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| *Ostroff, Fair and Company>>>Small Business |
How hard is it to do your own business taxes and accounting? |
Is it easier now with the different softwares for it or is an accountant still a must-have? Also, when starting up, can an accountant be omitted from the calculations to cut costs and just be added in later when the business makes enough to make it affordable? Do the sales taxes on your own. They are easy. For the income taxes, I would definitely hire an accountant from day one. We didn't hire an accountant until our second or third year in business and ended up paying a LOT more in taxes those first couple of years because we didn't know what we were doing. Yes, an accountant is expensive, but well worth the money. Also, I've always heard that you are less likely to be audited if an accountant does your taxes rather than you doing them. Don't know how true that is, but I've heard it a lot. I would still recommend some sort of financial software to track your income and expenses. Basically, at the end of the year, your accountant will want a Profit & Loss statement and a list of all your expenses broken down by category (i.e. Advertising, Office Supplies, etc...). Also, they will want a list of all of your equipment (I think it's anything over $1000 - but I could be wrong here) so they can depreciate the value of the equipment and use that depreciation to lower the amount of taxes you owe. If you track your income and expenses on some sort of software (i.e. Quickbooks), you can easily print out a P&L statement. You could cut out the accountant on the front end to save money -- that's exactly what we did. But, what we found out later is that it actually ended up costing us money to not hire her from the start. I would recommend getting one from day one. Hope this helps ... depends on how busy you are and if you feel comfortable with the rules of engagement http://www.inlandrevenue.biz/ Depends on your turnover - how much paperwork you need. 1 - For a part-time sideline you can do your own and submit a profit & loss account with your Income Tax form. I find it better to pay $100 AUD to an Accountant, or Tax Agent, to do first time. Next time you can do it yourself if you feel confident. 2 - If you have to declare Sales Tax it is better to pay a book keeper. It may cost a bit more, but it takes the worry off your shoulders and lets you concentrate on production and marketing. You can easily recover the costs by extra sales from your concentrated efforts. 3 - If you want to discuss the matter in more depth you can contact us through our website www.latviantourists.com.au (Australia) www.latviantourists.com.au - Open Book Club It really depneds on you and your business. If you are too busy runningthe business, the accounting and taxes don't get the full attention the need. There are big penalities and interest if you goof up or miss a deadline. If you have a simple business. Quickbooks makes it pretty easy. Are you detail oriented and good with math? If so, you might try it yourself. |
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