We’re smack dab in the middle of tax season, and I am done. I spent a couple of Saturdays gathering all of my bank statements and other documents, making post-closing general journal entries, and printing out financial statements to deliver to my C.P.A. for both our corporate and personal income tax returns. As my Canadian father would say, my books are now tickety-boo (translation: in perfect working order).
While I certainly don’t enjoy writing checks to the I.R.S., I have to admit that tax season offers an opportunity to take care of tasks that I’ve been putting off for the last 12 months. I keep my books fairly current throughout the year by downloading statements directly from my bank accounts into QuickBooks, but I always uncover some odd, creeping errors that need to be fixed at the end of the year.
I also seem to learn something new with each passing tax season. Our firm is structured as an L.L.C., and my husband and I are the only two members. As such, owners’ health insurance and medical expenses are not deductible business expenses. I swore at the beginning of 2009 that I was going to switch our high-deductible health insurance plan to one that qualified for a Health Savings Account. Like so many other administrative tasks, that one sat on the back burner and never got done.
As luck would have it, 2009 happened to be the year that my husband needed surgery to repair his eardrum. Poof! There went more than $3,000 in out-of-pocket medical expenses that could have been paid using pretax dollars set aside in an H.S.A. Ugh! At least our new plan is set up and in effect for 2010, so I won’t be making that mistake again.
I’m always quick to point out triggers for the sale of a business here at Transaction, and taxes are one of them. Business brokers typically see a spike in new engagements right after tax season. Yet tax season also seems to be the business equivalent of spring-cleaning, which isn’t entirely a bad thing.
Is there anything you like about tax season? Did you discover any new tax-saving strategies in 2009?
The author: Barbara Taylor is co-owner of a business brokerage, Synergy Business Services, in Bentonville, Ark. Here is her guide to selling a business.
Source: boss.blogs.nytimes.com.
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