Small Business Taxes: 5 Tax Myths That are Costing You a Bundle
Now, if you’re paying taxes so upset, what have you done lately about it? Why was your tax return so high last year?
You pay too much tax last year (and the previous year and the year before …) Because they had probably been an innocent victim of many myths about taxes.
Here they are. Dispose of them or you will be stuck paying too much tax forever.
Fiscal Myth # 1: “Do not make enough money to worry about reducing my taxes.”
Nothing could be further from the truth. People at all income levels can pay less tax.
The tax reduction strategies are not just for the rich and famous. No matter how much money you make, you can pay less tax you pay now.
In fact, if your company is a loss, you can use to offset the loss from other sources, such as salaries of regular employment, the salary of the spouse, the investment income, rental income, and other business income .
And if the loss of their business is so great that more than compensates for all other income, you can take advantage of a special rule that allows you to: a) Bring back the excess loss for the previous two years, which entitled to a refund of taxes already paid for either (or both) of the previous two years and / or b) Carry forward the excess loss for the next 20 years to come, so that any income you earn in the future will be reduced by the excess of loss.
Fiscal Myth # 2: “Strategies for reducing taxes are too complicated for me to use.”
Once again, Hogwash. There are many ways for you, the average American, to reduce their taxes.
Tax reduction is not just for the rich who pay high prices for lawyers finagle their way out of paying taxes with sophisticated tax evasion, such as offshore trusts and bank accounts abroad.
The average small business owner has a lot of tax reduction strategies at their disposal. You just have to know what they are and how to use them.
Fiscal Myth # 3: “I had my return prepared by an accountant, so I know I have paid the correct amount of taxes.”
There are thousands of excellent, hard-working accountants doing a great job. And if you use a tax professional, maybe he or she has done everything possible to reduce their taxes to the legal minimum.
Based on my experience, however, I am convinced that many taxpayers who use professional tax preparers are overpaying their taxes, sometimes by thousands of dollars each year.
Why is that? Well, there are many reasons. The most obvious is this: Many professional tax preparers are just that: tax preparers and tax preparers only.
A good tax accountant can know how to prepare a tax return in your sleep. He knows the forms back and forth. He knows what the numbers are so perfectly.
But that’s all. That’s all I know.
A good tax preparer is not necessarily well in strategies to reduce taxes. There is a big difference between a good tax preparer and an expert on tax reduction specialist.
When you look for a good accountant, make sure to find one that not only “to return”, sending a bill and say “Next, please.”
Fiscal Myth # 4: “My tax situation is good because my BLANK (fill in the blank with a family member or friend) is responsible for my taxes.”
There are several versions of this myth. Do any of these sound familiar?
“My brother takes care of my taxes.” “My uncle is in charge of my taxes.” “My college friend is in charge of my taxes.”
And, of course, the same problem exists as Myth # 4 Myth # 3. Even when someone you know and trust that his return, how do you know who this person is a specialist in tax cuts?
And often, many of these relatives or friends are not even professional tax preparers. This person happens to be “The Family of Accounting.” Like every family has someone who knows a lot about cars (or mutual funds, or carpet cleaning, or whatever), many families have someone who “knows enough to be dangerous” with respect to taxes .
And even if its “Family Timer” is a tax preparer, you probably do not charge you to return. He’s doing a favor. Prepares your return, change your oil.
My first reaction to this type of situation (when someone is making its return prepared for free) is this: You get what you pay for. When a family member is free to return, how much you can give attention to their need for strategies to reduce taxes? Probably very little.
Fiscal Myth # 5: “My tax situation is good, because I prepare my own return.”
If this statement applies to you, then perhaps you are a do-it-yourself-er. ” Money is scarce and that are used to doing things you anyway, so why not save a few dollars each year and do their own returns?
So you have to spend countless hours over the years to pour into the forms and instructions, trying to figure out how to make repayments. And you’ve done OK. No letters from the IRS, no audits. Hey, pat yourself on the back!
And now that the tax preparation software is so easily available and affordable, making his own return is a breeze. Only a few key issues here and there, press the print button, and presto, you have your return done in record time. And now you can even e-file your return to your own computer.
Have you ever heard of the book, “The Millionaire Next Door” (by Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko)?
This book describes the common characteristics of millionaires in our country. My favorite feature millionaire is as follows:
Become millionaires millionaires to minimize their taxes and make their tax and other financial matters in order.
Now comes the million dollar question: How do you think millionaires get their tax affairs in order? By making your own tax return? Of course not. Millionaires do not prepare their own tax returns. They have more productive things to do with their time.
Instead, millionaires do is spend time and money each year in tax planning and strategies for reducing taxes, not the number that you find online form XYZ.
So my challenge to you is this: What are you going to do this year to reduce its tax base?
Are you a believer in any of these myths? Now is the time to get rid of them once and for all. Your financial well-being depends on it.