anyone ready for tax season to be OVER?! This girl is!!! Whew. Everyone dreads this time of the year and all of the small business owners are PRAYING that their estimated taxes and write-off’s will be enough to cover their return. Well, while I can’t promise to save you a TON of money on your taxes, I CAN share with you how we have saved ourselves some tax-prep time by making simple changes in our business. Taxes don’t have to be so scary and overwhelming! For years I just barely understood what the tax process was even though I’m DEFINITELY not a pro now,
I have a MUCH better understanding of what all goes into the tax process. Don’t be afraid to ask a ton of questions with you CPA…. that’s the only way we learn! So here we go!:
1. CREATE A SYSTEM FOR RECORDING AND ORGANIZING THE FOLLOWING:
2. HIRE A CPA THAT YOU CAN MEET WITH AND WHO SPECIALIZES IN SMALL BUSINESSES:
If you aren’t doing a great job with your bookkeeping, I would highly recommend investing in having your CPA do your monthly bookkeeping. It will save stress and you’ll LOVE tax time at the end of the year because everything will be recorded and ready to be filed! Well, you won’t LOVE it… but it won’t be painful!
3. COMMIT TO SAVE 1/4 OF ALL OF YOUR INCOME FOR YOUR ESTIMATED TAXES AND END OF THE YEAR RETURN:
If you taxes don’t exceed 1/4 of your income, you haven’t lost anything…. you just have a great savings account for your business!! This is REALLY important if you are having a GREAT year financially because your estimated taxes are not going to cover your return amount.
4. SUBMIT YOUR TAX INFORMATION EARLY:
If you send your tax information in early, you can be prepare for the damage while there is still time to make a large business expense. (We should have done this in 2013!!!). If you wait until the new year to find out where you stand with your taxes, the ONLY way to reduce what you owe is to put income into a SEP fund before April 15th… and you can’t touch that until retirement. Which leads me to my final point:
5. KNOW YOUR OPTIONS:
Talk to your financial advisor or CPA about your investment options. Every self employed individual can “put away” a certain percentage of their income every year into a SEP fund. There are other options as well. So for example, if you saved 1/4th of your income for your taxes but only used a portion of that money, you could place the remaining balance in a SEP account and reduce what you owe significantly.
A year ago, we promised to find a solution for those who were complaining about their R6 raw files looking dull and lifeless in Lightroom. However, due to various circumstances, we couldn’t deliver on that promise until now.
Kelly is an incredible wedding photographer who has been shooting 90 weddings a year. I know, it sounds unbelievable, but it’s true! Kelly’s success and the volume of work she handles is truly impressive.
Your sessions should be working FOR you not against you!