Level Up Academy

TAX MYTH · COMPLIANCE

You Don't Need An Accountant On Retainer.

That's what most solopreneurs tell themselves — right up until a deadline sneaks up, a filing gets missed, or a decision gets made with no one checking the tax impact first.

Here's what a retainer actually protects you from:

WHAT IT COVERS
☐ Missed compliance deadlines (franchise tax, annual reports, renewals)
☐ Decisions made without a tax strategy lens
☐ Scrambling every quarter instead of planning ahead

WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE AT LUA
☐ Foundation Guard — $200/mo: the essentials covered, every month
☐ The Shield — $400/mo: deeper strategy + compliance monitoring
☐ The Fortress — starting at $650/mo: full governance — entity, tax, and planning in one

If you're still handling this reactively — one panicked filing at a time — that's not a discipline problem. That's a missing system.

Visit https://lnkd.in/gK3HQj7T to book a session and find the right level of support for where your business is right now.

Tomorrow is September 15th.

If you are self-employed, freelancing, running a business, or have any income outside of a W-2 — your Q3 estimated tax payment is due tomorrow.

Don't wait until tomorrow morning. Do it today.

Here's exactly how:

Go to IRS.gov/payments → click Direct Pay → select Estimated Tax → tax year 2026 → enter your amount → submit.

Free. No account required. Takes less than 5 minutes.

Not sure what to pay? Use the safe harbor method:

Last year's total federal tax bill ÷ 4 = your Q3 payment.

That's the number. Send it today.

If you've already paid — you're good. Your next deadline is January 15th, 2027.

If you haven't paid yet — don't let today pass. The underpayment penalty isn't catastrophic but it is completely avoidable. And it stacks every quarter you miss. Don't pay a penalty for something this straightforward.

Questions about what you owe or whether this applies to you? Visit linktr.ee/Marie_LevelUpAcademy and let's figure it out together.

ometimes you don't need a full strategy session.

You just need someone to look at your situation and tell you what you're actually dealing with.

That's what the Tax Diagnostic & Fit Session is for.

It's a 30-minute deep dive built for people dealing with complexity — multiple states, back taxes, an IRS notice sitting on your desk that you've been avoiding, a major income change, a life event that affected your filing status, or just a feeling that something isn't right and you don't know where to start.

In 30 minutes we identify the red flags, cut through the confusion, and map out the clearest path forward. You leave knowing exactly what you're dealing with and what to do next.

No judgment. No alarm. Just clarity.

$129 · 30 minutes · Zoom

Visit linktr.ee/Marie_LevelUpAcademy to book.

September 15th is six days away and I keep getting the same question.

"How do I even know what to pay?"

Here's the answer — and it's simpler than you think.

Method 1 — Safe Harbor (Use this if you're not sure)

Take whatever you owed in federal taxes last year and divide it by 4. Pay that amount.

Example: You owed $8,000 last year → pay $2,000 by September 15th.

That's it. As long as you do that each quarter you are protected from underpayment penalties regardless of what you end up owing in April. If your income last year was over $150,000 use 110% of last year's bill instead of 100%.

Method 2 — 90% of This Year's Liability

Estimate what you expect to owe for 2026, multiply by 90%, then divide by 4. This requires you to actually project your income for the year — which is where most people get stuck. But if your income has jumped significantly this year, this method might actually save you money compared to safe harbor.

My honest recommendation:

If your income is consistent from year to year — use safe harbor. It's simple, it protects you, and it doesn't require projecting anything.

If your income is variable or significantly higher than last year — project it. Overpaying safe harbor when you don't need to locks up your cash unnecessarily.

Once you have your number, pay at IRS.gov/payments → Direct Pay. Free. No account needed. Takes 5 minutes.

Save this post. Share it with someone who needs it.

Visit linktr.ee/Marie_LevelUpAcademy if you need help running the numbers.

I'm going to keep this short because this one is time-sensitive.

September 15th is one week away. That's the Q3 estimated tax deadline — and if you're self-employed, freelancing, running a business, or have any income outside of a W-2, this deadline applies to you.

Here's exactly who needs to be making this payment:

→ Anyone who expects to owe $1,000 or more in federal taxes this year

→ Anyone whose withholding covers less than 90% of this year's tax liability

→ Anyone whose withholding covers less than 100% of what they owed last year

If you're not sure whether that's you — it probably is.

Here's what happens if you skip it: the IRS charges an underpayment penalty calculated at the federal short-term rate plus 3%. That penalty stacks for every quarter you miss. And it applies even if you write a check for your entire balance in April. You can do everything right at tax time and still owe extra because of what you didn't do today.

This is an avoidable penalty. Don't pay it.

You can make your payment at IRS.gov/payments through Direct Pay. It's free and takes less than 5 minutes.

Not sure how much you owe? That's what I help with. One session and we'll calculate exactly what you should be sending.

Visit linktr.ee/Marie_LevelUpAcademy to book.

Most small business owners I talk to set up their LLC and then never looked at their compliance again.

That's not a criticism — it's just the reality. Nobody tells you what comes after formation. So the gaps build up quietly until there's a problem.

The Compliance Health Audit is a full review of your business foundation across 6 key pillars — Entity & Structure, Tax Compliance, Financial Hygiene, Operational Risk, Document Vault, and Growth & Needs.

I review your setup, identify exactly where the gaps are, and deliver a written report with a personal video walkthrough straight to your inbox within 7 business days. Color-coded Green, Yellow, and Red so you know exactly where you stand and what to fix first.

No appointment. No back and forth. You submit your intake — I handle the rest.

$197. Delivered within 7 business days.

Visit linktr.ee/Marie_LevelUpAcademy to book.

I hear this all the time.

"I'm just a W-2 employee — there's nothing I can really do about my taxes."

I need you to stop saying that. Because it is not true.

Here are 5 deductions and strategies W-2 earners at $75K+ can use right now:

Your 401K contributions
The 2026 limit is $23,500. Every single dollar you contribute reduces your taxable income. If you're not maxing this out — or at least contributing more than you were last year — you're leaving a significant deduction on the table.

Your HSA
If you have a high-deductible health plan and you're not contributing to a Health Savings Account, you're missing one of the only triple tax-advantaged accounts that exists. Money goes in pre-tax, grows tax-free, and comes out tax-free for qualified medical expenses.

Side hustle deductions
The moment you have any self-employment income — even $500 from a side project — a whole new category of deductions opens up. Home office, mileage, equipment, software. All of it.

Childcare and education credits
The dependent care FSA, the child tax credit, the American Opportunity Credit. Most W-2 earners I talk to aren't claiming everything they're entitled to.

Your withholding
Got a big refund last year? That means the IRS held your money interest-free all year. That's not a win — that's money that could've been in your account earning interest. Let's fix that.

You don't have to own a business to have a tax strategy. You just need someone to show you what's available.

Visit linktr.ee/Marie_LevelUpAcademy to get started.

Setting up an LLC is step one.

Maintaining it is where most business owners fall short — and most don't even know they're exposed until something goes wrong.

Here's what can pierce your corporate veil. That's the legal term for when a court decides your LLC isn't actually protecting you and holds you personally liable anyway:

✕ Mixing personal and business funds
The fastest way to lose your protection. One account for everything is not a business — it's a liability.

✕ No operating agreement in place
This is your business's governing document. No LLC should be operating without one.

✕ Missing annual report filings
Most states require this. Miss it and your LLC can fall out of good standing — or get dissolved entirely.

✕ Using personal accounts for business expenses
Even occasionally. Every time you do this you're weakening your corporate veil.

✕ No registered agent on record
Required by law. If yours lapsed or you listed yourself and moved — you have a problem.

✕ Operating under a name without a registered DBA
If your business operates under any name other than what's on your formation documents, that name needs to be registered.

I see these issues constantly in business compliance reviews. The business owner had no idea. And the scarier part is that none of these are hard to fix — they just require knowing they're a problem in the first place.

That's what I do.

Visit linktr.ee/Marie_LevelUpAcademy to book your session or compliance review.

Q3 tax tip — and this one takes less than 5 minutes.

Pull your year-to-date income right now.

Not next month. Not in October when you start thinking about year-end. Right now.

Here's why it matters:

If you're earning more than you did at this point last year, your tax bill is likely higher too. If your estimated payments or withholding haven't kept pace with that increase, you're already falling behind — and you won't know it until April.

If your income is down from last year, you may be overpaying. That's money sitting with the IRS that could be in your pocket or invested right now.

Either way, Q3 is still your window to course-correct before December 31st closes the door on your 2026 tax outcome.

Pull the number. Compare it. Adjust if you need to.

Not sure what to do with what you find? That's what a strategy session is for.

Visit linktr.ee/Marie_LevelUpAcademy to book.

I know what it felt like to not know a thing about taxes, business, or compliance.

Nobody was explaining it. Nobody was breaking it down in a way that felt accessible or relevant to where I was in life. And the people who needed that knowledge the most were the last ones getting it.

So I built Level Up Academy.

Not for people who already have a team of accountants and attorneys on retainer. For the side hustler who doesn't know if they should form an LLC. For the W-2 earner who owes every April and has no idea why. For the small business owner who got registered but hasn't looked at their compliance since. For the solopreneur who is building something real and just needs someone in their corner who actually knows what they're talking about.

10 years in individual taxes. 5 years in business taxes. This is what I do — and I built this firm specifically to serve my community and fellow professionals who deserve the same quality of guidance that everyone else takes for granted.

If that's you — I'm here.

Visit linktr.ee/Marie_LevelUpAcademy to get started.