Question
I have a small home-based business (auctions only) and I have some questions about filing taxes this year.
I am a single member LLC in Georgia and began operating in July 2003. In the past few years we used turbo-tax for the web to file our personal taxes (married filing
jointly). We'd like to use this service again, but we're not sure if it will be too dificult to file our business taxes at the same time.
We were really slow to get started and didn't make much money (just a few thousand bucks), however we did invest in stock and equipment. We'd like to also be
able to depreciate the portion of our home used for our home office.
Any suggestions? Should we try this ourselves or should we look for a CPA (or similar financial type) to file for us? If we need to have someone help us, can we go
ahead and file our personal taxes and just have them file our business taxes?
Thanks in advance!
~Kallie~
My number is 3876!
babysoup.com .... Coming Spring 2004
Baby Soup Ribbons and More
Answer
Once you start making a lot, switch over to a S-corp and pay yourself 30 a year and the other 60 in dividends, saves you a lot on taxes.
I pay a guy 400 to do my taxes, well worth it.
Answer
I file as a Sole Proprietorship (Schedule C) with our personal taxes. I use Turbo Tax Premier Home and Business and it walks me right through everything including what I'm allowed in home useage deductions, equipment, etc. You probably will still want to get some of the Business related tax publications to glance through. You can order them on-line at www.irs.gov. I usually get Publication 334, 533, 583, 535 529, 544, 17, 550 553, 587. You won't really need all of these but I just like to keep up on changes, etc. A lot of the information you will find is not relavant to your particular situation and can just be skimmed over. Business Wise in addition to Schedule C, I file Form 8829 (Expenses for Business Use of Your Home) and form 4562 for "listed property" - Computer, digital camera, large amount office equipment, etc.
There was a lady that did our taxes for several years until she became too ill and I had worked so closely with her on them during that time that I felt comfortable (with the aid of Turbo Tax) to do them myself. It was nice having a model of past experience to go by to feel that I could it with the help of TT.
Hope this helps.
Laura B
Answer
We're going to try to file for ourselves. I really don't anticipate it being tht difficult since we don't have to mess with all the other tax issues revolving around retirement, savings, etc.
Like you, we've used turbo tax for the web for the past 5 years and I think that we will continue on with them. I'm going to try to use the "Premier Home & Business" product. Plus, they have all of our information already in their system, so doing our personal taxes is really easy.
Thanks for all the advice and suggestions. I'm so pleased to have a resource like y'all. Thanks again!!!
~Kallie~
My number is 3876!
babysoup.com .... Coming Spring 2004
Baby Soup Ribbons and More