Knowing these changes and staying on top of paperwork will make the process of filing your own taxes much easier. It isn’t impossible for you to file your small business’s taxes, but you want to make sure you are aware of the different tax laws and procedures. Make sure you do some research ahead of time on these numbers so you know how to properly file your taxes.ĭecide if you should use a professional or do your own taxes These are just a few changes that have been made to business tax laws. Another change that affects small business owners is the start-up deduction has been reduced from $10,000 to $5,000. This change also effects people who self-employed. The payroll tax cut that was put in place back in 2011 has expired leading to a 2% increase in Social Security taxes meaning there is now a 6.2% Social Security Tax on the income of your employees. Remember that part of the deal that was made to fix the fiscal cliff were changes to our taxes, including for small businesses. Research the changes to this year’s tax season Forms for business owners and/or partners, 1040 forms, are available starting in January and need to be filed by April 15 th. If you are the small business owner, you will need to get the correct forms for you to file your personal taxes as Self-Employed. All forms need to be sent out to the correct person, state and local tax offices, and the Social Security Administration by January 31 st.

For regular employees, you will need to send out W-2 forms and for contractors you will need to send out 1099 forms. Getting the correct forms for your business’s taxes is important and must be sent out in a timely manner. If you do want electronic files, you can scan your other documents and then keep them in the same file with your QuickBooks report. You can print out these files to keep with the rest of your physical documents or keep them as electronic files.

Throughout the year, you should be using programs like QuickBooks bookkeeping software to help you keep expenses recorded and organized, which makes getting ready for tax season much easier. Gather all receipts, invoices, pay stubs, and previous tax returns and forms for this season’s taxes. If they aren’t, now is the time to get everything organized and filed. Prepping your small business’ taxes early can be a long drawn-out process but gathering and preparing everything early on ensures that you and your employees are taken care of completely before April 15 th.Īs a business, all of your records should already be organized. At the beginning of each year, businesses begin to look at what they spent the year before, gather up receipts, approve budgets for the year, and start to get ready to file their taxes.

Preparing taxes for small business