If you’ve filed your 2024 tax return, you may be eager to do some spring cleaning, starting with tax-related paper and digital clutter. The documentation needed to support a tax return may include receipts, bank and investment account statements, K-1s, W-2s, and 1099s. How long must you save these records? Three years is the general rule. But don’t be hasty: Failure to keep a paper trail for the information reported on a tax return could lead to problems if the IRS audits it.
Your Business Tax Information at Your Fingertips
The IRS Business Tax Account provides information to sole proprietors, partners of partnerships, and shareholders of S corporations and C corporations. Eligible business taxpayers who set up an account can use the hub to make electronic payments, schedule or cancel future payments, and access other tools. They can also view their current balances, payment history, other business tax records, and digital copies of select IRS notices.
Business Owners Must Get Comfortable With Financial Statements
Financial statements can fascinate accountants, investors, and lenders. However, they may not be real page-turners for business owners.
The truth is each of the three parts of your financial statements is a valuable tool that can guide you toward reasonable, beneficial business decisions. For this reason, it’s essential to get comfortable with their respective purposes.
Cut Business Taxes with Local Transportation Deductions
Understanding how to deduct transportation costs could significantly reduce the tax burden on your small business. You and your employees likely incur various local transportation expenses each year, and they have tax implications.
Business Owners: Be Sure You’re Properly Classifying Cash Flows
Properly prepared financial statements provide a wealth of information about your company. But the operative words there are “properly prepared.” Classifying information accurately isn’t always easy — especially as the business grows and its financial transactions become more complex.
Businesses Should Stay Grounded When Using Cloud Computing
For a couple of decades or so now, companies have been urged to “get on the cloud” to avail themselves of copious data storage and a wide array of software. However, some businesses are learning the hard way that the seemingly sweet deals offered by cloud service providers can turn sour as hoped-for cost savings fail to materialize and dollars left on the table evaporate into thin air.
Cash or Accrual Accounting: What’s Best for Tax Purposes?
Your businesses may have a choice between using the cash or accrual method of accounting for tax purposes. The cash method often provides significant tax benefits for those that qualify. However, some businesses may be better off using the accrual method. Therefore, you need to evaluate the tax accounting method for your business to ensure that it’s the most beneficial approach.
5 Strategies for Improving Collections
Businesses that operate in the retail or restaurant spheres have it relatively easy when it comes to collections. They generally take payments right at a point-of-sale terminal, and customers go on their merry way. For other types of companies, it’s not so easy. Collections can be particularly difficult for business-to-business operations, which often find themselves in complex relationships with key customers. In these businesses, it’s often not as simple as “pay up or hit the road.”
Is It Time to Upgrade Your Business’s Accounting Software?
By now, just about every company uses some accounting software to track, manage, and report its financial transactions. Many businesses end up using several different types of software to handle different accounting-related functions. Others either immediately or eventually opt for a comprehensive solution that addresses all their needs.
Tax Records: What Can You Toss, and What Should You Keep?
Generally, the IRS has three years to audit a tax return, from the later of the due date or the date you file. If you overlooked something, you can also file an amended return within this time frame.
Here’s what you need to know about keeping financial records involved in your tax returns.