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A Dynamic Entrepreneur Success Story: Strategic Tax Planning
“We really grew with SBLR.”
Since 1987 when they purchased Whitehots, now one of Canada’s largest and most respected wholesalers of books to schools and public libraries, Russ and Sharon Culver had not given a lot of thought to enhancing their tax savings.
“In fact, before SBLR, we had not looked at tax planning at all,” says Sharon Culver, Whitehots VP of Finance. “Up to that point, we were just filing our return every year, which is often the case when you are preoccupied with the day-to-day running of a business.”
SBLR identified several tax savings opportunities for Whitehots and led them through a corporate restructuring, which cut the company’s taxes by 10 per cent and took the business to a whole new level.
“SBLR identified areas that we had never looked at before, such as setting up a holding company to protect earnings and enable creditor proofing, crystallizing capital gains by organizing a family trust, as well as positioning the company for significant tax savings in the event of a future sale,” says Russ Culver, Whitehots President.
Offering a broad base of knowledge and expertise, SBLR also provides Whitehots with ongoing quarterly management strategy meetings.
“We’ve really grown with SBLR’s guidance, increasing the company’s revenues by more than 40 percent in just five years,” say the Culvers. “We know our world and what we do in our business, but SBLR knows entrepreneurs. They are our advisors and mentors and they help us implement the very best business practices to save money and grow our business.”
