With the holiday season just around the corner, it’s a perfect time to get your financial records in order. Tax moves you make now can mean finding more “green” to spend on family gifts and festivities. Here are five quick tips for you to feel more prepared about your financial status as you go into year-end. Avoid Penalties This time of year is ideal to double-check your tax payments to make sure enough has been paid in, and even more important, to avoid overpaying so your money is not tied up unnecessarily. If you’re not sure of your 2013 tax liability, check with your tax preparer. Balanced Books Rather than wait until the busiest time of year for accountants and bookkeepers, you can get a head start now on catching up your books You’ll have more of their attention and you may even avoid a rate increase if you get your books done early. Completed bank reconciliations are a very important part of catching up. Forms It’s not too early to get your orders in for the forms you need at year-end like your W-2s, W-3s, 1099s, and 1096s. That way, your forms will be onsite when you’re ready. Records [...]
Tax Musings of a Burbank CPA: FTB warns of scam artists impersonating the state tax agency
Well the scam artists are at it again, posing as the Franchise Tax Board and targeting elderly people with various items from red-light traffic tickets to offers to check on their refund status. See this post by Claudia Buck in Sacramento Bee Business: http://www.sacbee.com/2013/10/22/5843400/ftb-warns-of-scam-artists-impersonating.html Everyone needs to be on guard and tell your elderly friends and relatives not to fall for these crazy cons! For financial, accounting and tax musings, You can count on us to count for you! email: bstonercpa@sbcglobal.net phone: 818-317-6035 Website: www.briantstonercpa.com https://twitter.com/bstonercpa
Tax Musings of a Burbank CPA: Time To Think About Year End Planning!
October is slowly coming to a close and if you own a small business it is time to think of year end tax planning. Planning strategies to think about at year end are: 1. Purchases of business fixed assets – the Section 179 expensing of assets plus 50% bonus depreciation make this a definite tax advantage. But don’t buy something you are not planning on purchasing soon anyway as the tax savings are only a portion of the cash paid out (if you are getting a loan to help defray some of the cash outlay that may make the purchase worthwhile, but some planning is in order before pulling the trigger.) 2. Look into accelerating some deductions into the current year. Remember if you are cash basis you can deduct items charged on a credit card at the time they show on the credit card balance, not the time they are paid, which will allow for deferring the payment for the deduction into next year if necessary. 3. Planning on either accelerating income to take advantage of deductions or deferring it till next year. It can be as simple as when you send your December invoices or asking for early payments, [...]