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As a self-employed tax payer, and as an accountant and advisor to many small business owners, I am well acquainted with the shock and disgust of what I call the “April First-year Tax Sucker Punch”. Perhaps you are familiar – it’s that first tax return you file that shows a profit on your Schedule C, your independent business activity, for which you probably have not paid any withholdings or estimates during the year. That’s when you learn your first hard lesson about self-e

When you’ve already got a great product or service that you’ve poured your heart and soul into, it may be hard to switch gears to focus on building a website. Maybe your business is already thriving. Even the best business needs a strong online presence in today’s digital media driven world. The first step is setting up a great website that represents your brand and business. Before taking that first step make time to deeply consider how you would want your brand perceived by

Part 3 of 3: Easy Targets - Meals, Mileage, and Home Office deductions, soft audit targets for the self-employed. “Soft target” is a military expression, referring to something that is relatively unprotected or vulnerable to an attack. An audit on your tax returns by the IRS is clearly not a military attack, but it can be quite brutal if your business expenses are… “open to interpretation”, or not well supported. This is the 3rd of 3 articles we have posted to help busines

Part 2 of 3: Easy Targets - Meals, Mileage, and Home Office deductions, soft audit targets for the self-employed. “Soft target” is a military expression, referring to something that is relatively unprotected or vulnerable to an attack. An audit on your tax returns by the IRS is clearly not a military attack, but it can be quite brutal if your business expenses are… “open to interpretation”, or not well supported. This is the second of 3 articles we will be posting (see Can I

Part 1 of 3: Easy Targets - Meals, Mileage, and Home Office deductions, soft audit targets for the self-employed. “Soft target” is a military expression, referring to something that is relatively unprotected or vulnerable to an attack. An audit on your tax returns by the IRS is clearly not a military attack, but it can be quite brutal if your business expenses are… “open to interpretation”, or not well supported. This is the first of 3 articles we will be posting to help b

4 Common Mistakes that Make your Chart of Accounts a Mess by Kevin Clark, CPA If the financial reports you're seeing for your small business are hopelessly unreliable (like my mirror first thing in the morning), you may need to do some clean-up on the foundation of your accounting system - the Chart of Accounts. My what? Your chart of accounts is simply the list of all of the different categories that you see on your financial reports (balance sheet, income statement...etc)

Owning your own business can be exciting, but it can also mean you are responsible for absolutely everything. Payroll and taxes can get complex and may overwhelm as you start up or as your business grows larger. That’s where a CPA, Certified Public Accountant, can help take a big part of the stress out of your professional ventures, leaving you time for what you really want to focus on. There are many reasons to consider having a CPA help but here are some for today: 1. A