Here’s Your Small Business Tax Preparation Checklist
There are few things as stressful as tax season.
The business tax preparation professionals at Robert Hall & Associates have designed this check list to help you save as much money on your taxes as possible in the most hassle-free way.
Below we cover a couple of the important checkpoints you want to consider when filing your small business taxes.
As always, you won’t want to undertake something of this magnitude alone. Finding the right tax-preparation specialist (especially those with small business backgrounds) is an investment worth many times the usual tax preparation fee.
Confirm Your Filing Deadline
The first thing you want to do is figure out exactly what your tax filing deadline is for the type of business you are running.
Sole proprietorships, owners of single-member and multimember LLCs, and corporations that have a tax calendar that ends on December 31 will need to file their taxes with the IRS by the time April 15 rolls around.
This deadline should be easy to remember for most small business owners. It’s the same day that personal tax returns need to be filed with the IRS, the day commonly referred to as “Tax Day” across the country.
At the same time, small businesses registered as partnerships, multimember LLCs not taxed as a corporation, and S corporations have a different tax filing altogether. These kinds of businesses need to file their taxes by March 15.
Get Your Records Together
The next piece of the puzzle is to make sure that all of your tax records and business reports are gathered and ready to go, especially if you are hiring tax professionals to handle the heavy lifting of filing your taxes for you.
Financial records can include balance sheet information, income statements, full documentation of all your business receipts, credit card statements, loans, and more should be printed out, organized, and ready to go to your tax preparers, too.
If this information is not available then the financial statements will have to be created from raw data like the all the money your business brought in, all the money you paid out, what you purchased and invested in, how much money you made or lost – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg.
You also need information regarding your Taxpayer Identification Number or Federal Employer Identification Number (or both).
Thankfully, top-tier small business tax specialists are always going to be able to help you understand the kind of documentation you need, where to find it and how to secure, and can walk you step-by-step through the process to make sure you are the best organized as possible.
Leverage ALL Eligible Tax Deductions and Credits
One of the biggest advantages of hiring small business tax preparers is that they know exactly how to find ALL of the eligible tax deductions and credits you may legally leverage – including tax deductions and credits you may never have known even existed otherwise.
The main thing that these specialists are going to look to do is lower your tax liabilities as much as possible while staying within the boundaries of the law and the US tax code.
Filing an Extension or Need More Time to Pay Your Tax Liabilities?
Finally, your tax preparers should be able to help you file an extension whenever necessary or work directly with the IRS to extend your payment timeline.
These are both things you could have done on your own, sure. But entrepreneurs are busy enough as it is. Most don’t need another critically important responsibility thrown on their plate in the middle of tax time.
Take advantage of professional help whenever possible.
Contact Us Today!
If you’d like to learn more about how you could save big on your small business taxes (legally and ethically), or have any questions about the small business tax preparing process, don’t hesitate to contact us here at Robert Hall & Associates when you have a chance.
As one of the premier tax preparing organizations in Los Angeles, California (and recognized as a leader in small business tax preparation all across the country) the professionals at Robert Hall & Associates can protect your profits, lower your tax liabilities, and streamline the tax prep process all at the same time.
We would love to talk more about helping you save time, money, and effort with a 100% headache free tax preparing process.
