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End-of-Year Tax Moves for Business Owners The end of the year always sneaks up on us.  There’s the holiday rush, closing the books, and planning for next year, so tax planning doesn’t usually make it to the top of the list. But here’s the truth: December 31 is the finish line for many of your best tax-saving opportunities.  Once the calendar flips, so does your chance to make these moves. Here are five smart strategies to consider before year-end: 1. Buy Needed Equipment or T

If you think all W-2 employees have “simple” taxes, think again—especially if your income is in the upper brackets or you have multiple income streams. High earners sometimes leave money on the table or risk penalties, because they don’t realize certain items apply to them. Here are five common mistakes—or missed opportunities: 1. Overlooking Pre-Tax Benefits Maxing out your 401(k) is just the beginning. Many employers also offer: Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) Flexible Spend

Let’s face it—payroll isn’t why you started your business. But unless your dream involved IRS penalties and frustrated employees, it’s a corner of your operations that deserves attention.  As a CPA who works with small service-based businesses every day, I’ve seen some common payroll pitfalls that sneak up on otherwise savvy owners. The good news? These mistakes are avoidable—and we’ll show you how.  1. Missing Payroll Tax Deposit Deadlines   If payroll taxes had a motto, it

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To clarify – not talking about your personal library here. If your business books are a mess and you want to do better in 2024, it’s important to understand what exactly makes your books (accounting records) “good.” Here are the fundamentals of good bookkeeping. They are practically interdependent, each one supports the others, so you need all of these to have good books: 1. Timeliness . A basic requirement of good bookkeeping is maintaining up-to-date records. Your financ

If you work with contractors/vendors/attorneys/landlords and you typically pay them more than $600 during the year, then you know that you have to send them a 1099 at the end of the year. Trying to chase them down in January to fill out their W-9, in addition to calculating how much you’ve paid them to put on the 1099, is the worst way to spend the start of a New Year. And your accountant is probably especially fond of doing this for you, too (sarcasm). So let’s not do that

Taxes are as much as a long-term play as a short-term play, and it’s important to plan your tax strategies as far in advance as possible, especially in regards to your golden years, or what some people refer to as “retirement”. We don’t always just stop working and sit in a rocker or on the beach somewhere with an umbrella drink. But stopping what you’re doing and living differently at some point in the future is what most people aim for. The reality is that most individu

Your dress code is a guide for how you and your employees represent your business. What kind of impression do you want to make on clients and professional relations? Here are 5 dress code styles to help you decide what fits best for your business and team. 1. Professional/Business Formal – This is going to be your best dressed clothing. For men it means a suit and tie. For women it can mean dress/skirt or a pants suit. I’m personally grateful for this dress code dying out.

You may have heard about this nifty tax deduction for the self-employed: getting a Roth retirement account set up for your child and contributing the maximum amount yearly. The sometimes overlooked hiccup with this tactic is that your child has to have EARNED income to contribute to a Roth. And no, an allowance does not constitute earned income. Earned income includes things such as wages, salary, commissions, tips, bonuses, self-employment income, and nontaxable combat pay

You’ve probably seen it by now if you have any type of business and receive electronic payments from your customers–credit cards, Venmo, PayPal, etc. You will also receive one even if you’re not self-employed if you use cash transfer apps like Cash App. The 1099-K is issued by third party payment processors and it reports all of the payments and transactions that were processed through them over the past calendar year. You should receive your copy early in the following year–