Get a GOOD Tax Professional

by jenn
(new Mexico)

The one thing that was the worst for me my first year was the fact that I was responsible for all of these taxes!

My background is in marketing and management and ideas, not in numbers and figures and tax payments.

Learn from my start-up experience, seek out small business tax help as soon as possible.

I was doing really well.

I was getting steady business, and as it started to grow.

I hired a part-time employee, who became full-time, and then I started thinking that I wanted to expand the business, and then my husband lost his job, so then health insurance and a retirement plan came to the forefront.

We knew we needed small business tax help, so we hired a tax professional.

We paid a lot of money to meet with a tax professional, who guided us through the process of incorporating as a business, and a retirement plan and gave us some leads on health insurance.

He neglected to ask us about employees, and we neglected to inform him that we had two full-time employees (besides me, the owner) and two part-time ones.

And then it happened...we got socked with a HUGE tax bill!

We had not withheld taxes from the employee paychecks, and as they were not hired as contractors, we were responsible for making that up.

1. We had also neglected to make the appropriate amount of quarterly tax payments,
   
   
2. We neglected to make timely deductions on business expenses,
   
   
3. And, so we lost some tax deductions AND had to make up several thousand dollars in tax payments that were supposed to go toward upgrading our business.

Though we sought small business tax help, it was not enough.

My recommendation is to make sure you get a tax expert who knows a LOT about start-up businesses, and will think to ask questions about employee withholdings- make sure he or she has done this before.

Also, it is worth it to invest in software that will calculate how much to withhold from employee paychecks and the amount of various taxes to be owed.

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We were lucky we had the money available, but we had to put off some much-needed upgrades for over a year.

Now, we make sure to estimate our tax payments and expenses and put that aside from our gross profits, and if we have any money leftover, we leave it in an emergency fund for those times when we need money for taxes, etc., or save it for upgrades, bonuses, etc., as needed.

We have also reported the tax professional to the Better Business Bureau and found a new one, who has the experience and expertise we need.

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Make the start-up process easier on yourself by getting small business tax help from a professional who understands the needs of your newly formed business.

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