It is often said that the only guarantees in life are death and taxes. Unfortunately, there is nothing we can currently do about death, but we can certainly try to make taxes a little less painful.

In a recent survey of small business owners, taxes came up as the #2 problem facing entrepreneurs. (It followed heath care costs). Obviously, you are in search of some tax help yourself, or you wouldn’t have selected this site. Well, I’m glad you did, because you came to the right place.

This site will provide:

• Some important resources to help solve some common tax problems facing small business owners.
• A few tax tips.
• Additional links where you can get insightful information from the pros.

IRS Index to online help topics

Tax Check List

IRS Pubs Online

State Tax Forms and Information

Small Business Taxes Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

The IRS produces many publications to help small business meet their tax obligations. You can find a cross reference of these publications by both subject and number in Publication 910, "Free Tax Services." Call 1-800-829-3676 for a copy.

When it comes to taxes, everyone has their own philosophy and advice. Below you will find some tips compiled from experts on the web. They should benefit almost any small business. But, as with any tax advice, be sure that you validate it with a tax professional. Congress frequently changes the tax law, and how affects you and your business will vary from year to year.

• Use a tax professional to file your returns. If however, you plan on doing it yourself, do not call the IRS. If you have a question that you can not answer yourself after reading the instructions, then you should not be filing your own return.
• Retirement plans offer one of the best tax breaks for businesses. You get a double benefit: you can deduct contributions to plans that will accumulate earnings tax-free until it is withdrawn.
• Putting family members (spouse, kids, parents) on the payroll will reduce your family’s overall tax liability. This technique is acceptable as long as your family does real work and are not overpaid.
• Consider establishing an employee stock ownership program. A properly funded ESOP can provide you with an inexpensive way to issue equity. A tax specialist can help you with the details.
• Business owners should reimburse employees for actual business expenses with before tax dollars, thus incurring a valid business deduction and providing employees with an actual dollar-for-dollar reimbursement.
• Use tax preparation software such as Turbo Tax for Business. Not only can software save you valuable time and money, it helps reduce your chances of getting audited by the IRS. According to the IRS, 27% of manually prepared returns contain math errors, versus less than one percent of returns done with software.

www.smbiz.com

This site must be added to your list of favorites. It provides weekly updates on changes in the tax law, business tax tips, and recent IRS rulings. It has a glossary of tax and business terms that is a treasure trove even for CPAs. Be sure to check out the ‘Small Business Links’ at the bottom of the page. It will direct you to information on the tax code specific to each state. Don’t worry if you missed some important information that came out last year. This site maintains an archive of its past issues in case you need to catch up!

www.intuit.com/turbotax/taxcenter/ttbill1.html

This site offers information on some of the most basic tax problems facing small business owners. It includes – depreciation, home/office questions, business loans, and self-employment taxes.

www.irs.ustreas.gov/prod/bus_info/bus-topx.html

Believe it or not, the IRS maintains an excellent set of web pages to assist tax payers, particularly small business owners. This site will assist you in what records to keep, how to handle rental, farming and fishing income, travel expenses, and self-employment taxes.

www.1040.com

A comprehensive tax site with links to state tax sites, federal and state forms, news and information. It also has all of the tax forms you may need to fill out your return.

www.vandoren.net/tax/index.htm

This is a very helpful site which provides some great advice, and can lead you many other valuable resources which will can help you define and hopefully solve your tax questions.