Tax guides
Bookkeeping under US federal and state rules.
To get overdue books tax-ready, rebuild each month from bank, card, invoice, payroll, and payment reports; separate business from personal activity; reconcile every account; and check income forms and prior-year balances. Use any available filing extension and pay tax due by the applicable payment deadline. Keep proof for each reported amount.
Self-employed · Partnerships · Corporations
You can keep your own books with software if you can record every business transaction, retain its support, reconcile accounts and produce figures for each required return on time. The IRS does not require a bookkeeper. Hiring one becomes useful when payroll, inventory, sales tax, multiple owners or a balance sheet make those tasks hard to manage reliably.
Self-employed · Partnerships · Corporations
Ask for the lender's exact checklist first. Give your filed personal return and income schedules, plus any partnership or corporation return and wage or dividend records that apply. You or a bookkeeper can prepare a current profit and loss statement unless the lender requires a CPA. A CPA can issue a letter only within a supportable scope.
Self-employed · Partnerships · Corporations
Start with each payout's settlement report and match its transactions to the bank deposit. Record sales once, fees and refunds separately, and processor-held money in clearing. Track tax you must remit as payable; a marketplace remits tax under its own duty. Reconcile Form 1099-K to gross payments, not deposits; track backup withholding separately.
Self-employed · Partnerships · Corporations
A C corporation, or a partnership with a C corporation partner, must put its tax return on accrual for any year its 3-prior-year average gross receipts pass the small business limit; farms and employee-owned professional firms are exempt. Investor demand changes the books, not the return. An automatic Form 3115 and a section 481(a) adjustment prevent double counting.
Corporations · Partnerships
Tariffs are deductible, but usually not when paid. On servers for resale, duties, customs and broker fees and inbound freight go into inventory, deducted through cost of goods sold as goods sell. On equipment kept, they add to its cost. From a related seller, section 1059A caps shared costs at the customs value, blocking a low border value.
Corporations
Not sure which rules apply?