You Need These Small Business Tax Planning Tips | Two Roads

You Need These Small Business Tax Planning Tips

For some business owners, it's been tax season since early January. You've been in the process of getting and correcting information with your bookkeeper and making sure everything is properly accounted for. You've already got everything into your CPA, and they are making progress on reviewing your books for 2021 and figuring out exactly how much you owe the IRS or how much the IRS owes you.

Some business owners have their small business tax planning covered...but others? Not so much.

Maybe you're new to small business tax planning, or you simply fell behind this year. Either way, we're here to help.

(If you're still in the process of compiling bank statements, reviewing your payroll, and cleaning up your books so your accountant can make sense of them then, you may also want to consider filing an extension on your tax return and sending it before October 15th instead of April 15th. You'll buy yourself and your CPA time to make sure it's all correct)

Small Business Tax Planning Tips

But if you've just started on your taxes and you are planning on filing by April 15th, you may find these small business tax planning blog posts below helpful.

Post-Year-End Tax Minimization Strategies & Tips

In this post, we cover several last-minute tax tips that can still save you a little bit of money in April. Don't miss the entire post, but in the meantime, here's a helpful small business tax planning tip to start you off:

"Do you want to give to charity but are tight on cash? Consider giving stock instead. Actually, consider giving stock even if you have the cash. This could help you give more while paying less, depending on the circumstances. Keep in touch with them throughout the year to stay updated and ensure your plans work for your benefit. This is much more effective at reducing your tax liability than chasing down receipts in January."

We also have another post packed full of tax decrease strategies for small business owners. It includes these three essential bookkeeping tips that help set you up for success:

  1. Keep your business funds separate.
  2. Create systems to easily track the details of your spending and earnings on the go.
  3. Every month pull all of those details together, reconciling them to your financial institutions and creditors.

(If you love these small business tax planning tips, here's another post you don't want to miss next: Small Business Tax Help: Getting Your Business Through Tax Season)

Get Your Payroll in Tip-Top Shape

Do you handle the payroll for your business on your own? This is a commendable feat, but it's one you need to be absolutely sure is in tip-top shape. To do so, you can start by making sure you're not making these common payroll mistakes many businesses make when they're going it alone.

We talk about those mistakes in this post, including:

  • Overpaying or underpaying employees
  • Incorrectly paying employees who are on disability, maternity, or other leaves
  • Making erroneous retroactive payments
  • Missing the first paycheck for new employees
  • Deducting an incorrect amount for employee benefits or other payroll deductions

(Here's another post we think you'll find helpful: 4 Really Good Tips For Effective Invoicing for Small Businesses)

IRS Documentation

In this post, we also talk about several important IRS documentation considerations when it comes to small business tax planning.

We break down the documents you need to keep into six groups:

  1. Gross receipts
  2. Purchases
  3. Expenses
  4. Travel, Transportation, Entertainment, and Gift Expenses
  5. Assets
  6. Employment Taxes
This information helps ensure once you do start on your taxes, you have all of the necessary documentation it takes to ensure compliance.

(Looking for more financial record-keeping tips? Head here next: From Shoebox to Success: How to Update Your Business Financial Records)

Another surefire way to be sure tax time isn't a nightmare each year is enlisting professional bookkeeping services. If you'd like to learn more about what Two Roads can do for you, click here to book a call today.

Did you learn a lot about small business tax planning in this post? Here are three more posts to read next:

This post was first published in 2014, but it was updated in 2022 just for you.