Author Archives: kristynhill

Today is income tax deadline day. Tax Day April 18th, 2016. The last day to file your taxes, if you have not already filed a tax extension. If your business is seeking business tax or business accounting solutions, our experienced professionals can provide you with the expertise you are looking for. Visit us today at www.businesstaxpreparation.com to learn more about our full range of business tax and accounting services. Contact us by email at info@businesstaxpreparation.com or by phone at (866) 676-9417 to receive a free, no obligation consultation.

Tax Breaks Slide in Under the Wire! With less than two weeks to go in 2015, Congress gave both business owners and individual taxpayers a wonderful holiday surprise by passing an important piece of tax legislations. The PATH (Protecting Americans from Tax Hikes) Act, which was signed into law on December 18th, reinstated many important tax breaks that had expired at the end of 2014, making them retroactive to the first of the year.  It extended some of the provisions of the original tax extenders legislation for periods of one to several years while making others permanent. In addition, it … Click to Read More

Make Use of the Research and Development Tax Credit While big corporations like Boeing, Mattel, Caterpillar and Google are saving millions of dollars through the use of Research and Development tax credits, it is a tax saving opportunity that is often overlooked and underused by smaller businesses. In fact, research has shown that only about 5% of small and medium sized companies that are eligible for this tax advantage actually make use of it. What many of these companies fail to realize is that the Research and Development tax credit covers a broad range of improvements including making changes to … Click to Read More

Business Tax Extension Deadline on the Horizon With the business income tax extension deadline just around the corner, it is a good time to examine the issue of business tax compliance and its importance to the successful functioning of business entities of all types. Although the upcoming extension deadline applies specifically to income tax, businesses are responsible for paying numerous other types of taxes in addition to those based directly on taxable business income. Each of these, including sales, excise, payroll and international taxes, has their own reporting deadlines and filing requirements, making the job of business tax compliance both complex and demanding. Because of the … Click to Read More

New Bill Changes Important Business Tax Deadlines Business owners take note! A short term extension of the Highway and Transportation Funding Act, which was signed in to law by President Obama on July 31st, includes some important changes to business tax deadlines. Although the main focus of the bill was extending the use of funds earmarked for infrastructure and transportation which were scheduled to expire on August 7th, it also contained some important add-on provisions. In addition to extending the use of transportation funds through October 29th of this year, the new legislation modified certain mortgage and cost-basis reporting requirements … Click to Read More

The Best Vehicle Expense Method Choosing the Best Vehicle Expense Method: Businesses generally have the option of choosing between one of two methods for documenting vehicle expenses and reporting them on their tax return. With the actual expense method, the business documents and reports all of a vehicle’s operating expenses including gas, oil, scheduled maintenance and repair.  In contrast, the standard mileage method involves deducting a set mileage amount for each mile a vehicle is driven. Although there are some restrictions on the use of the standard mileage method, most businesses have the option of selecting whichever vehicle expense method provides … Click to Read More

International Data Exchange Service Bolsters FATCA The International Data Exchange Service (IDES) is an electronic delivery system that allows both financial institutions and tax authorities in host countries to exchange FATCA data with the Internal Revenue Service. If predictions hold true, this new data exchange system, which went into effect in January of this year, will greatly enhance the effectiveness of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA). According to IRS Commissioner John Koskinen, the International Data Exchange Service is a “milestone in the implementation of FATCA.” Koskinen maintains that increasing the ability of the IRS to detect hidden foreign assets will not only increase foreign tax … Click to Read More

Small Business Tax Deductions Being a small business owner has its challenges and rewards. Business tax deductions can be both. While many tax deductions are available to small businesses, it requires both knowledge and commitment on the part of the business owner or a business tax professional to keep up with what deductions are available and apply them to their maximum advantage. To do otherwise, automatically means that the business will be paying a larger tax bill than they would otherwise need to pay. Some of the common business tax deductions are discussed below. Office Supplies – The purchase of … Click to Read More

Cadillac Tax on the Horizon Beginning in 2018, employers who offer their employees health insurance coverage that costs in excess of a certain dollar amount will be required to pay a 40% tax on the costs associated with providing the plans. Currently there is no ceiling on the tax deductible amount employers can claim for providing health insurance for their employees. This will continue up until January 1, 2018 when the new tax is instituted. This proposed tax is appropriately named the “Cadillac tax” because it targets only high end policies, individual plans that cost more than $10,200 per year … Click to Read More

TurboTax and Tax Fraud In The News We are only few weeks into tax season and, already, there are more tax fraud stories to report.  Although the details remain cloudy, it seems that TurboTax had a security breach a few weeks back, causing the FBI to launch an investigation. Intuit insists that data was stolen from its TurboTax software system by groups on the outside, comparing it to other large company breaches that have recently been in the news. Whatever the cause, the IRS is taking it seriously just as they have other “questionable refund investigations” and identity theft issues … Click to Read More