Knoll & Company, P.C. - Certified Public Accountants, Lakewood, CO » New Business

2011 Tax Season Fast Approaching

leejr — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:31:53 +0000

A couple of reminders regarding the start of the 2011 tax filing season.

4th quarter estimated payment due January 17, 2012
W-2′s, 1099′s are not required to be mailed until January 31, 2012.
Tax day this year falls on Tuesday April 17, 2012 as there is a holiday in Washington D.C.
Make sure you have all your tax documents in hand, before seeing your tax preparer.

A couple items you should be aware when filing your tax return for 2011.

Don’t forget to repay the first time home buyer credit.
There is a new form 8939 to report capital gains and losses.
As in 2010 income limits no longer apply to Roth conversions.

This is just a brief overview, consult your tax advisor for additional information.

2012 Standard Mileage Rates

leejr — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 01:09:50 +0000

Starting January 1, 2012, the following mileage rates will apply for the use of your vehicle:

55.5 centers per mile for business
23 cents per mile for medical or moving
14 cents per mile for charity

This means that the business standard mileage remains the same as it has been since July 1, 2011. The medical and moving was actually reduced .5 cents per mile.

Remember to included the personal use of company vehicles on the employee’s W-2 if that is applicable to you.

For more information check out http://tinyurl.com/7av7xru

Final 2010 Tax Deadline Approaching

leejr — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 01:48:16 +0000

There is only two weeks left to get your individual 1040 tax return filed. Since the 15th is on Saturday this year, you have until October 17, 2011 to get all your ducks in a row and avoid any late filing penalties.

Remember it is only an extension to file and not an extension to pay. The taxes due were actually due in April, so if you still owe for 2010, you will be assessed a late payment penalty and interest.

If you need additional information or have comments please let us know.

IRS INCREASES MIULEAGE RATE EFFECTIVE July 1, 2011

leejr — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:43:28 +0000

Once again the IRS has increases the standard mileage rate effective July 1, 2011.

The new rates are as followed:

Business 55.5 cents per mile
Medical/Moving 23.5 cents per mile
Charitable(same) .14 cents per mile

This is of course not the first time that we have had to deal with two sets of mileage rates in a calendar year. If you want to read the IRS article on the new mileage rate, please click the following link http://www.irs.gov/newsroom/article/0,,id=232017,00.html

Also don’t forgot to keep that mileage log or invest in one of the GPS mileage logs. Just keep track of the easiest way possible as you can see the mileage can be a good deduction if you drive a fair amount of miles for business. There are even apps for your Smart phone that will handle some of this.

Example if you drive 10,000, your deduction would be $5,550.

2nd 2011 Estimated Payment Due Now 6-15-11

leejr — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:22:56 +0000

If you are required to make estimated payments of your individual taxes, the second payment for 2011 needs to be postmarked today. You are estimated payments in the following circumstances:

*You expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax for 2011 after subtracting your withholding and any refundable credits.

*You expect your withholding and refundable credits to be less than the smaller of:

-90% of the tax expected on your 2011 tax return or 100% of the tax shown on your 2010 tax return.

The easiest way is to look at Line 60 of your 2010 1040 which is your total tax and subtract the withholding you expect to have for 2011 and divide by 4 and make those payments on the due date for estimated discussed later.

*There is an exception to this rule is if your AGI is more than $150,000 you need to take line 60 by 110% and divide by 4, and essentially pay in 110% of your 2010 tax liability

The other option is if your income is going down or you have uneven income throughout the year you can actually calculate it every quarter and pay based on an annualized income method.

*For example for the payment due June 15^th you would figure your income and deductions for the first 5 months and than annualize that number and than calculate the tax based ¼ of the annualized tax.

Generally most people pay estimated taxes based on 2010 tax, but some do calculate it each payment.

The following is the payment due dates for the remainder of 2011

2^nd payment June 15, 2011

3^rd payment September 15, 2011

4^th payment January 17, 2012

Feel free to contact us if you need additional information about paying and calculating estimated taxes.

My 19th Tax Season behind me

leejr — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 21:44:01 +0000

Well another tax season is behind me. Overall I think it was an excellent tax season. We have come a long ways since my first tax season. The Next Generation of Technology really helps streamline our production and allows us to be more efficient in the logn run. Some of the technologies that we use are the folling:

We deliver most returns via electronic means through a portal on our website, clients can retrieve there past tax returns, W-2’s etc. I would say we have about 90% electronic delivery rate for all clients.
Almost all our business clients are on our QuickBooks Hosted service, which allow 24/7 access to their Quickbooks data as well as allowing us to access their file at the same time. It also provides for automatic backups of their QuickBooks files.
All of our internal software including tax software on a remote server and this year we have totally eliminated our server, so our clients and our firm data is backed up daily and we can log in from anywhere with internet access.

Using these technologies has allowed me to go home for dinner, coach the boys soccer teams and after they went to bed, do some more work from home. Some mornings I even got up early when my wife went to workout and did some work before I went and did my workout.

If you have not embraced some of this technology, you can check it out at our website www.knollcpa.com and we will get you connected.

Tracking Business Mileage

Crystal — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 19:46:25 +0000

Do you scramble at the end of every year trying to figure out your mileage to claim on your business taxes? If you have a hard time keeping track of this important deduction here are a few tips we have received from our clients. If you don’t have a mileage log in your car just throw a small notebook in your glove box to keep track. Do you use a smart phone or Palm pilot to keep track of your appointments. Why not put a notation right on your appointment information of the distance to your appointment. You can easily look up this information online through Map Quest or Yahoo Maps. Did you know you can usually turn your mileage in to your accountant or bookkeeper monthly to avoid any last minute scrambling and trying to remember what part of your mileage was business or personal? Your mileage can really add up over time and is worth taking the little bit of extra time each month to make sure you have it all documented. Let us know of any other tips you have to make this process easier.

Funding College

admin — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:32:34 +0000

As the new school year approaches it brings around thoughts of “how am I going to pay for my child to go to college?” You might want to consider a Section 529 Plans (named after the section of the IRS Code that created them). These plans were established to help families save and pay for college and are available to everyone, regardless of income. These state-sponsored plans allow you to gift large sums of money for a family member’s college education, while you maintain control of the funds. The earnings from these accounts grow tax-deferred and are tax-free if used to pay for qualified higher education expenses. They can be used as an estate-planning tool as well, providing a means to transfer large amounts of money without gift tax. With all these tax benefits, 529 plans are an excellent vehicle for college funding. A common mistake we see with the 529 plans are not checking with your states plans first as there may be additional tax benefits. For example, here in Colorado you receive an additional deduction on your state tax return if you invest in Colorado’s 529 plan.

Five Mistakes New Businesses Make

Crystal — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 18:44:02 +0000

Five common accounting mistakes new businesses make

Do not consult with proper professionals such as CPA’s, Lawyers, etc.: Your CPA firm can guide you on what you need for your city and state. Do I have to file taxes for anything in my city or state? How do I register my business? How do I get a tax id? The main reason businesses do not consult with the proper people is to save money, but over and over I have seen this cost more money in the long run than the savings in not consulting professional services.
Do not have accounting books set up correctly: Setting up your accounting correctly in the beginning saves you a lot of time and money in the long run. What kind of accounting software are you using? There are professionals out there that can help you set up your books specific to your industry. For example, our office has certified professionals on QuickBooks software and Microsoft Accounting software that can review your set up and train you to use your software.
Pay themselves too much money: Remember, in order to show a profit on your business there has to be money in the business. The first day they business owners open a business, they want to pay themselves the very next day.
Under Capitalized: A lot of great businesses fail because they do not invest enough money into their business or they are capitalized by credit cards which have higher interest rate.
Not knowing how much the IRS will be paid: Many people we talk to just do not realize how much money they will pay in various taxes to the IRS. They have never looked at their own pay stub before to realize all the taxes being paid and a lot of individuals are not even aware that their employers also pay a portion of their payroll taxes.