Jun
17
2010
The Tax Planning In Buying And Selling A Corporation can eliminate most of your taxes, or raise your income taxes if the planning is not properly done in your business. Smart tax planning is essential when starting or selling a business, or corporation. There are some major key tips in the tax planning in buying and selling a corporation. Also, it’s very important to look at all aspects of tax planning when starting any business in the world. When people start their tax planning for buying and selling a corporation all sorts of things to consider pop up in their heads like capital gains, write offs, stock purchases, portfolio performance, and risk. So, let’s talk for a moment about what is going on in the heads of people that are planning to buy and sell a corporation or any business of the matter in today’s world.
Capital gains become a major thing to look at when purchasing or selling a corporation because you are ether going to have a increase on your return of investment or you are not when the business is sold. Which leads to another point in this called write offs. When people buy corporations the first thing they want to know is how much they will be able to write off as a corporation, or as a business owner of that company. Stock purchases is a great advantage to look at when tax planning before the purchase of a corporation because the better high dollar amount you get on a share the more everyone in your family is better off when the business is running in today’s economy. Many people are thinking about the portfolio performance, and risk of the corporation when tax planning. A corporation portfolio performance will always determine how your tax planning will be according to how well the company is doing and its shares in stock it’s accumulating in the near future. A tax tip to consider also in buying or selling a corporation is that they are often taxed at a lower rate and have better taxable benefits than any other business out in the world today. Now, some of you may be thinking about this question in your mind.
What Impact Can A Home-Based Business Have On Your Taxes? That’s an excellent question you asked me because theirs a few tips to consider when looking to start a home based business when tax planning in today’s world. Most people do not realize just how much money they can save by starting a home-based business. Obviously, the goal is for you to make money with your home-based business, but even if it does not turn a profit right away, you can still benefit from the mere fact that your business exists and that you are attempting to turn a profit in the business. Also, your home-based business does not have to be a full-time venture. It is something that can fit into your current daily life. You can continue to do what you are doing today, and add a home based business into your focus. Eventually, your goal can be to replace (and greatly exceed!) the income that you generate from your “job.”
The fact is that most people still struggle with finances, but there are things that you can do legally to ease that burden. If you operate your own home based business, then there are many deductions you will be able to take every year that will dramatically lower the amount you have to pay to the IRS in taxes such as home office expenses, travel expenses, entertainment expenses, depreciation expenses, professional services expenses, advertising expenses, and taking a loss. So, if that is not enough reason alone for people to start a business of their own then nothing will in your lives on this planet.
Tags: All Sorts, Business Economy, Business Owner, Business Planning, Buy And Sell, Capital Gains, Company Stock, Corporations, Income Taxes, Many People, Pop, Portfolio Performance, Return Of Investment, Risk, Running, Selling A Business, Smart Tax, Stock Purchases, Tax Planning, Tax Tip
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Apr
04
2010
The topic for this article is Personal Finance Budgeting. The first step in becoming financially responsible is starting out with a personal financial budget. Absent a budget there is no way one can possibly track their income and expenses.
Before getting into what personal budgeting finances are I want to explain why budgeting is important. For this idea we will say that you have decide to startup a business, a personal financial advising firm. When establishing your financial advising firm the first thing to be done is the planning out of your company expenses. Most people would logically budget for their expenses before they began because without this financial planning you would have no idea of whether or not your financial advising firm could potentially be profitable. The next thing is to plan out your revenues. Then you would take the difference between the two and see whether things looked good or not.
This is what a financial budget is for a company and people should handle their personal finances in the same manner. When establishing a personal financial budget it is important to include everything that involves your money.
You can find personal finance software on the internet. This software is made so that you can easily enter all your income and expenses and it does everything else for you.
The components in a personal financial budget include both income and expenses. Examples of income in a personal finance budget include job income, gambling winnings, capital gains, social security, tax refund, etc… Examples of expenses in a personal budget worksheet include SAVINGS, electric bill, health insurance, cell phone, groceries, books, shoes, clothes, car insurance, gas, entertainment, travel, miscellaneous, etc.
This expense list does not include all potential expense, I’m sure you can think of others right now. Anything possible thing that you can think of that you might need to spend money on should be put on your personal budgeting worksheet.
I know that some of you are thinking to yourselves “Savings? What? Thats not an expense!” Well I’m here to tell you that savings should indeed be thought of as an expense. Each month one should personally budget for a certain amount of their money to be saved. This should not be an “if I have money left over” situation. It should be definite and as automatic as writing that check for your mortgage every month.
The most basic concept of personal budgeting is to control spending and use your money wisely so that you have money left over rather than having no money or going into debt.
After listing your income and expense on your budget worksheet you need to subtract the expenses from your income and get a Net Cash Flow for the month. The idea is to include all income and costs and come out with a positive cash flow on your personal financial worksheet. If the number comes out negative then you have a problem and your expenses will need to lowered.
Now you know exactly what a budget is and how to make one. The next thing to is run a few Google searches an find a budget template to make things easier.
You need to keep a budget every month. No, you cannot simply make one plan for the whole year and stuff it away somewhere to forget about it. Our income levels change and our expenses change and these changes need to be accounted for.
To be successful with your personal budgeting plan you need to make out a projected personal budgeting plan for the whole year. Then as each month passes you can make monthly adjustments.
The other thing to do is keep a record of your actual income and expenses and compare that to your personal financial budgeting worksheet. You want to make sure that your original estimates were correct or at least close.
The thing about a personal financial budget is that it sets you up for success and helps keep you from needing to use credit cards or other debt to make it.
If you have an accurate personal financial budget then you will be prepared for the unexpected financial burdens that happen from time to time.
There should be no issues when your car breaks down and you suddenly need $300 to fix it. All is good because you have been putting money into savings each month.
This is the most basic idea of personal financial freedom and personal finance budgeting. If you can establish a sufficient level of savings then you can begin to be at ease with your financial situation.
Most people are clueless and don’t realize that their unplanned/unwritten actual personal finance budget includes something like $4500 of income and $4700 of expenses each month.
Next time I will take a short break from the Mini Series and instead suggest a few personal financial budgeting software programs that are available out there.
Tags: Capital Gains, Car Insurance, Cell Phone, Company Expenses, Finance Budget, Finance Job, Financial Planning, Freedom Finance, Groceries, Health Insurance, Personal Budget Worksheet, Personal Budgeting, Personal Finance Software, Personal Finances, Personal Financial Budget, Personal Financial Freedom, Personal Freedom, Social Security, Social Security Tax, Tax Refund
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Feb
12
2010
If you act now, there are many things you can do to minimize your tax burden. Unfortunately, most individuals wait until the year is over to see a tax accountant.
First, decide whether you want to lower or raise your current year taxable income. Most will want to lower their current year taxable income because a dollar in tax savings today is worth more than a dollar saved next year. However, often new businesses will anticipate a lower marginal tax rate in the current year, which will outweigh the benefits of tax deferral.
Income. The timing of bonuses, recognition of capital gains from the sale of stocks, and exercise of non qualified stock options are all events that can easily be delayed into a subsequent year. Income can also be deferred through various qualified retirement plans or deferred compensation plans. Business owners have even greater flexibility to adjust their revenue through the timing of invoicing and negotiating the timing of large payments.
Deductions. Cash basis taxpayers can also defer their tax obligations by paying deductible expenses by December 31. Business owners can often deduct up to $108,000 in equipment purchases even if purchased on December 31. Other expenses that would otherwise be paid in the next year can generally be deducted if paid by December 31.
For individuals, the search for deductions will focus on itemized deductions. Taxpayers can accelerate the deduction of the portion of their mortgage interest accruing to January 1 by mailing the check in December. Likewise for property taxes. If you are planning on making a gift to charity in next year, consider paying it before December 31. Get extra tax savings by gifting long term appreciated stocks or other property. You can get a deduction based on the fair market value and avoid paying capital gain on the appreciation.
Your strategy for medical expenses and miscellaneous itemized deductions may be quite different. Medical expenses are only deductible to the extent they exceed 7.5 percent of adjusted gross income. Miscellaneous itemized deductions are only deductible to the extent they exceed 2 percent of your adjusted gross income. Because of this, you may want to adopt a bunching strategy.
For example, assume $100,000 adjusted gross income and $10,000 medical expenses in both year 1 and year 2. If you pay the medical expenses in the year incurred, you will have a $2,500 deduction each year, because only the portion exceeding $7,500 (7.5 percent of adjusted gross income) is deductible. Your total deduction for both years is $5,000 (($10,000 – $7,500) x 2).
If instead, you delay paying all your medical expenses until year 2, (your Doctor will understand), your total deduction for both years is $12,500 (i.e. $20,000 – $7,500). By bunching your expenses in one year, more of the expenses are deductible because your don’t have to meet the $7,500 threshold twice.
Estimated Tax Payments. One way to minimize your tax burden is to minimize your penalties for failure to pay sufficient estimated tax payments. Often, individuals starting new businesses get into tax trouble because they no longer are making withholding payments, since they quit their job, and they are incurring a new self employment tax up to 15.3 percent. Even if they make a sufficient tax payment on January 15th, they will likely still end up with a penalty because the IRS wants them to make even payments throughout the year. The answer may lie in increasing federal withholding on your spouses income or on your income as an employee of your own business. Payments made through withholding from your paycheck are treated as paid equally throughout the year. This allows you to make up for underpaid estimated tax payments retroactively.
Tags: Capital Gain, Capital Gains, Cash Basis, Deductible Expenses, Deferred Compensation, Equipment Purchases, Invoicing, Marginal Tax Rate, Medical Expenses, Miscellaneous Itemized Deductions, Mortgage Interest, New Businesses, Non Qualified Stock Options, Property Taxes, Qualified Retirement Plans, Tax Accountant, Tax Burden, Tax Deferral, Tax Obligations, Taxable Income
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