Ah, it’s that time of year again. Time to start worrying about getting your taxes filed. And if you own a business, taxes can be a really stressful burden. If you do your taxes yourself or have a friend/family member help, you may want to consider hiring a CPA. Having a CPA do your taxes can be much more relaxing and take some of the burden off your shoulders.

First, it may help to know what a CPA is (if you don’t already). It stands for “Certified Public Accountant,” though it may be more appropriate to call them Certified Professional Advisors, because their roles in aiding your business will often go beyond your accounting.

Continue reading : Finding a Good Accountant »

As if you haven’t heard it enough, the deadline for filing 2006 tax returns is April 17th this year. And, just to add to the stress, that is only 5 days away. For those of you who haven’t filed your returns yet, or haven’t even started, here’s some last minute tax advice:

Take Your Time
Though the deadline for filing may be haunting your dreams at night, avoid taking shortcuts or fudging numbers, even as estimates, to get your taxes completed quicker. Though the consequences may not be immediate, speeding through your returns will only cost you the pain and suffering of a possible audit down the road. Take your time and calculate each number appropriately. It’s worth the extra effort.

Maximize Deductions
Now, when I say “maximize” I don’t mean make stuff up to get a bigger deduction. What I do mean is to make sure that you are getting all of the deductions you deserve. Some deductions can easily be overlooked, such as the home office deduction or your mileage for going to the post office or a meeting location. Another not-so-obvious deduction is retirement savings. Check out my previous post, The Right Way to Write-off Business Expenses, for more tax deduction possibilities and rules.

Double and Triple Check Your Work
Before signing on the dotted line, double and even triple check all of your calculations. According to BusinessWeek.com, most of the mistakes on tax returns are simple addition and subtraction errors, and they lead to most of the inquiries the IRS makes.

Another option is to use a tax calculating program, rather than yourself and an adding machine, such as TurboTax, which is designed for both personal and business tax returns. In fact, I’ve used TurboTax for the last four years and have been very pleased with the results, especially the audit check, which double checks your return for any problems that might trigger an audit before concluding the process.

File an Extension
If you just don’t feel like you will be able to get your returns completed and postmarked by April 17th, you can file an extension by filing out IRS Form 4868 and submitting it by the deadline instead. Your extension will be for six months, so your returns will be due by October 15th.

It’s important to know that you should submit an estimated payment of the taxes you will owe with the Form 4868. Otherwise you will have to pay a fine and interest on October 15th. It’s important that the estimated amount you pay is no more than $1,000 from what you will actually owe when your returns are submitted. Less than $1,000 short will mean an additional fine, so it is better to over estimate.

If you run into problems or have questions about your return, help is available. The IRS has a toll-free help line at 800-829-1040 or you can access helpful articles on the IRS Website. The National Associate for the Self-Employed offers a guide to completing the Schedule C business tax form as well as CPA’s to answer your questions through the Tax Talk e-mail program.

Source:
• BusinessWeek.com: Tax Advice for Procrastinators

It’s been over 10 years since the [tag]national minimum wage[/tag] was increased. Ten years! I find that simply astounding. The [tag]cost of living[/tag] has gone up in that amount of time, without a doubt, but the income that many families generate hasn’t budged. There is something very wrong with that picture and the Senate is pushing for a change.

The plan is to increase the current minimum wage of $5.15 per hour to $7.25 in three increments over the next two years. I like the idea of easing into the change, so that small businesses can adjust accordingly. The Senate bill also includes some [tag]tax breaks[/tag] for small business to ease the transitional pain, while hitting up the large corporate businesses for more money to balance things out.

The bill currently under examination will no longer allow corporations to deduct the cost of jury verdicts or out of court settlements in lawsuits, generating an estimated $540 million over the next ten years. A beautiful plan if you ask me. Even though I work for a law firm that represents local corporations, I think that a corporation that is found guilty of wrong doing in a jury trial should not be allowed to deduct the funds it has to pay out from the judgment. It seems to defeat the purpose of punishment.

Also, the tax-defered portion of severance or retirement packages given to former corporate executives will be limited. Instead of all $210 million like former Home Depot Chaiman-CEO Bob Nardelli received (don’t even get me started on that one) being tax deferred, the amount defferable would be limited to $1 million a year or a figure equivalent to the five year average of the receipient’s taxable salary. Another brilliant idea, especially since it is expected to generate $810 million in revenue over the next 10 years.

What’s funny to me is that those in the Senate who are against the [tag]minimum wage increase[/tag] claim that the beneficiaries would likely only be teenagers with part-time jobs, rather than the working poor. Uh, hello, I beg to differ! As one whose husband stocks shelves in a grocery store to help pay for college, I am well aware of the fact that the minimum wage increase would be highly beneficial to our income.

Additionally, there are plenty of people working at McDonald’s that do so full time to support a family who would benefit from the increase. I used to work in day care, and even those teachers are barely paid just over minimum wage (around $6 an hour), at least where I’m from. Explain to me how these people wouldn’t benefit?

The House version of the bill doesn’t include tax breaks for small businesses (boo), but they plan to address those issues in a separate bill. This will cause a bit of a slow down between House and Senate in getting the bill passed on to the President, but ultimately I think both the increase and tax breaks will become law. Congress would be imbeciles not to pass them. It’s simply time for it.

Source:
• AOL Small Business: Minimum Wage Bill Divides Businesses