8 Key Strategies for Business Owners to Minimize Year-End Tax Expenses

Taxes are crucial and compulsory financial elements of businesses. Business owners are liable to pay tax expenses on the revenues that they have generated from their business. However, the taxes can be a considerable sum. Hence, Business owners should make plans throughout the year to receive deductions and exemptions in order to minimize their outstanding tax expenses. Here, we have mentioned some key strategies which you can implement to save money on taxes:

Implement the Correct Business Tax Software

The most efficient way to stay on top of your business taxes is to adopt business accounting software. You can utilize numerous resources and platforms to make your tax filing process efficient way before the filing time. The tools provided within this software assist you in tracking everything related to your organization’s expenses, revenues, and taxes. This automates the complete process, allowing you to concentrate your focus on other essential things. You can also take the assistance of external companies offering CPA tax preparation services as these companies have the latest software and optimum knowledge on how to use them.

Monitor Deadlines in an Effective Manner

Make sure you stay updated regarding all the critical deadlines during the entire financial year. Regularly note all your tax deadlines, and don’t hesitate to create your own business deadlines. In addition, you can hold monthly or quarterly expense check-ins; just make sure to mark them on a calendar so you can recall them when the time arrives. Noting and organizing the important dates and deadlines can help you significantly during tax time.

Revise Your Retirement Plan

Providing additional perks can be an effective way to engage new employees. Many companies offer attractive additional bonuses to charm the employees. However, a beneficial retirement plan can work wonders. Hence, while preparing your taxes, make sure to pay attention to your retirement offerings. Small enterprises and businesses can enroll themselves for specially qualified retirement plans apart from 401(k) or IRA. Through the Simplified Employee Pension Plan (SEP) programs, you can put away up to 25% of your income (up to $54000).

The best thing about some SEP plans is that you can wait till the due date to contribute the funds, and you can also file an extension under which you can further wait till the extended due date, even if you have already taken a deduction on the return. Therefore, consider reviewing your retirement offerings and enrolling in programs other than the typical 401(k) and IRA.

Utilize Stacked up Savings

If you have additional cash available with you, putting a few extra dollars into your health savings account can significantly profit in the present as well as the future. Reason being that health saving accounts are coupled with high-deductible insurance plans. They provide great advantages. The amount which you devote is either pretax or tax-deductible. Also, it accumulates free of taxes.

Further, you can spend your funds on certain qualified medical expenses and avoid taxes on the withdrawal.  For 2021, the maximum amount that can be contributed to a HAS is $3600 for individual coverage or $7200 for family plans. In addition, account holders over the age of 55 or above can contribute an extra $1000.

List Charitable Contributions

Uniformly list your deductions and monitor your charitable contributions as they can come in handy in offsetting your income. However, if you are planning now to contribute, try to donate stock that has appreciated. This will boost the value of that tax deduction. What happens is that when you give an appreciated stock in donation, you can eventually avoid realizing capital gains and can still receive a deduction that is equal to the value of the stock. In addition, you can conduct a Qualified Charitable Distribution to the charity if you are considering procuring a Required Minimum Distribution from your IRA accounts. In this manner, you can meet the distribution requirement, and the distribution is also not realized as income.

Track Your Spending, and have Regular Budget Check-ins

Consistently track all the business spending during the year to ensure that all your tax expenses get listed when the tax expenses season arrives; otherwise, you can forget bills with significant amounts during the filing time. Keeping daily or weekly track of expenses assures that they will not get missed at the end of the year. If you monitor all your costs consistently during the year, you can easily recognize and leverage opportunities that you otherwise can’t act on after the year is over. In addition, keeping the books updated will make you realize how well you are doing that year.

For a few, it’s fine to conduct monthly expense check-ins. But for others, the right choice would be to monitor business expenses every week. Make a schedule to track your spending in a uniform manner. You can take the assistance of apps to track expenses. However, if you don’t keep a record of your tax expenses, you may be hit with fines at the later stages, or you may even miss a potential deduction when the time to file taxes arrives.

Check for Unused Inventory or Uncollected Debts

Running a business has its own risks. Sometimes items just don’t sell, or some debts may remain uncollected. While both situations have a negative impact on the business, both of them are deductible.  Your old inventory or inventory that cannot be sold any longer is a deductible expense. The reason being that inventory only comes under expenditure when it is sold; hence, you can get rid of the items that remained unsold and deduct the original amount which you paid.

Hire an Accountant or Business Tax Professional

If the taxation aspect of your business is confusing or overwhelming for you, or you require additional assistance regarding it, hiring an accountant or a tax professional can be a great decision. Tax professionals are incredibly knowledgeable and can help you with everything that is needed to be done. They can also assist in taking the required steps to maintain your accountability throughout the year in order to comply with smart and legal business tax practices. In addition, tax professionals can help you avoid any hidden fees or documents. You can also give away your complete taxation handling to external firms that offer tax preparation services.

A dollar saved is a dollar earned. Therefore, when there is the availability of various tax-saving provisions, it would be unwise not to make use of them. Implementing tax-saving practices can prove to be highly profitable in the long run.