4 Tax Tips for Small Business Owners – Part One

Since you can’t get away from taxes, the best thing to do is be prepared for them. If you own a small business, taxes become a bit more complicated, but there are several ways to make sure tax time is less stressful. Here are tips 1 and 2 for small business owners.

  1. Think Taxes Year Around

Thinking about your taxes all year does not seem to be a way to avoid stress, but in reality, tax planning is a year-round activity when you run a small business. If you keep up with documentation and recording requirements throughout the year, you are more likely to arrive at tax time with the right paperwork ready to go.

It is also easier to take advantage of tax savings and deductions over the course of time instead of trying to put together a package of write-offs at the last minute.

  • Keep accurate records all year
  • Save all business related receipts, both paper and electronic, and log them for easy access
  • Keep mileage logs and other expense records so they are accurate

You will find tax time much less stressful, and you will be set up to monitor changes from year to year.

  1. Keep Up with the Tax News

It may seem that the legislature does nothing, but laws do get passed every year. You need to keep an eye on happenings in the federal government that can impact your tax liability and business organization.

For example:

  • The Affordable Care Act is still rolling out. As of 2015 it applied to businesses with 51 to 99 employees and carried stiff penalties for failing to provide health insurance to employees. Penalties also applied if you did not report the type of coverage you provided.
  • Taxation of online sales is still winding its way through Congress. You need to monitor the situation, so you know if it becomes law and how it could affect you if you are an online seller if you gross more than $1 million annually.
  • The Section 179 Property Deduction was extended but not made permanent. It allows business to deduct the full amount of eligible property as expenses in the year the business began using it. “Property” includes any property used in manufacturing, transporting, and producing goods, any facility used for business or research, or any buildings used to hold livestock or horticultural products.

Tax laws change all the time; keep up with the business news for ongoing legislation or last minute tax breaks.