It goes without saying that you don’t want to mess with the IRS, but you also want to ensure you are taking every legal deduction you can. Here are few write-offs business owners and entrepreneurs sometimes forget:

• Home Office
• Office Supplies
• Furniture
• Mileage /Vehicle
• Software
• Subscriptions
• Equipment
• Travel
• Meals
• Entertainment
• Insurance
• Retirement Contributions
• Social Security
• Phone Charges
• Donations

Here are some other tips to survive the tax season. 

• Dedicate a specific day as tax day. If you need to close shop or get help to free your time, do it.
• If you find you’re overwhelmed by the amount of work to complete your small business tax return, you may want to consider a bookkeeper or accountant.
• If a sole proprietor, consider changing your business structure to take advantage of the tax benefits being an LLC or S. Corporation.
• Give yourself a little motivation to get started and reward yourself when your taxes are completed. A massage is always nice.
• Consider a bookkeeping system like Quicken or QuickBooks if you are not already using one. (I recommend QuickBooks)
• Know your Numbers. Accurate and thorough bookkeeping is necessary. It not only establishes fulfillment with a number of IRS regulations and bank lending rules, but also improves your ability to make operational decisions.

TODAY’S ACTION: 
Finish 2008 taxes and cross them off the list – with joy!

Tags: Angela Ploetz, Christa Wagner, Managing a business, Tax Tips, Taxes

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009 at 4:11 pm and is filed under Grow Your Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.