blog

  • Hiring A Family Member? How It Might Benefit You Both

    Hiring family members to help with your small business can be a way to draw everyone together with a common goal or get your kids a more solid start in their working life. But it may also be fraught with challenge when it comes to following the legal and tax requirements.  To help you find your way through this special employee process, here are the basic tax consequences of hiring your child, your parent, and your spouse.
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  • 3 Steps To Take In Your 30s To Protect Your Financial Future

    Being able to take care of yourself after you retire starts by making smart financial decisions in your 30s. During your 30s, there are various financial goals that you should aim to meet that will put you on a path towards a positive financial future. #1 Develop an Emergency Savings Ideally, in your 20s, you built up a small emergency savings that cover at least one-month worth of expenses, and ideally, up to three months' worth of expenses.
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  • 5 Basic Income Tax Forms That Affect Your Reporting and Tax Bill

    Tax forms are confusing for most Americans who must deal with them. But understanding the basics of your personal income tax return will help you ensure an accurate filing and the lowest tax bill.  To help you get started, here are the five most common tax forms that affect your tax bill in the largest ways. 1. Form 1040 This is your annual personal income tax return. It comes in three varieties based on how many forms of income or credits you report.
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  • 4 Tips For Getting Your Small Business Accounting On Track

    Being the owner of a small business can be a full-time job. You're sure to have some tasks that must be completed and days full of work that must get done. However, there is one thing you shouldn't neglect, and that is the accounting aspect of your business. The records you keep is the key to knowing the amount of profits you make or the losses you may have. Knowing some specific tips that can help you stay on the right accounting track are ideal.
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  • Tips for Keeping Your Accounting Costs as Low as Possible

    If you are a small business owner, you likely have a lot of expenses already. You need to make sure that you are paying people to keep your store open, you might be paying for a website, you are likely paying vendors, and you must pay for insurance. One item that you don't want to deal with is paying for accounting. Here are some tips for keeping your accounting costs as low as possible so that you can spend your money on more important things, such as expanding the line of products that your business sells.
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  • When It's a Good Idea to Hire an Accountant to Do Your Taxes

    If you're like a lot of people, you hate doing your taxes. You may even put it off until the last minute and then spend all day calculating and worrying if you're doing things right. The solution to this problem is to hire an accountant to do your taxes for you. However, hiring an accountant might cost a couple of hundred dollars depending on how complicated your taxes are. Here are some times when it's probably worth the expense to hire a professional.
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  • How An Online Accounting Program Can Help With Your Financial Situation

    Trying to keep up with your finances can be a bit daunting unless all transactions are through, to, and from one bank account. When you add credit cards, cash, a line of credit, a mortgage, and other ways cash comes and goes, things get left out or forgotten. This is where using an online accounting program comes in handy. Here are just a few ways using the online financial program can help you set up and stick to your budget.
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  • Five Questions To Ask Yourself When Deciding Whether To File Jointly Or Not

    Whether you file jointly or separately, filing for taxes means a lot of paperwork and maybe a few headaches along the way, so you'll want to make sure you get the most out of it. One way to do this is to calculate whether you'll get a higher tax return with a joint filing or two independent filings. Here are some questions to ask yourselves when deciding which is the best way to go this year.
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  • Taxpayers Shouldn't Make A Frivolous Return Filing Situation Worse

    Taxpayers who choose to file frivolous income tax returns often do so without realizing the severity of their actions. Those who receive a frivolous tax return letter in the mail should speak with a tax professional to straighten out the matter to avoid a disastrous situation from playing out. The Warning Letter Anyone who files a frivolous tax return, a return that contains blatantly false assertions or egregious omissions designed to prevent the collection of taxes may receive a letter in the mail stating the return is being rejected and a proper return must be filed instead.
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  • Deciding If A Hiring A Payroll Service Makes Sense For Your Business

    If you are in the process of starting your own small business, and you intend on hiring employees to help you perform the daily tasks needed to make a profit, you may have contemplated hiring a payroll service to help with the monetary side in keeping your staff paid correctly. Here is some general information on how a payroll service from a firm like Schramm & Lewis LLC works to help you determine if using one would be beneficial in your own business endeavors.
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