue all the way up to eight figures. So we tend to not work with those that are larger practices, that usually over 50 employees. And that's just because once you get above 50 employees, yeah, it changes quite a bit. So we're definitely in there with those smaller to medium sized practices.   The Dental A Team (07:56) Tax co-changes. Yep.   Amazing. No, that's super helpful. And I know we were talking before, like the average of your clients, about 700,000 like net pay is typical where you guys are at. You have some that are higher, but that minimum of 400,000, which is great because I do think that there are thresholds. ⁓ And I did learn through going through business that who Kiera needed as a tax support and advisor when I was in that 30,000 range compare and as a business owner, I thought it was so funny.   Gosh, taxes, like they hurt so bad sometimes. Like, whoa, easy come, easy go. Like I've never, I've always been a W-2. So that was such a fascinating world for me. But yeah, let's dig into some of the things you've seen for the medical world. Cause