Like sand through the hourglass, so go the days until April 15… Are you ready for tax day?
Filing small business taxes sounds pretty simple. Just enter the number for your income, the number for your expenses, and boom, you’re all done! But the reality is just not that easy. When you get down to work, there are a zillion details within those two categories to worry about.
Under the income category, you have not just regular payments from clients, but you also have to address any refunds, returns or exchanges, and even interest on bank accounts. Do you allow people to barter with you in exchange for services? That’s something you need to account for – doing business “off the books” or “under the table” is a huge liability, and it’s way better to be on the side of the law for this. Getting audited by the IRS is a time-consuming, stressful nightmare all business owners should do their best to avoid.
Under the expenses category is where things can get really thorny. To properly protect yourself in case of an audit, you need to have ALL the receipts for all your expenses. There’s rent or square footage of your home that is used by your business, utilities, supplies, contractors or consultants, travel and transportation, advertising and marketing, insurance, legal fees, and more.
What a headache! It’s a lot to sort out, and if you’re not vigilant or if you don’t have excellent records, it’s easy to make mistakes that could literally cost you and your business.
How can you avoid the stress and accounting mistakes? Unlike filing your taxes, the answer really IS simple: Delegate.
You can hand over most basic accounting responsibilities to a virtual assistant. A good VA will be happy to perform daily bookkeeping tasks including accounts payable and receivable. You can even give her this chore on a monthly basis to make quarterly or annual tax filing a snap. She can handle invoicing, paying bills, and running payroll. She can make sure your books are ready for your accountant to review for tax purposes. She can even find a tax accountant if you need one.
Take a deep breath. Give yourself permission to avoid stress and eliminate costly errors. Send this work off to a VA and get the tax help you need this season.
To talk more about how a virtual assistant can help with your taxes, contact me today!
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