Tax season can be a stressful time for business owners. In addition to running the day to day aspects of your small business, you also need to get all of the documents and materials you need for your taxes in order.
There are strategies you can employ throughout the entire year to help ease some of this organizational burden during tax season. But if you’re in a crunch this year, we have compiled a checklist of items you will need to gather, whether you work with a tax professional or do your own taxes.
Here’s that list:
Income-related items
- All receipts from sales and services
- Sales records
- Interest on business checking and savings accounts (1099-INT)
- Allowances and returns
- Records of any other income sources your business has
Records of goods sold
- Inventory
- The total dollar amount of beginning and ending inventory
- Inventory purchases made during the course of the year
- Inventory removed for personal use
- Materials and supplies
Business expenses
- Marketing and advertising
- Telephones (landline and cell phone)
- Transportation and travel expenses
- Local transportation (mileage, parking, public transportation, tolls)
- Long-distance travel (airfare, mileage, hotel costs, meals, tips, internet connection, taxis)
- Computer and internet costs
- Subcontractor commissions (1099-MISC and 1096)
- Depreciation
- Business insurance
- Professional fees (attorneys, accountants, consultants)
- Interest (mortgages, business loans, investment expenses and interest)
- Office supplies
- Rent (for office space or vehicles)
- Home office
- Consider square footage of space and of home
- Hours you used the home office
- Utilities
- Homeowners/renters insurance
- Wages paid to employees (forms W-2, W-3, 940 and 941)
- Repairs and maintenance of business facilities
- Estimated tax payments
- Health insurance
- Premiums paid to cover sole proprietors, partners and S-corp shareholders
This may not be an exhaustive list, so for more information and tips about how to stay organized and cover all your bases during tax season, contact us today at MCG Solutions.