GET READY NOW FOR THE TAX MAN!

Don't wait until late February to gather and send your company's financial data to your accountant or other tax professional.  Get it in as early as possible.  Ask yourself these important questions before doing so.

1.  Do I have my bank accounts and credit card accounts reconciled against the monthly statements?

2.  Did I buy any new equipment, furniture, vehicles, etc?  If so, did you post the transactions under your fixed asset accounts?  Did you keep your receipts?

3.  How does your payroll look in the general ledger?  Payroll expenses should only include 4 things in the year end totals.  It should include the company's portion of social security and medicare, and also federal unemployment and state unemployment.  That's all that should be in this account.  How about the wage accounts?  These accounts should match your W-2's.  Don't make more work for your cpa.  Get your accounts in order.

4.  If you keep inventory, do you have an accurate value of it?

5.  Review your general ledger and each transaction that is shown for each account.  Look at where things were posted and verify its accuracy.  Again, cut down on the work for your cpa, and also save yourself some money.

There are plenty of things you can do to expedite your tax return.  Turning over sloppy and/or inaccurate records only slows things down.  Your file is put on the back burner until you can answers the questions.  Get the answers now!