Affordable bookkeeping specialist Coral Springs, FL

Coral Springs bookkeeping specialist for small businesses: In the months or years since you first became a business owner, how many times have you been told you need bookkeeping services? If you’re like most business owners, the answer is probably, “A lot.” From the time you first opened your doors and collected your very first dollar, advisors, partners, and other well-meaning associates have undoubtedly weighed in and suggested a bookkeeping service to help keep your company’s books and finances on track.

Review Tax Filings From Previous Years: For most people, the changes from one tax year to the next are relatively slight. Previous tax returns are excellent reminders of areas you can easily overlook, such as interest or dividends, capital loss carry-forward balances, and infrequently used deductions. I keep paper copies as well as scanned copies of past years’ returns, in addition to four spreadsheets detailing my income and expenses for each year. One spreadsheet contains the information from Form 1040, while the others have previously filed data for Schedules A, C, and D. This allows me to quickly check whether I’ve overlooked an income or expense item, as well as the year-to-year changes in amounts. For example, if I received dividends from one security holding or interest from a particular bank in prior years, but the amount is missing or substantially changed for the current year, I know to check for the reason behind the omission, increase, or decrease before completing my tax filing.

Pick Up Capital Gains if You’re in a Low Tax Bracket: The end of the year is also a good time for some people to sell stocks that have appreciated significantly in value. This can be a particularly good strategy for those who are in the 10% and 12% tax brackets since their capital gains tax may be zero. The stocks can then be repurchased, which resets the basis and minimizes the amount of tax to be paid on future gains. Even if you’re not in the lowest tax brackets, you may want to sell winning stocks to reset the basis if you’re also harvesting losses. “What you want to do is balance (gains) with stocks that have losses,” Barlin says.

Decide how much tax you want withheld: If you received a big refund on your tax return last year, it may mean your employer is withholding too much tax from your paychecks. Decreasing those withholdings might “[give] you access to more of your money throughout the year to invest or pay down debt,” says Fraim, “assuming you have the discipline to actually save the funds.” If you’d rather have a bigger paycheck to work toward your financial goals, instead of that potentially big refund next year, meet with your payroll manager to review your withholding allowances on your W-4 form. Just be careful not to reduce your withholding by too much. Overly reducing your withholding may result in having too little tax withheld throughout the year, and could mean a big tax bill in April and potentially a penalty for failing to properly estimate your taxes as well. Find extra info 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.

Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit: A tax credit is so much better than a tax deduction—it reduces your tax bill dollar for dollar. So missing one is even more painful than missing a deduction that simply reduces the amount of income that’s subject to tax. But it’s easy to overlook the child and dependent care credit if you pay your child care bills through a reimbursement account at work. The law allows you to run up to $5,000 of such expenses through a tax-favored reimbursement account at work. Up to $6,000 in care expenses can qualify for the credit, but the $5,000 from a tax favored account can’t be used. So if you run the maximum $5,000 through a plan at work but spend more for work-related child care, you can claim the credit on up to an extra $1,000. That would cut your tax bill by at least $200 using the minimum 20 percent of the expenses. The credit percentage goes up for lower income households.

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. Discover more information on https://bookkeepinghelpcoralsprings.com/.