Keeping Your Business Taxes in Line
We're more than half way through 2014: Just where does your firm stand in terms of taxes?
Last week, a client of mine had an ugly surprise when I finalized his tax form and brought to light he owed a lot of money to the IRS. His first reaction was to be mad at the ambassador. Fortunately, upon careful reflection, he explained, "Well, I should have come to see you last year when my new product took off the way it did. I knew I was making a lot more money." He's correct. When there is a considerable adjustment to your business's bottom line (in either red or black), it's time for a trip to your tax guru. In fact, anyone who has a small business should take advantage of the mid-year off season to sit down with a tax pro to discuss their financial statements as well as likely tax liabilities. It's considerably easier to create and put a strategy in place now than to run around at year end upending jugs of water on all the small fires that have been boiling all year. Here are some recommendations to discuss with your tax pro to enhance your tax predicament and preferably maintain working capital in your bank account rather than in Uncle Sam's pocket:.
Open a retirement plan.
If you're now a few bucks ahead and do not have a retirement fund, now's the moment to create one. Here's the advantage: it's deductible!
Talk with a registered financial advisor or a rep from your credit union to establish what kind of plan best suits your demands.
There are a broad range of mechanisms from Individual 401(k) plans to SEP IRAs to EASY plans that may or may not call for you to include employees in the plan.
If a plan demands employee participation, do not automatically dismiss it.
Setting up a retirement plan for your workforces could be a substantial means to give increases that don't require the additional cost of employer paid payroll taxes. Read IRS Publication 560 for more information.
Examine your legal structure.
Take the time to examine whether your company is operating optimally in its existing entity structure. You may have started out as a sole proprietorship and have outgrown it. It is particularly important to assess entity structure if your business is now netting more than $100,000 per year.
Keep in mind that if you incorporate, you will now be required to take funds out of the business via payroll rather than simple draws.
There is a lot more written documents involved under this status, but the tax advantages and protection that a corporation provides may prove more beneficial. Always go over these alternatives with your legal representative and tax pro before making a choice.
Provide employee benefits.
Workers are our most significant business asset and should be treated keeping that in mind. There are many employee benefits that are not taxable to either the staff member or the company. Look at IRS Publication 15-B, Guide to Fringe Benefits to learn more on this topic. You will save money in payroll taxes while you develop a better working environment for your employees.
Purchase furniture and equipment.
The IRS has always rewarded outlays for capital assets by providing the Section 179 Deduction. This special deduction allows the immediate expensing of capital assets rather than depreciating them over their useful lives. Be warned however. This year, the limit for purchases decreased from $500,000 to $25,000. However, Congress will be considering extending that threshold probably sometime during fourth quarter. You can begin putting money aside for the purchases now.
Perform estimates.
Take a good look at your financial statements. Run a profit and loss and compare it to the prior year profit and loss through the end of June. Are there significant changes? Are you foreseeing an increase or decrease in sales and/or expenses through the end of the year? It's a simple matter to export your data from QuickBooks into Excel where you can tinker the figures to determine what your end-of-year bottom line will be. Give that data with your tax pro to learn if you must adjust your planned tax payments accordingly.

















