Small Business Tax Preparation: 7 Tax Mistakes to Avoid

Tax challenges are common among small business owners and it’s more than likely that one of your biggest pain points is filing your taxes. While it may only occur once per year, it requires substantial preparation.

At this point you may be asking yourself simple questions like “Should I do them myself?”, “What will cause the IRS to audit my small business?” or even “how can I save money filing my small business taxes?”

These are all questions the kind folks at Rocket Lawyer can answer for you, so whether you’re outsourcing your small business taxes or conquering them yourself everything goes according to plan.

Mistake #1: Keeping Poor Records

Disorganized bookkeeping can cause quite the headache when it comes to filing your small business taxes. Keep your records organized so you can properly deduct business-related expenses, manage inventory, prepare accurate financial statements for the IRS, maintain employee payrolls and most important limit the potential for costly legal issues. If you’re old-school and still find efficiency in color coding folders in filing cabinets, make sure you’re documenting everything by month and year. If you prefer digital, Quickbooks is highly regarding as the most effective accounting software for Small Business Owners. Pick your poison and stay organized.

How Can Customer Reviews Help Small Business?

Customer reviews are a valuable assessment when it comes to seeing how well your business is currently performing. Try not to consider a review as something that is going to give your business a bad name; a negative review from time to time can actually help your business improve its standards. Whether it’s online or in print form, reviews are going to happen, and inevitably, your business will be reviewed at some point too.

Rather than avoiding reviews like the plague, Guy Arnold, an employer expert, believes that a business should relish reviews and collect them. This is because reviews can be used as a sign post for any company looking to validate the product or service they’re trying to sell. For example, when somebody uses Amazon, they are likely to read the reviews section for advice on the product; for Arnold, this is what’s known as the ‘buying signal’ for potential customers.

Social media and Trip Advisor are both crucial when ensuring your reviews are positively recognised by the public. Generate greater interest in your business when someone Tweets about it by retweeting that tweet and liking it. By doing so, people who wouldn’t usually recognise your brand are being exposed to your good product or service. Trip Advisor is particularly good if you want your business recognised nationally or internationally if you include more than one language on your page. Keeping your profile up to date, with your most recent picture included, is a good way of appealing to new customers on a regular basis.

5 Tips for Business Owners Applying for a First Mortgage

Business owners face a number of challenges when applying for their first mortgage. They lack the clear process of income verification that many employers provide, and they don’t have the same consistent income someone with a job does. Underwriting processes often penalize small business owners for that very reason with higher interest rates while other institutions simply say no to their business. Here are five tips for business owners applying for a first mortgage.

1. Disclose Everything

If you are an employee of a company and own a stake in it as an original founder, you need to disclose this when applying for a mortgage. You should know your ownership stake in the business. If you own a quarter or more of the company, you will need to file a corporate tax return as part of your mortgage income. The profits and losses of the company could affect your mortgage application, but failing to disclose this information (which lenders can easily find out) risks lenders tossing out the application.