Business Income Tax Preparation

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Retirement planning especially for small businesses is important because you want to at some point slow down from your hard-working days as an entrepreneur. There are many tax advantageous retirement plans available depending on the type of entity, number of employees, expected retirement age and money available to fund the plan. There are even some plans that allow for minimum administration preventing large fees for annual tax returns on those plans. These plans allow for simple management of those plans encouraging small businesses to invest in the retirement of their employees. You can read more about retirement plans at Retirement Planning. You can E-mail or call to get the customized options available to you to take advantage of these tax advantageous plans.

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All CPA firms should be able to provide a quality accounting for you so you can know what your financials are telling you about your company. You can expect from our firm that we not only prepare accurate financials for you and report them to you on a timely basis but that we will review them with you and discuss the management issues that are apparent by what the financial statements are revealing. The financial statements should be an invaluable tool to you to indicate how well you are running the company and where there is room for improvement. If you have financial goals that you want to measure yourself to, we can provide the reporting to you in a way that is meaningful so you can determine if you are accomplishing those goals. With extensive background in management for large and small companies, you can expect our firm to be your partner in assisting you with succeeding in your company financial goals. E-mail or call to see if we can provide you the financial reports you need for your business.

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Our firm can prepare the necessary reports for all your sales tax reporting needs for state, city and local taxes. We can develop a procedure to make your individual invoices and other documents easily roll into your tax reports so you can comply with the tax reporting requirements. You can expect that we will do this on a timely basis to ensure you can pay and report the taxes on time to avoid penalties. E-mail or call to see if we can provide you the sales tax reporting your firm needs.

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Buying and Financing a Vehicle

While buying a vehicle is not nearly as complicated as buying a home, it can still be confusing and sometimes you never really understand what you actually paid for the vehicle. Here are some simple tips to make the process more manageable. First, look for the vehicle you want with all the options noted. Second, go to the dealers in your local area and check the internet to find the best price for the car with all of those options. Remember that if the car is the same car with the same options, the price difference is what the dealers are charging including their profit. It is always a good idea to ask to purchase the vehicle from the fleet department as many dealers are now offering to any individual or business buyer of one car a “bottom line price” through the fleet department. This is the invoice price and eliminates the padding added for negotiation with the sales representative’s commission in the retail department of the dealership. The invoice price can be $5,000 or more off the MSRP. It is always good to be working with at least two quotes from different dealers to price compare and make sure you are paying the very least amount for that vehicle. Third, you can then evaluate the financing options on each of the two top vehicles you have chosen to determine which is the best deal overall. It is best to negotiate price first and then the financing component. Most of this can be accomplished by phone and fax since you already know what kind of car you want. Fourth, after you have done that at both dealerships, evaluate which deal is best. Remember that a lower monthly payment does not always mean you paid less for the car. The price, loan amount and interest rate are the key components. Go to MORE CAR PURCHASE TIPS. for more important tips when purchasing a vehicle. Feel free to e-mail or call to see if I can help if you need more assistance with your specific deal.

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Business Management Issues

You may have encountered problems in the management of your business that you really weren't too sure how to solve so you ignored it hoping it would go away. For the small business owner there are so many hats that you have to wear that sometimes it helps to have a little guidance and assistance on how to handle a management issue. Some examples are related to employees and all the problems that can come along with having employees. Making sure you are within your legal rights is extremely important with employees that like to push the envelope a little. If you do what makes sense but it turns out to be against the law, you could end up with a lawsuit or a call from the Department of Labor. It is important to have a person just a phone call away that can guide you on what’s acceptable and what’s not.

Many times your financial statements are the clue as to what management issues needs to be reviewed due to changes in your financials from one period to the next. You can expect as part of the service you receive from our firm that we will review those changes with you to see if we can give you the guidance you need to pay attention to changing times. As standard practice there is a review before your financial statements go out to see if there are any signs of profit changes and why that might be happening. It is most important that you understand what is happening in your company and can adapt to what is necessary to accomplish your goals. E-mail or call to see if you would like further assistance in this matter.

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IRS & State Tax Solutions

When you have the unfortunate experience of not having prepared your taxes on time or not being able to pay your taxes when they are due, sometimes it is better to have an experienced intermediary assist with the process of preparation of the returns and negotiation with the IRS or state tax agency. If you are unable to pay immediately, there are several options depending on your financial situation. Sometimes an offer in compromise is a viable solution and other times monthly payments that are manageable are an option. Our firm will work for you and work with the IRS or state government to ensure that you are protected and that you have a solution that is manageable. E-mail or call for a free consultation to see if our firm can provide you the help you need.

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Should You Buy An Existing Business?

First of all I would like to say that I have been able to prevent huge losses to businessmen who have been smart enough to ask an accountant for advice before they close the deal and cut their losses. Buying an existing business is a tricky matter. You are buying something based only on what you physically see and what the financials tell you. Sometimes the financials are not exactly correct and this can be especially so when they are not done by a CPA. A CPA is held to a higher standard than your accountant or tax preparer. There can be consequences to a CPA for not putting out accurate financial statements. Even if you review statements prepared by the seller’s CPA, you may still want to have someone who has your interest review them. This may include looking a little deeper than just the income statement and balance sheet. A trained eye can view a top level financial statement and know what may need further digging. It is really important to know what you are buying and many times you are the only buyer and that seller is hoping you will take the deal so don’t hesitate to do a good job up front and hard negotiation so that any surprises you find later on don’t end up in a law suit. Please e-mail or call if you would like to discuss this further.

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Should You Start A New Business?

There is nothing like the freedom of having control over your day and not having to put your time in at your day job in a corporate or government job. I am a great believer in becoming a small businessman but I do believe that if you don’t do it right, it can cost you a lot of money. Let me give you an example. A client came to me and said I want to go into retail sales. The manufacturer/distributor of this product told them how profitable it was and how much money they could make. They had no experience as a small business owner not to mention the fact that the retail business is unique in many ways and requires some special understanding of marketing as do restaurants and certain other businesses. I discouraged them from doing this and tried to explain that this is a labor intensive business working seven days a week with high overhead and requires understanding your product and having a plan for how you were going to compete in this business effectively. Well after pulling over $100,000 out of retirement along with the penalties that went along with it, the owners were exhausted and loosing a lot of money. They were locked into a high monthly rent for several years for that store front that required them to pay even if they went out of business. There was no profit to draw a salary from and all you could hope for is being able to get your original investment back out of the company.

Now here is the good side. With technology the way it is (That’s why you are reading this right now, right?) there are so many creative ways to become a successful businessman even right out of your own home. Personally I think the really smart people are not working for those big corporations or government jobs but have used their creativity and ingenuity to come up with a way to make an excellent living and have all the luxuries that go along with it. Work so you can live, don’t live so you can work. So I think that starting your own business is great and a little fear is good because it will make you develop a successful path to freedom.

In order to manage that fear, it is important to educate yourself on exactly what you want to do. If you have questions, ask them to the right people to get the advice you need and educate yourself on what you are doing so you can make a successful decision.

There is a businessman who works from his backyard swimming pool in Scottsdale, Arizona. He has a simple product that can be sold to businesses or individuals and doesn't even have a web site! The product is great and highly profitable and can be reusable although his business customers dispose of it after one use. Profits are high and he receives his payments via e-mail and provides excellent service since he doesn’t have to work too hard. Now that’s the way to go! Think smarter not harder. For more information on what you need to know if you are starting a business go to I Need To Know More.

If I can be of any assistance with an important decision like starting your own business, please feel free to e-mail or call. Remember, life is an adventure!

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