Choosing Financial Freedom

Three Things To Bring To Your Tax Preparation Service As A Newly Self Employed Person

10 January 2018

Aubree Mccoy

Opening your own business means more than just a few changes to the way that you work. When tax season comes around, you will also have to deal with the tax differences for your self-employed taxes. Getting a tax preparer to help you with your new filing changes will make it easier to avoid mistakes. In order to prepare your taxes properly, you will need the standard information such as your business income and business losses. You will also need to bring a few more items if you are self-employed. Here are a few things to bring to your tax preparation session in order to get the numbers right. 

1. The square footage of your home office

Operating via a home office is typical especially during the early years of opening up your business. A home office set up that is used only to perform work for your job will be necessary. The home office square footage is an allowable write off if you are self-employed and work out of your home. Be sure to take measurements and find the square footage of your space and bring it with you to the tax preparation services. This information will help your preparer calculate the appropriate write-off. 

2. Bring in the costs of your startup materials

If you are just going into business, you may need to develop a lot of marketing materials. Start-up costs may also include the gas mileage that you took to get to business meetings and the amount of the promotional materials and services that you had to start with in order to gain clients. Bring all of the information of the monetary details into your meeting with your tax service. They will be able to let you know what percentage of the amount you may write-off or what amount that your taxes will decrease by with this information. 

3. Travel expenses

As a business person on your own, you may need to travel for the delivery of products and services. If the plan, cab, or mileage on your car is unavoidable, you can have this deducted from the taxes that you will pay. Keep the travel records in order by including the exact reason you went on the trip and the exact cost of the travel expenses. Deduct any expenses that were personal, such as extending the trip before you provide them to your tax preparer. This will decrease the amount of personal loss you must take in order to increase your business. 

To learn more, contact a CPA like Jeffrey Beebe CPA. 

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