Make Your Tax Simpler

As you run a business, you can make taxes simpler by following these principles:

1. Try to make purchases in bulk, rather than for small amounts. For example, if you get postage regularly, buy a significant amount, or get a metering machine.

2. Pay all your bills in a centralized place, such as in your accounting software, or on-line bill paying, so that at tax time, all your accounts are up to date.

3. Use an on-line service for paying employees so that all the required taxes and forms are filed for you, and also the information is automatically downloaded into your accounting system. For example, Paycycle is quite helpful.

4. Don’t worry about the small things for deductions; track your big expenses carefully and don’t spend hours on finding a penny here or there that will not impact your bottom line anyway.

There are also a few ways to use technology to make it easier to manage the accounting needed for paying taxes.

1. Use categories in Quicken/Quickbooks/Microsoft Money.

2. Use the options in those software packages that let you track tax expenses.

3. Keep track of investments/profit/loss/dividends in the same software.

4. Export your data to a Tax package such as Turbo Tax or Tax Cut, so that you can see how things look.

5. File your return electronically.