Top 21 Tips For Companies In Tax Season 2013

Top 21 Tips For Companies In Tax Season 2013

Tax season is here and its important that you and your business are prepared well before the deadlines. We wrangled the Accounting Troops and asked our small business accountants that they provision us with some useful tax filing tips to lock on you get the best return possible.

General Tips:
- Always itemize your deductions if you exceed the standard deduction doorway.
- Review the tax documents you gave to your tax preparer last year to cinch annihilation is mislaid from your current year documents.
- Inform your tax preparer of major changes from last year that may affect your tax return. Changes cover moving, new dependent, marriage / divorce, new job etc.

Refund / Balance Due Advice:
- Always educe to e - file and setup direct season for a quicker rebate.
- File early for a quicker rebate.
- Use Direct Abatement if you owe taxes. You can file your return at any time and the funds will not be withdrawn until April 15th.

Penalties:
- Always file on time regardless of your ability to pay tax liabilities. This will avoid the automatic lapse - to - file evenness.
- Be clear to settle your estimated taxes that are due for the current year in order to avoid estimated tax penalties.

Retirement:
- Contribute the maximum amount on your 401k to reduce your tax liability.
- Make contributions to a regular or Roth IRA by April 15th. The extreme limit to put in is $5, 000 ( $6, 000 if you are 50 or older ), and you must have earned income at primitive equal to the contribution. Regular IRA contributions are oftentimes tax - deductible, but withdrawals are taxable. Roth account contributions arent deductible, while withdrawals are recurrently tax - free. Income and other limits promote for both. Taxpayers stymied by the limits can do a backdoor Roth IRA: put up to $5, 000 ( $6, 000, 50 or older ) in a nondeductible regular IRA, and then convert it to a Roth account right away after. Income taxes are tailor-made on the conversion, but they will be inadequate over the account exertion have earned much.
- Filing an aggrandizement also provides self - assiduous taxpayers an else six - months ( until October 15th ) to specie a SEP - IRA or SIMPLE IRA.

Medical:
- Medical deductions need to exceed 7. 5 % of your adjusted whole-hog income to be deductible on Schedule A ( if you qualify ).
- Accommodate to health savings accounts. You may deduct up to $6, 250 per family ( $3, 100 single ) for a health savings account if you had an approved high - deductible health plan linked to the health - savings account. The contributions may be made until April 15th.

Real Estate:
- Recall to deduct your personal real estate taxes and mortgage affection on Timetable A.
- If you refinanced your mortgage, be real to properly deduct the points paid if any.
- Points paid when you refinance may be able to be amortized and deducted over the life of the loan.

Charitable Gifts:
- Employees who donate to charities via payroll deduction often forget to hold the donations on their personal tax returns. The number isnt on the W - 2 conformation, and often there is no letter from the charity.
- Donors may not deduct their labor or time, but they may deduct applicability or uniforms. For 2012 the allowance is 14 cents a mile. Board members or certain others may also deduct unreimbursed expenses for glom a conference.

Important Dates:
- Feb 28th: File information returns, including Forms 1098, 1099, W - 2G and scheme W - 3 with Copy A for payments made during 2012.
- Hike 15th: S Deportment tax returns and tax payments are due.
- Dwell upon April 15th is when Individual and Association tax returns and tax payments are due. Only tax returns can receive a six - month extension, not tax payments.

If you have any other tax related questions, we at Presti and Naegele are at your disposal.