Category: Tax Preparation

Tax Information For Small Businesses And Self-Employed Individuals

The 2011 Tax season is quickly approaching, and many people are busy getting all of their tax information together so they can file their taxes on time. Business owners face many more challenges at tax time than employees. It is crucial for business owners to have all of the information they need in order to file their taxes, which can be quite a grueling process. In most cases, the law does not require businesses to keep detailed records, but they must be able to supply evidence of all earnings related transactions. Small business owners should keep a record of their sales slips, purchases, receipts, payrolls, paid bills, invoices and any other financial documents. All businesses should employ a qualified bookkeeper or accountant who is able to keep accurate business records throughout the year.

Self-employed individuals must also prepare themselves accordingly before filing their taxes. Most people who work as freelancers do not bother to hire a bookkeeper or accountant. Unless someone knows the ins and outs of taxes, they will need to conduct plenty of research before filing their tax return. For example, there are many tax write offs that need to be considered. A local income tax agency can help a self-employed individual file their income tax return, but the person filing is responsible for providing them with all of the required information. Just like small business owners, self-employed individuals should save all of their financial documents throughout the year.

There is plenty of information for Small Business and Self-Employed Individuals available online. Small business owners and self-employed individuals can find out more information online at the IRS government website. The official IRS website offers information on forms for small businesses, employer ID number applications, social security, Medicare, income tax and more. The IRS website offers helpful articles, videos, virtual workshops and a printable tax calendar. They also offer information on small business tax audits.

Related articles

Do You Know Your Options For the Tax Season?

Preparing and filing your federal tax return is quite simple with the IRS e-file free tax filing program. The Internal Revenue Service provides this program to help ensure that you can get your taxes done fast and easy. In addition, the IRS E-File is safe, free and ensures that you get the highest refund amount entitled to you.

There are two ways to take advantage of free 2011 tax return filing from the IRS. You can choose to use easy tax software or file electronically online. If you earn less than $58k per year, you are eligible to take advantage of Free File Software.

If you are one of nearly 100 million who are eligible for free 2011 tax filing, you can access the IRS e-file online forms by visiting the government IRS website. Once you begin, you will be assisted in finding free software and after choosing the right one for you, you will then be instructed through the filing process for your 2011 tax forms. The best thing about e-file is that it eliminates the high costs of having a professional complete your tax return and most anyone can successfully file their return online for free without prior tax knowledge. If the government owes you money, such as the EIC, the software will automatically apply your earned income credit to your refund.

Of course, safety and security is always a concern when filling out private information online and the IRS takes this into consideration with Free File. To date, the software has been used both securely and safely by millions of people since the year 2003.

If you are not comfortable doing your 2011 tax return online, there are still options that allow you to mail your tax forms. Although it takes longer to receive a refund when you file by mail, it is still preferred among some tax payers and will likely remain an option when 2012 tax time rolls around as well.

Related articles

Settling Tax Debt

Filing for tax returns and finding money for those ridiculous taxes are enough stress that can add another wrinkle in one’s aging memorabilia. However, these things are simply unavoidable and mandatory. Despite how one tries to live ideally and be a model citizen, there are times where one fall short from his/her responsibilities to pay taxes. Some simply ignore the payments due to financial concerns while others neglect such duties to focus on important circumstances. Whatever reasons they may have, settling tax debt requires certain processes.

Firstly, it best for the debtor to check on his/her previous tax returns just to double check on unseen deductions. Amending your tax return can mean lower tax payment. Second, read on the different IRS debt settlement program and choose on a program that suits your financial status. Third,decide whether to hire a profession or you can manage to settle IRS tax debt on your own.

When do you hire a professional or when is it okay to settle IRS debt on your own? Hiring or not is purely your prerogative. Nevertheless, it is recommended to hire a professional when you are dealing with a tax debt of $10,000 or more. You must make sure that the professional you hire is a certified public accountant, enrolled agent or a tax attorney. These professions are credited by the Internal Revenue Service as eligible to handle such problems.

You would also consider that fees charged by these tax experts. Some would have an hourly rates while others might have fixed rate for services rendered. See to it that the task done by these experts requires specialized skills and knowledge, offer to do the task on paper works and errands.

Lastly, remember when there is an opportunity to make money, most of the time, con artists and scammers will seized this chance to snatch your hard earned money. According to reports, fake tax companies guarantee results without prior knowledge of you tax debt situation, require amount of cash as deposit, pass you to different representatives, and does not a physical address. Always be on the look out for these signs.

Tips On Inheritance Planning

Once you get over the initial surprise of having been included in a will and you are now thinking of what to do with what has been bequeathed to you, there is bound to be a lot of confusion with so many ideas going through your head as well as others that will be coming from family and friends. It is important to give serious thought to your inheritance planning. Inheritance like all other privileges comes with its fair share of responsibility and you need to make the best of it. Here are a few tips that will help you as you plan for your inheritance.

Give yourself enough time. Do not rush yourself or accept to be rushed by others to make rash decisions concerning you inheritance. It is very likely that you were not expecting the money or property you have inherited and it is therefore important that you give enough time or you may end up making costly mistakes by rushing into things.

Another thing to avoid is giving too much information to many people as regards your inheritance. There will be people who may have a clue that you inherited some money or property but you do not need to give them the details. Not everyone means well and you could find yourself in trouble as a result of people you gave too much information misusing it.

It is also important to get yourself professional financial planning advice on how to manage your inheritance. There are lawyers and accountants who are well versed in inheritance planning and inheritance tax planning and they can competently help you design a plan that will see you benefit long term from your newly acquired wealth.

Make sure you appreciate whatever you get. Some people will look at what they have inherited as very little, once you take this line of thought it is very difficult to make any meaningful use of the little you have been given. You should be very grateful since there are many people who live their lives and never get to inherit anything.

Finally, make sure you enjoy your inheritance. This does not mean you should squander it on meaningless purchases, but remember to include something you enjoy into your inheritance planning. It may be a trip you have always wanted to take or a treat that you always wanted for you and your family. Whatever it may be just make sure that it does not take up the biggest portion of your inheritance, but it should be there.

Enhanced by Zemanta

Pension Funds – Have You Started One?

Have you started to think about your retirement? If you haven’t then perhaps it is time you should get a pension plan. The sooner you get paying into some kind of pension the better it will be for your future. If you do leave it to the last minute then you will not have paid in enough contributions by the time it comes to your retirement.

I know recently that not many people these days trust pensions, due to the fact that a lot of pension funds lost half their value with the stock market slump. Some people don’t bother using a pension fund, they just decide to use the capital appreciation in their home to fund their retirement, and others using savings accounts. The only issue here, is what happens if house prices drop?

Compare pension funds and find yourself a good investment vehicle to grow your money for your retirement. You need to decide at what age you want to retire because the longer you have to pay into a fund the less you will need to contribute on a monthly basis. The less time you have the more money you will have to pay in monthly installments. It’s all about saving hard, for your future. How many years does this plan need to fund your retirement one you stop working. Friends Provident pensions are a good place to start looking.

So how much should you save? They say that you should be putting between 5 and 10 percent of your salary into a pension plan. As you get older you can increase this and put more into your fund when you stop paying your mortgage.

The trickiest part of selecting a pension is where to invest the fund so that it can grow and earn you more money for your retirement. You can invest it in the FTSE 100 or other worldwide stock markets. Investments funds are tricky, and you can get help from a pension adviser, but it is still your decision at the end of the day to where you invest it.