Phoenix Arizona CPA | Arizona Tax Accountant | Arizona Income Tax

One of the frequently over looked deductions is your children. Many home-based business owners hire family members to fill available staff positions.  An advantage or tax benefit of hiring your children is that they will have money to save for college and or their own personal expenses.

Young teens can work in family owned home-based business ventures by answering the phone, taking messages or orders. Typing, filling and answering correspondence are duties that can generally be carried out by a young teenager. Training is key no matter how old or young the staff member is. Read the rest of this entry »

It is every company, business and income earning individuals wish to pay lesser tax on the income earned.  However, paying lesser tax and tax evasion is separated by a thin border, which can be costly if not dealt with carefully.

Big organization engaged experienced knowledgeable tax professionals to work out the company tax liability. These professionals take into account all deductible expenses, capital allowances, etc, in a legitimate manner to achieve their objective, pay lesser tax. On top of it, the organization employs accounting professional to maintain the transaction records of the business, detailing every sales, purchases and expenses. These records enable the auditors and tax professionals to accomplish their objective. Read the rest of this entry »

After many years of having the “tax day” creep up on me, I have finally found a few great guidelines to handling the last minute rush.

1) GATHER THE FORMS YOU NEED. You can get them off the Internet at http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html. Or you can go to the post office or, if you are using Turbo Tax, the forms are supplied with the program.

2) GET ALL YOUR PAPERWORK TOGETHER IN ADVANCE. This includes W-2 and 1099 forms. If you have not received them by January 31, call your company. Don’t forget to save a copy for your files. Read the rest of this entry »

A tax write off is the same thing as a tax deduction, and if you don’t know what expenses are legitimate deductions on your tax return, you won’t know what you can legitimately write off either.  In the case of tax write offs, what you don’t know can be very painful indeed.

Tax write offs are taken by business owners and are items which in normal circumstances might not be allowable deductions but become so when the situation of a business changes. Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a question I get a lot from sole proprietors: why aren’t my personal expenses deductible? Here are three ways to think about this.

1. Personal expenses are not needed to create business revenue. Some sole proprietors reason that since they need their personal expense (such as non-business car use or a vacation), that means their business needs it too, since the sole proprietor is the business. If you are a sole proprietor, ask youself this question when deciding if the expense is deductible: Read the rest of this entry »

Progressive taxation is defined as a form of tax that charges a bigger percentage rate on the income of high income group than it does on the income of low income group. As the income of the individual increases, the tax rate he pays also increases proportionately. So this is a sort of graduated tax. The rationale behind such a taxation principle is that those who earn more can save more and therefore, should pay more to the government. 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 »

Being self employed and your own boss also give you the freedom of not bound to a withholding money for tax by a company employer, like you would if you worked for someone else.  When you work for someone else you would have to have money taken off each payday check and sent to the government with payroll deductions.  When you are self employed you can keep that money yourself until it comes time to pay.  So what is great about that is you can then put that tax money in a savings account and make a tiny percentage of interest till then. Read the rest of this entry »

Big business enjoys huge tax advantages by creating Captive Insurance Companies. Successful PCs can also use this powerful tool for wealth accumulation and risk management.

Keego Harbor, Michigan.  May 11, 2007 – In 25 years of developing asset management plans for physicians and other entrepreneurs, Keith L. Mohn, CLU, CHFC, CAPP, CWPP has seen every financial planning technique. He helps PCs achieve their wealth accumulation and transfer goals with the  “captive insurance company (CIC).” 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 »