O.K., I lied. Two weeks ago, when I did the first part of this discussion, I said that I’d post part 2 the following week. I’m a week late, but I’ve had other things on my mind, like tax season, and keeping my clients happy. I think I have a good excuse.
Anyhow, if you recall, a couple of weeks ago, I started talking about ways that small business owners can get themselves into hot water, and how to avoid it. The following are a few more things…
1-Filing tax returns late: When tax returns are filed late, penalties and interest will be computed on any tax due. This is applicable for payroll tax returns, sales tax, income tax, pretty much any tax that can be levied. Don’t be under the wrong idea that filing an extension for any tax return will keep you safe. An extension only gives you more time to file the return itself; it’s not an extension of time to pay any tax. The late filing penalty will cost you 4 ½% per month, late payment is ½% per month, and interest is 3%. Additionally, pass-through entities (S corporations, partnerships, LLCs), while paying no tax of their own, can be assessed a penalty of $195 for each late filed K-1.
“DOH!” Just take care of filing all of your tax returns on time, and you can avoid all of these charges. It’s so easy!
2- Penalties: While I’m discussing the above, let me tell you about other penalties that you can owe, when you deviate from the straight and narrow. To name a few-failure to deposit taxes, negligence, substantial understatement, accuracy related, failure to have JayTheCPA prepare your return…April Fool’s, just kidding about the last one!
“DOH!” The point I do want to make here is that you really don’t want to mess around with tax preparation, or fall behind in tax filings. The additional charges can add up really quickly, and all of them are completely avoidable, by taking care of things timely.
3-Home office deduction: Over the years I’ve had many clients tell me that they don’t want to claim a home office deduction for their business, because they think it’s a red flag for an audit. It’s not necessarily a red flag but the rules for claiming a home office deduction are specific, in particular the rule that the area in your house/apartment must be used “regularly and exclusively” for business. What this means is that if you’ve got a desk set up in the den, which your family also uses to watch TV, or you work at the dining room table, where the family also takes meals and entertains, that’s not regular and exclusive use.
“DOH!” If your work space fits into IRS’s requirements, not only will your home office deduction save you on income tax, but it’ll save you on self-employment tax too, which is currently about 13 percent. It’s a completely legitimate deduction that should be taken, when applicable.
4-Not using a CPA: It’s my blog, and I’m allowed just a little bit of self-promotion, right? Let me start this with a statement; I don’t know much about I.T., printing, banking, law, or medicine. Or lots of other things, for that matter. I’m not qualified to do any of those. How about you; what qualifies you to be a bookkeeper/accountant/CPA/tax preparer? Probably not much, which is why you should have a CPA as part of your professional team.
“DOH!” You can pay a CPA more later, to clean up the mess that you made with your taxes or your books, or you can pay less now to have a qualified bookkeeper help you with the books, and a CPA help you with the returns. You can try to use Google to research things yourself, but do you really have the time? Can you keep up to date with tax laws? Kids, don’t try this at home!
I hope you’ve found this and the prior installment of “DOH!” moments helpful. Please pass this information along to somebody who might benefit by these sage words of wisdom, so you don’t wind up looking like this little guy, after you’ve been spanked by IRS with penalties!
Jay E. Reiner, CPA 