Bookkeeping specialist Coral Springs, FL for small businesses: The team also works to reduce your overall expenses. Not only do they ensure that books are maintained properly to avoid costly mistakes, fees, and penalties, but they can also help alert you to waste and mismanagement of supplies and inventory. All while saving you time since you will no longer need to try and perform these tasks yourself.
Personal Expenses (Deductions). You will receive Form 5498 for IRA and health savings accounts contributions from vendors and Form 1098 for home mortgage interest deductions. But you’ll have to collect most of the information documenting allowable deductions, such as business expenses, from other financial documents, such as check registers, canceled checks, bank statements, and credit card statements. Download and print summaries of the prior year’s transactions for each credit card, and review each transaction to determine whether it may be deductible. I use a marker to highlight the transactions that may affect my filing for easy identification later. You can use a similar culling process for canceled checks.
Bunch Your Charitable Contributions: In 2019, married couples filing jointly have a standard deduction of $24,400. For single taxpayers, the standard deduction is $12,200. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which nearly doubled the standard deduction, also eliminated miscellaneous deductions, capped state and local tax deductions at $10,000 and limited mortgage interest deductions to loans of up to $750,000. These changes can make it difficult to itemize deductions unless someone has significant charitable donations. Powell suggests people bunch two years of contributions into a single year, which would allow them to claim an itemized deduction every other year. For those with the financial means, setting up a donor-advised fund may be ideal. “You get the deduction in the year you move the money (into the fund),” Powell says. However, charitable gifts from the fund can be spread out over time.
Don’t make financial decisions based on potential tax breaks: The IRS offers a slew of tax credits and deductions that have the potential to reduce your tax liability. But if you’re spending money strictly for the tax break, you may end up losing money on the deal. For example, you can deduct charitable contributions you make throughout the year if you itemize your deductions and donate to qualified charitable organizations. But if you donate $1,000 solely to get a tax deduction, and don’t first ensure your contribution meets deduction requirements, you could be out $1,000 with no tax break to show for your donation. Discover extra details on Lauderhill bookkeepers.
What are my obligations as an employer? Upon being notified of a wage garnishment court order, an employer should immediately alert the employee to the situation in writing. Depending on the garnishment, there may be a form provided for this (i.e., Form 668 for a federal levy). An employer can also draft a letter detailing the specifics of the wage garnishment order, the amount to be taken from each payment, and the length of time the wages will be garnished. Concurrently, an employer should notify their HR and/or payroll departments so they can start the wage garnishment process and ensure that payments are sent to the appropriate agency or creditor (whether the employee wishes to comply or not). Taking these actions protects the business from any legal repercussions for failing to respond to the order.
Moving expense to take first job: Here’s an interesting dichotomy: Job-hunting expenses incurred while looking for your first job are not deductible, but moving expenses to get to that first job are. And you get this write-off even if you don’t itemize. If you moved more than 50 miles, you can deduct 23 cents per mile of the cost of getting yourself and your household goods to the new area, (plus parking fees and tolls) for driving your own vehicle. However, beginning in 2018, moving expenses are no longer deductible for federal taxes unless you are in the military and the move is due to military orders. Some states such as California continue to provide this tax benefit.
Learning QuickBooks fundamentals can be very challenging and requires training since it contains thousands of features to handle all types of industries and businesses. In order to fully comprehend the features, it would be advised that one not only understood the technical basics but had some experience in accounting and bookkeeping. Our accounting and bookkeeping firm has been using Quickbooks for clients for over 20 years. QuickBooks is one of the most comprehensive and widely used premier accounting software for small businesses. One of the most widely used versions of QuickBooks is QuickBooks Online which provides access for the accountant and the client at the same time. Find more info at Bookkeeping South Florida.