The days of the calendar year are vanishing quickly, but there still may be some last-minute strategies that business owners can use to lower their 2019 tax bills. Here are five to consider: Postpone invoices. If your business uses the cash method of accounting, and it would benefit from deferring income to next year, wait [...]
How to Clean Up QuickBooks for 2020 We know December is a busy month. However, take some time now to make sure QuickBooks is ready for 2020. Yes, it’s here again: the end of the year. You probably have a lengthy to-do list full of tasks that must be done before December 31. There’s one [...]
If you hold a business-related debt that’s become worthless or uncollectible, a “bad debt” deduction may allow you to cut your losses. But there are a few hoops to jump through. BUSINESS OR NON-BUSINESS? Business bad debts generate ordinary losses: non-business bad debts are reported as short-term capital losses. The latter can be used only [...]
Setting Up Sales Tax in QuickBooks, Part 2 Now that you have your sales taxes set up, you’ll be able to use them in transactions and reports. Last month, we talked about the process of setting up sales taxes in QuickBooks. To recap a bit, you first have to go to Edit | Preferences | [...]
Any business owner who’s acquired, constructed or substantially improved a building this year – or even in previous years – should read up on the tax benefits of a cost segregation study. Undertaking one may allow you to accelerate depreciation deductions, which reduce current taxes and boost cash flow. REAL VS. TANGIBLE IRS rules generally [...]
It’s common for owners of closely held businesses to transfer money into and out of the company. But it’s critical to make such transfers properly. If you don’t, you might hear from the IRS. WHY LOANS ARE BETTER When an owner withdraws funds from the company, the transfer can be characterized as compensation, a distribution [...]