Phoenix Arizona CPA | Arizona Tax Accountant | Arizona Income Tax

Are you ready for a productive Tax Planning Season with knowledge and understanding of how to plan for your Tax Preparation in January? With a little planning this fall, you too can save money on your taxes in the Spring.

Recently, I had a tax client come by after she received a letter from IRS. She was understandably concerned, but her manner was rude, full of entitlement, and demanding. I responded to her rude demands with polite and courteous answers, and spent several hours on the phone researching her problem. On several occasions during the process of answering her questions, I had to call and ask for more information, each time she got ruder and more demanding. Read the rest of this entry »

Knowing income tax law is not enough. In order to offer value to taxpayers, tax law knowledge must be combined with effective tax planning strategies in order to yield maximum benefit. What would you do if you owned a landscaping business with the upcoming facts and circumstances? I will tell what I would do.

While having a quiet night out at a local restaurant, listening to music from a local band, I am approached by a friend that has just started a landscaping business. He is married and has one young daughter, age twelve. He will have gross receipts of $48,000 and will receive a 1099 for his efforts. His first question to me is how he should go about making quarterly estimated tax payments to cover both income tax expense and social security tax (SE tax). My response to him was; “hold on there young fellow. Let’s have a discussion of the facts and circumstances before we begin”. Read the rest of this entry »

As the tax filing season draws near tension fills the air and many people tend to get stressed. If you plan your tax filing exercise you can undertake filing of tax returns without getting into a flap.

To ease the process of filing tax returns H & R Block have designed a check list that will not just save time but ensure that you make no mistakes in filling out the tax forms. Keep the list on your PC and use it through the year to stay organized.

To breeze through the tax form filling and filing you need: Read the rest of this entry »

Every year I always get asked at least a dozen times the same thing…”Who must file an income tax return?” The answer is almost always the same…”you!”. But, there are a few who are not required to file, the I.R.S. recently responded with this response.

2.1 Filing Requirements/Status/Dependents/Exemptions: Filing Requirements
How much does a student have to make before he or she has to file an income tax return?
If you are an unmarried dependent, you must file a tax return if your earned and/or unearned income exceeds certain limits. To find these limits refer to Filing Requirements for Dependents in Publication 501, Exemption, Standard Deduction and Filing Information. If part of your earned income is from tips, see Tax Topic 402, Tips. Read the rest of this entry »

If your business has employees, it’s going to have to account for benefits and payroll. Let’s explore the term ‘payroll’ and look at some things that are included in benefits and payroll accounting.

Within payroll accounting there are specific things that must be accounted for. These include such things as salaries, wages, commissions and bonuses paid to employees, overtime pay and various payroll costs and taxes.

Payroll costs and taxes are made up of Medicare, social security, state and federal income tax, unemployment tax and worker compensation insurance. There are also paid benefits extended to employees such as vacations, holidays, sick days, health insurance, profit-sharing plans and retirement plans. Read the rest of this entry »

Preparing your tax return is a task similar to mating with an elephant. It takes a long time, there is a lot of yelling and you usually have a headache by the end. All of this can lead to mistakes on your return.

Most taxpayers set out to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth when filing their returns. By the time you have filled out your eight worksheet related to line 27, subsection A of the 1040 form, you don’t know if you are a liar or a saint. It is all so confusing that it can bring a person to their knees. Confusion and frustration, of course, lead to mistakes. Mistakes then lead to unwanted attention from the IRS. Well, all attention from the IRS is unwanted, but you get my drift. Read the rest of this entry »

Less than 10 years old, Google has burst onto the scene like few companies in modern times. Now it is learning to throw around its weight when it comes to tax issues.

Google likes to utter the motto of “do no evil.” Of course, most people don’t believe this anymore given some of its recent predatory activity and collusion with the Chinese government on censorship. Regardless, many people in North Carolina are also starting to wonder how Google steamrolled their government to the tune of over $160,000,000! Read the rest of this entry »

If you itemize your deductions, you may be in for a windfall on this years tax. Yep, Congress has renewed the optional sales tax deduction. Of course, you have to figure it out.

If you itemize your tax deductions, you already know that you can claim a deduction for the total state income taxes you paid during the year. Depending on your state, that can be a very large tax deduction. But what if you live in a state that doesn’t collect income taxes? For the last couple of years, you could claim a deduction for the total state and local sales tax you paid on your purchases. In fact, you can do this regardless of whether you live in a state that collects income tax or not. Read the rest of this entry »

If you run a business, you are looking for as many deductions as possible to knock down the tax you have to pay. Following are some highlights of the taxes you can deduct that are collected by anyone other than the federal government.

How confusing is the tax code? So incredibly confusing that you can actually claim a deduction for the taxes you pay to one tax agency, but not another. In this case, we are talking about what tax payments businesses can deduction on the federal tax returns. The simple answer is you can deduct some of the state and local taxes you pay through the year. Let’s take a closer look at small business owners that figure their tax on Schedule C. Read the rest of this entry »

Working for an employer has its perks. One of them is you get a W-2 summarizing your earnings and taxes paid. But what if your employer didn’t issue one to you?

The W-2 form is what is known as an information tax return. Actually known as a Wage and Tax Statement, the W-2 tells the IRS two things – what you were paid and what the employer paid out in wages. The employer will actually file all the W-2s at the same time, giving the IRS a record of all wages paid that it can match against deductions and payroll taxes. Read the rest of this entry »