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1. Be Careful and Thorough. Avoid common problems like illegible hand writing, mathematical errors, transposition of numbers, and missing signature. These little oversights can end up costing you time and money if you are slapped with penalties.

2. Get Organized. Allow enough time to get your “stuff” in order. For example, properly categorizing your expenditures now will save you a lot of time later. Come tax time, you will be glad you grouped your expenditures by category (match it with verbiage on Schedule C if self-employed) and not by month or name of vendor payee.

3. ?Be Flexible. Timing your cash flow can save you money. ?In other words, always accelerate deductions in the year you are doing taxes for and always defer income, if you can, into the next year, thereby lowering your current year’s tax bite. ?If you fall into the Alternative Minimum Tax, you may want a professional to advise you.

4. ?Know When To Ask for Help. Tax preparation tools like TurboTax and TaxCut are great, but people with anything more than a straight W-2 (including anyone with even the smallest business ?Schedule C”) should be aware of the limitations of these software programs.

5. Don’t be Penny Wise and Pound Foolish. Hiring an expert CPA or EA to prepare your return is a small annual investment that can pay off big! Don’t do your taxes yourself unless you are a straight W-2 wage earner that takes the Standard Deductions (in other words, someone who doesn’t itemize or have any unreimbursed employee business expenses).

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The recently enacted “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009″ (2009 Economic Stimulus Act) includes a wide-range of tax incentives. Extension of Bonus Depreciation Last year, Congress temporarily allowed businesses to recover the costs of capital expenditures made in 2008 faster than the ordinary depreciation schedule would allow by permitting these businesses to immediately write off 50% of the cost of depreciable property acquired in 2008 for use in the United States. The new law extends this temporary benefit for qualifying property purchased and placed into service in 2009. Extension of Section 179 In order to help small businesses quickly recover the cost of certain capital expenses, small business taxpayers may elect to write off the cost of these expenses in the year of acquisition in lieu of recovering these costs over time through depreciation. Last year, Congress temporarily increased the amount that small businesses could write off for capital expenditures incurred in 2008 to $250,000 and increased the phase-out threshold for 2008 to $800,000. The new law extends these temporary increases for capital expenditures incurred in 2009. Expanded Carryback of Net Operating Losses Prior to the new law, net operating losses (NOLs) could be carried back to the two years before the year of the loss and carried forward for the succeeding twenty years. For 2008, the new law extends the maximum NOL carryback period from two years to five years for small businesses with gross receipts of $15 million or less. Incentives to Hire Unemployed Veterans and Disconnected Youth Businesses are allowed to claim a work opportunity tax credit equal to 40% of the first $6,000 of wages paid to employees of one of nine targeted groups. The new law expands the work opportunity tax credit to include two new targeted groups: (1) unemployed veterans; and (2) disconnected youth. Individuals qualify as unemployed veterans if they were discharged or released from active duty from the Armed Forces during 2008, 2009 or 2010 and received unemployment compensation for more than four weeks during the year before being hired. Individuals qualify as disconnected youths if they are between the ages of 16 and 25 and have not been regularly employed or attended school in the past 6 months. Accumulated AMT and R&D Credits The new law extends the provision contained in the Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008 and allows AMT and loss taxpayers in 2009 to receive 20% of the value of their old AMT or research and development (R&D) credits to the extent such taxpayers invest in assets that qualify for bonus depreciation. Delayed Recognition of Cancellation of Debt Income To benefit certain businesses that buy their own debt at a discount, the new law lets the businesses recognize cancellation of debt income over 10 years for specified types of business debt repurchased by the business in 2009 or 2010. Qualified Small Business Stock The new law increases the exclusion for gain from the sale of certain small business stock held for more than five years from 50% to 75% for stock issued after the enactment date and before 2011. S Corporation Holding Period The new law temporarily shortens the holding period of assets subject to the built-in gains tax from 10 years to 7 years. Estimated Taxes The new law decreases required estimated tax payments for individuals whose incomes primarily come from a small business in 2009. Rather than being required to make quarterly estimated tax payments based on 100% of their 2008 returns, the new law allows computation based on 90%. To qualify, the individual’s adjusted gross income must be less than $500,000 and he or she must certify that more than 50% of the gross income shown on his or her return for the prior tax year was income from a small business. Income from a small business generally means income from a trade or business with an average number of employees of 500 or fewer.

There is nothing worse than preparing Income Taxes and finding that there were many deductions we didn’t keep track of. Not keeping track of deductions can be very costly come tax time. It is very important to keep good records all year round.
For every dollar you don’t deduct, you could be paying up to 35% back to Uncle Sam. If the dollar has been spent, taxes shouldn’t have to be paid on it. Think of the productivity of your business if you could put 35% of your income back into your business rather than in the hands of politicians. What kind of advertising campaign could you do with 35% extra cash flow every month. With a little organization and planning this can be possible.
Most business owners remember to take the big obvious deductions such as cost of goods sold, materials, tools, supplies, and employee expenses. But often times it is the small seemingly insignificant deductions that can make or break a company. Lone Peak Business Solutions has the 10 most commonly missed business deductions.
1. Advertising - Business cards, newspaper ads, information packets you hand out, free samples, flyers, product testing, videos and CD’s.
2. Children - Money paid to children for helping with such things as delivering flyers, product, stuffing envelopes, cleaning office and car, etc.
3. Dues and Subscriptions - Dues to professional organizations and magazines that have to do with your trade or business.
4. Educational Expense - Classes or seminars that you take to improve your business.
5. Gifts - Gifts to clients and associates.
6. Laundry and Cleaning - This includes uniforms and Protective clothing and also your clothing when you are out of town.
7. Travel - Hotels, airfare, cab fare, parking, cleaning while away from home, trip log.
8. Home Office - A home office must be a separate room in your home to do business and accounting. Part of your living room or bedroom will not count. A percentage of utility Bills, home owners insurance, property tax, mortgage interest, refinance fees, repairs and maintenance, cleaning supplies, office decor, etc. are deductible. You find out the percentage by dividing the square footage of the office by the square footage of the entire house.
9. Mileage or Vehicle - There are two ways to take a vehicle expense. One is to take the mileage you use when picking up product, supplies, office supplies, meetings, handing out advertising or business cards, meals and entertaining clients, etc. The other way is to take the expense of using the vehicle: fuel, parts, mechanics, oil changes, etc. Along with taking expenses, you can also depreciate the vehicle.
10. Telephone - Cell phone, long distance calls on home phone, extra phone lines into home for business, fax or Internet.
Items such as paper clips, bank charges, credit card charges and home office expense seem small and unimportant at the time, but multiply those little things over a year or two and then multiply it times 35% and it can add up to quite a bit of money that should be in your pocket rather than in the government’s pocket.
Along with keeping track of expenses it is important to evaluate your income and expenses on at least a quarterly basis. This allows you to determine if too much is being spent any one place. It allows you to determine if all the deductions that can be are being claimed. It allows you to determine how to better increase sales and decrease costs.