Looking for the Easy Way Out of Business Bookkeeping ?

Procrastination Isn’t It.

Whether you dread your business bookkeeping or you simply cannot find enough time to get it done, putting off your accounting duties never ends well for you or your business. We understand that as a small business owner, you are being pulled in numerous different directions at once and it can be complicated to accomplish the mundane task of keeping up with the books. It is easy to write it off as non-urgent, vowing to catch up later.
But inevitably, later becomes next week, which becomes next month, which becomes 2 weeks before taxes are due. So why is this important? What does it matter if you wait until April to start actually doing your “business bookkeeping” for the previous year?

Top 5 Reasons Procrastination Can Kill Your Business

     1.)Poor Bookkeeping Leads to Poor Financial Decisions
The list of decisions a business owner must make every day often seems endless – how much inventory should be purchased, how much to invest in marketing, is it time to open a new line of credit, can you afford to hire a new employee, which bill should you pay first, should you get this new software, can you afford hardware updates, and on and on.
It can be difficult enough to make intelligent and informed decisions even with all of the data in front of you, but when you have no idea what the numbers are to back up these decisions, you will be driving blindfolded through your decisions. You are far more likely to crash when drawing upon ‘gut feelings’ for choices rather than your up-to-date cash flow, account balances, Accounts Payable and Accounts Receivable totals.
     2.)Audits…Need We Say More?
Handing your CPA a total mess of papers come tax season will not end pretty for either party. You will end up paying a much larger bill for the time they are going to have to spend on your filing, and while CPAs can work some magic, they are still human. Improper account management will likely leave you open for an audit.
If you are not carefully and accurately reporting what is going on in your business, you’re a much more likely target for the IRS. This can result in large late fees and expensive penalties if mistakes were made when you were rushing to reconcile the books.
     3.)You Could be Giving Away Free Money
Let’s face it, most businesses don’t have customers reminding them that they owe money. Getting behind on bookkeeping for your business means falling behind on your accounts receivable and invoice cycling as well.
If you simply try to make mental notes or “jot down” who owes you what, you will likely forget and lose money somewhere. Not collecting on accounts receivable is like giving away free money. Cash flow is the #1 reason that businesses fail, and much of that success or failure can be tied to tracking and updating your accounts receivable.
     4.)You Won’t Keep Good Employees Around
Your employees are the frontline of your business, and what you do is not possible without them. It is critical that your employees are paid on time and correctly on the regularly agreed upon schedule.
If you are slacking on the books, you may end up with an issue where you sacrifice your own paycheck so that all others are able to be paid. This is not unheard of for small businesses.
You may also end up with employees who do not report if you are over paying them, but who certainly would if you were underpaying them. Overpaying and underpaying employees will show on W-2 forms and can cause serious tax and legal issues for both you and the employee.
If employees cannot expect a reliable and regular paycheck, they will begin to look for work elsewhere, and it will be difficult to find new hires as word spreads.
     5.)You Will be Denied Financing
When it comes time to ask your bank for a loan or other line of credit, they will check your records in order to approve or deny your application. If the bank sees that you have poorly updated records and your bookkeeping is a mess, they may be unable to reach a decision or even deny your request.
Additionally, investors or donors will also want to see your most recent records and financial statements in order to confirm the security of investing in your business. When these are unprofessionally done, or not done at all, you have lost the ability to increase your company’s growth through business lending or investing.
Overwhelmed? Don’t procrastinate your bookkeeping…outsource it!

Outsourcing Business Bookkeeping

Most firms that provide business bookkeeping services actually end up costing far less than the amount of time it would take you to properly manage it. Do you know your ideal hourly wage for your own time (i.e. what are you worth in your business)? Multiply that hourly by the amount of time it would take you to keep your books in order each month. Chances are, it’s much less than the amount you would pay a business bookkeeper to do it for you. And you’ll have the added peace of mind that your business bookkeeping is being done properly and orderly.
If you need help with your bookkeeping, call Perry & Associates today. We have 5 different offices throughout the Mid-Ohio Valley as well as online portals for handling accounting virtually.
 
 

COVID Brings Spotlight on State Taxation of Telecommuters

With the onset and persistence of the COVID-19 pandemic, more and more employers have had to promote or, at the very least, permit telecommuting (teleworking). Some experts are predicting that the teleworking trend will be here to stay for many, regardless of the pandemic resolution. 6 out of 10 employees have reported greater satisfaction with their work/life balance since beginning work from home, and many businesses have actually reported greater employee productivity and retention.
However, for many companies, this may mean that they now have employees working in states other than those that their business currently has an established taxable presence within. So what does the ‘work from home’ wave mean for your small business tax filing and preparation for 2020? How does state taxation of telecommuters affect your new operations model?

Employees Living and Working in Neighboring States

Fifteen states have reciprocal tax agreements with neighboring states where an employee resides in one state and is employed in the other. The State of West Virginia has reciprocal income tax agreements with Kentucky, Maryland, Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Reciprocal tax agreements mean that the employee is only responsible for filing taxes in their state of residence, not the state in which their employer is located.
For business owners, a reciprocal tax agreement means that it is not necessary to withhold taxes in the state of residence for their employee. However, if your state, or the state in which your employee lives or is temporarily working from, is not one of the 15 states that have agreements with some of their adjacent states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, New Jersey, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, Wisconsin) then there is a tax base nexus on both the state of residence for the employee and the state from which the income is earned.
Businesses are expected to withhold taxes for the employee in the state in which the work was performed, which can be a costly compliance for businesses that are not used to having their net income subject to taxation from multiple states. The employee will have to file taxes in both states, but will receive credits to avoid double taxation.
Both businesses and employees in this situation would benefit from the help of a professional CPA to help prepare and file their taxes appropriately to avoid the expensive consequences of confusion further down the road.

Employees Living and Working in States with No Reciprocal Agreement

As an employer, when you think of having a taxable presence in another state, you probably think that it warrants a physical branch or location. After all, sales alone in another state are not enough for that state to lay claim to any of your business income.
However, having just one employee in another state could be enough for that state to claim that you have an established workforce presence there. If your business makes considerable sales in outside states in which 1) you have no office or sales force located, 2) you do not service your goods there and use a common carrier to ship your goods there, or 3) have them come to your location for pick-up, then you have no tax base nexus there.
If, however, you now suddenly have even just one employee working in that state, then you may have established a taxable workforce presence there, and all of those sales could come into consideration when determining what percentage of your net income that state is allowed to tax.
This is where “nexus” and “apportionment” come into play. Tax base nexus determines whether or not a business’s presence within a state is sufficient enough for the state to tax any of the business’s activity.  Apportionment determines how much of the business income is appropriate for the outside state to tax.
This can become even more complex if you have an employee that is teleworking from a state that is not their state of residence or a state that your business has established presence within. This has become more common with the COVID-19 pandemic as several individuals may have moved temporarily to other states to be with family, or to simply flee a ‘hot spot’ area of concern and wait it out. Some states begin to require those employees to file a non-resident return there the moment they begin working from that location. This means that you, as employer, would also need to withhold for that employee in that state during that time, which can be costly and confusing to navigate without CPA guidance.
Different states have vastly varying regulations with situations like these, so it is important for your employees to check how long their state of temporary residence allows them to work there without having to file and withhold taxes in that state.

Get Help from a CPA Near You for Telecommuting Taxation

Perry & Associates CPAs has multiple offices throughout the Mid- Ohio Valley, where many of these state working lines are crossed. Contact us for expert advice from an accountant that knows the intricacies of each state’s law.