Halloween is just around the corner, and the “spooky season” is in full force! While you’re enjoying your scary movie marathons and seasonal treats, it’s only understandable if your mind starts to drift toward another spooky subject—the fact that tax season is coming up fast.
For small business owners especially, the near arrival of tax season can feel like a horror movie in its own right. There’s a lot involved with planning and preparing taxes, and when you have so much else on your plate it can feel hard to keep up.
Fortunately, there are some strategies you can employ for the rest of the year to make the coming of tax season feel a little less frightful. Here are a few tips for you to keep in mind.
•Pass on documents immediately: When you know there are tax documents you need to get to your tax prep specialist, do it right away so you don’t lose track of them. As these documents start to build up it can be easy to misplace them or get overwhelmed by their volume, so send them over to your tax prep team as soon as possible to avoid any potential headache.
•Keep a list: A simple to-do list can do a lot to keep you organized and spare your sanity. This will help you maintain a clear vision of everything you need to accomplish and also help you track your progress. It can be quite satisfying to check things off your to-do list!
•Get started as soon as possible: Putting off your taxes will likely only add to the stress you already are experiencing. Even before the new year, you can spend some time analyzing your numbers and preparing for what’s to come. When January hits, you should get started as soon as possible and aim to file early.
•Make sure you’re keeping business and personal expenses separate: An IRS audit can turn into a real-life horror story if you’ve been mixing business and personal expenses. Make sure you have separate accounts for these expenses and that you’re being strict with how you use those funds and track that usage.
•Keep through records: If you stay on top of record keeping throughout the entire year, this will have a number of benefits for your business, including simplifying your tax filing processes. Of course, good record keeping can also help you improve your bottom lines and set you up for a more stable financial future as an organization.
•Make sure your business is properly classified: A failure to give your business the proper classification could result in you unnecessarily increasing your tax liability. Consider whether your company is a C-corp, S-corp, LLC, LLP, sole proprietorship or single-member LLC.
•Get help: The best thing you can do to take some of the fright out of planning your business’s taxes is to have a skilled tax planning and preparation professional who can work with you throughout the year to keep your business finances in order.
You can survive the spookiness of tax season! Reach out to an experienced tax preparation professional at MCG Solutions for assistance.