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Tax Tips for Small Business Owners

May 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

 Every year dozens of new tax laws are put in place that give birth to new deductions and credits, while others expire. A well informed tax preparer should know all of these updates and inform you of them, but do not leave everything to them. Keeping yourself up-to-date as well will ensure that you do not miss a thing.

Know your Deductions
As a business owner, you have a whole list of deductions all your own to use. First and foremost, you can write off any expenses necessary to run your business. In order to qualify, the expense must be necessary and ordinary. You might want to run any and all business expense deductions by your tax professional so you know they are okay to deduct.

Keep Organized
As you probably already know, running a business requires a lot of documentation. This documentation is your number one tool for filing your taxes, both annually and quarterly. Keep all business-related receipts, copies of client payments, and any other business expense you need for taxes. These documents should be well organized, and easy to access when it comes time to file.

Be Charitable
Giving to charities throughout the year will benefit you in more way than one. Charitable donations are always tax deductible, so you can take advantage of that. In addition, as a small business owner, you benefit from the free publicity of listing your business as a charitable donator. For example, donating money to the local little league team could get you a sign on their baseball field. Look into charity options in your community!

Track Tax Times
Do not forget – as a business owner you need to pay not only your annual state and federal taxes, but your quarterly payments as well. Make very sure you have reminders on in your planner or on your calendar for all tax deadlines that concern you.

Payroll Taxes
In addition to being on top of your personal and business taxes, you should keep yourself informed on employee taxes as well. If you enter in some numbers wrong and accidentally put your employee claiming 0 all year instead of 1 as they requested, that is a lot of cash you will be shelling-out come tax time. In addition, it is good to be knowledgeable on employee taxes so that you can provide any employees educated answers to tax questions.

Year-End Efforts
At the end of every year, business owners all over the country scramble to buy things they need for the office, and other expenses for the business to keep them on that tax season. You should do the same! Taking year-end deductions will make it easier to budget, and save you tons of cash.

Hire a Professional
This should be a no-brainer, but with the economy right now, a lot of people are considering doing their own taxes this year. However, this can be a very bad idea. While personal taxes are often pretty simple, business taxes are not. With the constant change in business tax rules, it is difficult to stay updated when it is not your industry. It is also easy to miss things when you have been looking at the same documents for a year. Hiring a professional for your small business’s taxes will be well worth the extra cash.

Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/taxes-articles/tax-tips-for-small-business-owners-863964.html#ixzz0piv3S5Oe
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About Carol Ferrier
Having spent many years as a stay at home mother, it was quite a difficult decision to have to take a job to make ends meet when my sons were in junior high and high school. I had prided myself on carefully using our families’ financial resources to ensure they stretched as far a possible but even that was not enough. (To console myself I told myself it wasn’t so bad and that they didn’t need me as they did when they were younger.) It was frustrating to have my boss schedule me week after week to work during the only time my family had free time. Even after being promoted to management, instead of having more time I had even less to spend with those I loved the most. Looking for a way to be at home and also help with our finances led me to look at something quite new to me as an option…Network Marketing. We jumped in enthusiastically working, and just as our partners promised our check grew to a significant amount. It was a wonderful experience to finally get paid on our efforts and not on the fixed income a boss determined. Along the way we also learned that it made a difference which company you partnered with, whether the leadership of the company had vision, ethics and a determination to keep the companies distributors interests at heart. Today we have a 5 figure a month income that is steadily growing and we have been able to move into the home we only a few short years ago only dreamed about. Working from home together allows us the time to travel, work and play together. Today it is such a joy to help others develop their own flourishing home business, in the hopes that they can stay home with their family if they so desire. Because of this amazing industry we have been able to take fabulous trips around the world, experiencing amazing moments together. A special tradition we have had over the past 7 years is being able to take our trip to Hawaii yearly with our grandson. It was another magical time, together on the beach, snorkeling, luaus and rich cultural experiences. What fun we had!! Thinking back on the many years I put in for past bosses I get so much satisfaction now because I am able to spend my time building our dreams as we gather together with dear friends and business associates… how wonderful to be able to work and play with those we call our business partners and friends.

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