Well, tax season is a daunting time for both the taxpayers and accountants who help in preparing for the season. Everyone knows that when the clock strikes near January, then the tax preparation services are in the back of every business owner and salaryman’s mind. The overwhelming amount of paperwork, strict deadlines, an enormous number of rules and fear of not knowing how much you owe – is stressing taxpayers every second of the day.
It doesn’t matter how much preparation you have accomplished before the tax season – you are anyway going to be stressful. Especially if you are a CPA firm, then your level of stress is going to be gigantic as you have to prepare tax forms of your large clientele. So, tax season and stress are becoming synonyms of one another.
Folks, you are unnecessary stressing as Tax preparation services can become stress-free easily if you map out your tax process in advance. To make your tax journey hurdle free, you just have to be focused and prepared.
Preparation Tips for Stress-free Tax Season
Okay, so if you are losing your hair during the tax season, then take a chill pill and follow this route to make a relaxing tax time.
1. Keep Record of Deadlines
When you want to plan everything ahead of the time, then you need to maintain a record of all the important tax deadlines. Missing your tax deadlines can lead to heavy penalties and in some adverse cases punishment as well. So, for CPA firms, it is essential to have a record of all the tax filing deadlines so that they can file tax of their every client on time. The most important tax deadlines for 2020 are –
April 15, 2020 – Individuals and Corporations must file their 2019 taxes. The 6-month extension and first payment are also due on this day.
January 15, 2020 – For self-employed or individual with fourth-quarter income needs to pay quarterly generated tax postmarked by January 15, 2020 deadline. And, other quarterly tax deadlines are going to be on – June 15, 2020, September 15, 2020, and January 15, 2021.
2. Prepare your Books
Tax preparation is a continuous process that goes throughout the year. Accounting companies have to prepare records of their client’s business transactions all year so that they are ahead during tax season. But, if your client hasn’t contacted you soon, then you need to immediately sit together with your client and start recording every small business transaction to make tax preparation stress free.
It is a good time to reconcile bank and credit card statements to check the business bookkeeping flow. So, if you haven’t prepared books of your accounts yet, then do it before the rush time to stay stress-free.
3. Prepare Employees Data
For business organizations, it is recommended to prepare their employees’ data before the tax rush. Business owners need to send a w-2 form to their employees, however, any non-employee contractor that isn’t registered will need to work with form 1099. It is the duty of accountants to complete the company’s book with the updated information of employees so the company won’t have to reissue or correct the form. You need to also follow up if forms for tax season 2020 have been changed as withholding forms have been changed in 2019. So, keep your clients updated to ensure that they file the right employee form.
4. Review your Books
Once you have prepared your accounting books of your clients for the year, then you need to go through your clients’ books once again to ensure that you haven’t missed out on any supporting documents. It is an important part of tax preparation services to go over all the business expenses and deductions. CPAs can start reviewing process by looking at the gross income that can be tracked down with the help of sales and deposit receipts. Up next, overview all the purchased stock that had your clients resell to customers.
However, the most important thing to review is an expense account that includes bank details, credit card receipts, business purchases record and other miscellaneous expenses of the business that can be categorized as deductible. As per the business operations dealings, there are multiple other accounts that need to be revised before tax season like assets account, depreciation, a sales record, etc., And, don’t forget to review your employees’ tax records on the based of wages paid to them.
5. Outsourcing is a Way
If you are a small business CPA firm, then you have piles of tax compliances to follow this year for preparing tax returns of your clients, but you have limited resources to achieve them. Moreover, if you hire a professional tax expert during the rush season, then that’s going to make a huge hole in your bank account. So, small and medium-size CPA firms need to consider using the services of outsourced tax preparation company like CapActix and get their tax preparation done under the guidance of an expert without spending too much.
Outsourcing will bring more flexibility and scalability in the tax preparation process that will eventually reduce taxpayers’ burden.
6. Use Latest Technology
If you are using outsourced tax preparation services or appointing in house tax expert, you need to update your tax preparation software so that you can produce error fewer services. All the tax preparation work like bookkeeping, expense management, maintaining payroll records along with other millions of tax reports can be effectively maintained with the perfect tax software. It can simplify accountants’ life and prevents them from making expenses mistakes.
There are lots of tax preparation software available in the market today, but you should get the software that suits your company’s work style – the most. Having a correct tax preparation software can help your business in the long run and speed up your business operations.
#Tips of Tip – Plan Ahead
The best tax preparation tip that we can suggest to CPA firms – to plan everything ahead. If you have previous tax season stressful, then start planning for your upcoming tax season right way. Think about all the stuff that has stressed you this year and find solutions for all those stressful things in advance. Plus, if you made any mistake during the planning time, then you can easily rectify them before the full blow of the tax season.
When you want to stay stress-free during the crucial tax rush hour, then you have to consult the best outsourced tax preparation company – CapActix and stay stress-free. You can contact us on email – biz@capactix.com. or can call on +201-778-0509.