You may work from home part time. Or, you may work from home full time, but do not make a large profit. In either case, you may not be able to consider hiring a tax professional to handle your tax planning. The question you should be asking, though, is can you afford not to? There [...]

One of the best ways for you to keep an ongoing log of your business expenses is using your appointment book, your business diary or even your planner. Service businesses are the most likely to use this type of recording method. For example, if you have an appointment for a consultation, where is there a [...]

There are rumors flying around about the electronic filing methods in place. Some believe that filing in this manner somehow causes the system to target them more so than others for the audit process. This is, mostly, untrue. The method of filing is less likely to cause a problem for you than the return itself. [...]

Did you know that if you host a picnic for your employees and their families that the IRS will pick up the tab in the way of a business tax deduction? Entertainment costs for your business are tax deductible. Most of these expenses come in the form of 50 percent. For example, if you take [...]

Many people think they have to work for a company instead of starting their own business because they do not think they can have their own retirement plan or get the benefits from it that other employers get. The fact is, you can! In fact, if you are self employed there are benefits to having [...]

If you work within your home only part time, you may not believe that you can take the home office tax deduction. Yet, this may not be the case. This tax law allows for the expenses of your office to be considered a business expense. Under this law, a portion of your mortgage, your home [...]

If there is one state that loves business, it is New York. The low operation costs not to mention the many business exemptions in New York state taxes has drawn a great number of well known companies for years. Whether starting from the ground up or running a worldwide corporation, keeping any enterprise running can [...]

To take the stress and strain out of what can sometimes be a less than pleasant task, many individuals opt to efile taxes rather than fill out the forms longhand and mail them. The easy to follow programs guide users from one step to another, helping navigate and apply the correct tax codes with ease. [...]

Although personal income tax is fairly straightforward and simple, that of doing your own small business tax may be a bit morechallenging. If you do want to keep your own tax books and file your taxes at tax time, take this into consideration. The best way to do so would be to invest in a [...]

It used to be when given the choice between a trip to the dentist and filing taxes, the majority of individuals really had to stop and think about their options. While both seemed to have their own levels of discomfort, many eventually decided it was impossible to choose between the lesser of the two evils. [...]

Starting your own small business is an amazing idea. Unfortunately, Big Brother is looking over your shoulder as you do it. Those that are considering starting their own business need to know what to do to keep the IRS off their backs. There are many things that you can and should do, but by far [...]

When the death of an individual results in property or belongings being passed on to another individual or entity, estate taxes can be levied upon those assets. Because the laws dealing with estate taxes change so frequently, the amount of taxes levied can vary greatly depending on the year of death. For example, some years [...]

Although you may not like to talk about it, you probably have several professional fees to pay over the course of your business life. Whether it is an attorney to help you to settle various problems or even your tax professional himself, deducting professional fees from your taxable business income is allowable in most cases. [...]

There are several ways to benefit from employing your child in your business. First, in order for this to happen, you must be a sole proprietor or be in a partnership where you and your spouse are the only partners. Then, if you hire and employ your children for you, you can deduct their salary [...]

The IRS taxes the incomes of those individuals whose earnings meet or exceed the specified minimum requirement. Normally, taxes are automatically withheld from an employee’s check by an employer. However, each year in April citizens must still file an individual income tax return. Depending on the total amount of earnings for the year and filing [...]

Cash businesses are often considered for audits mainly because they are the most likely to skim off the top. A cash business is one that operates through mostly cash in hand. For example, if you run a restaurant, vending machines or you run the local Laundromat, nearly all of your transactions are in cash. It [...]

While it’s probably not anyone’s idea of fun to sit down and file taxes, it certainly no longer has to be the hassle it once was. One of the largest complaints about filing taxes has been the confusing directions and mystifying tax codes. Many complain that it is the main reason for the errors that [...]

It happened. You got notice of the audit that the IRS wants to do on your small business claims. What do you do now? Before you begin to panic, you should take the time to gather your thoughts and your receipts. If you did what you need to do, then this should be easy to [...]

Many people pride themselves on being property owners; but along with that privilege comes the obligation of real estate taxes. Also called property taxes, real estate taxes are based on the value of a piece of land and whatever type of structure that might be built on top of it. By calculating a number of [...]

The definition of a deduction in business tax scenarios is anything that is considered ordinary, necessary and reasonable. It must help you to earn your business income. It must also be helpful and appropriate for your business. When considering items for your business, then, consider whether they are helpful in drawing a profit for your [...]

Those that are in specific types of business often have to keep their education going to actually stay competitive within their business. Lucky for them, some of the expenses associated with this can be deducted in taxes. Consider your educational expenses. Do you need to keep your education going to remain productive and viable in [...]

You start out the year planning to keep a notebook in your car to write down all of your mileage when you visit clients or have to head to that important meeting. By February, you’ve been too busy to keep up with it. While the tax code allows for business related driving to be tax [...]

Many businesses operate with cash transactions. The government is very specific about these types of transactions and they can be, unfortunately, costly to anyone not reporting correctly. The underground economy in general is a target for the IRS and the government itself. For this reason, specific laws exist for cash transactions. Any business transaction done [...]

If you do find yourself facing a tax auditor and can not produce the records that are needed to substantiate your claim, chances are good that the auditor will just guess at what it should be. In most cases, the auditor legally is allowed to guess and what your income and expenses are if you [...]

Since most people that are audited because of missing records, not because of dishonesty, the key to avoiding the tax man is to have organized, efficient systems to keep your business income in check. Heres a solution for you. Separate all of your documentation by categories. You may want to consider categories for advertising, travel, [...]

Entertainment costs are often one of the most commonly looked at business expenses on tax forms. The tax laws have changed in regard to which and how much entertainment deduction can be taken. It used to be that a full 100 percent of your entertainment costs related to your business were deductible. That changed a [...]

Your home office can serve as a tax deduction for your business, if you would like it to help you to reduce the amount of taxes you pay on your business income. But, if it is not your whole home, how do you know how much you can deduct? No matter how large the home [...]

As a professional running your business out of a specific location, you either pay rent or are buying property. When it comes to having records of your property and the right to claim expenses on this property, it is up to you to do so at the time of an audit. If you are leasing [...]

That’s the best way to get the most out of your tax deductions when you are traveling on business. The fact is that your travel accommodations, such as your hotel room, are 100 percent tax deductible when they are fully business related. Therefore, take full advantage of this by staying at the best hotel you [...]

Plenty of people find themselves shaking in their boots when they consider whether or not to add that tax deduction of their home office to their tax return. After all, isn’t it an instant invitation to the Internal Revenue System to perform an audit? Although this is commonly thought, it is not the case. If [...]