Last minute tax-tips

Here are some tax tips that I want to share with you at this eleventh hour. Even though it is last minute it is still timely to talk about what worked and what will be my resolutions for the next year.

1.This year I used only one credit card to pay all my business expenses which I paid off at the end of the month. This helped with record keeping. I keep most of the receipts and canceled checks information but the credit card invoice was a double record checker.

2.I used a three ring binder with 12 sheet protectors, one for each month. In the sheet protector pouches I just drop the receipts or notes and then later on document them on a piece of paper. It worked better than office folders, files or documenting in computer. At the end of the year it was easy during tax time.

3.I used the left side for expense record and the right side for income. In the income side, along with sales receipts I also kept notes about my valued customers. Their preference, birthstones, special dates etc.

4.Things I should do next year:

Organize the expenses in the proper category from the very beginning. I mean I should make categories like Advertising, License fees, Office material etc and document the monthly expenses accordingly. Tall order but it will be worth it at the end.

5.Buy a mileage book and keep it in my purse instead of one car. Since I use both the cars it is better to get into a habit to documenting the mileage for business purpose with the date. The allowance: 50.5 cents per mile (2008) for driven to business reasons. I was not that organized this year! But next year will be better.

6.Taking mortgage and utility bills deduction. If you use 100 square feet of your 1000 sq.feet home you may take a 10% deduction on many items. Mortgage, gas and electric, garbage all are deductible. The space has to be used solely for that purpose. So just organizing a bit more and keeping that in mind will be promising next year.

7.Consider taking more classes, buy tutorials and books on jewelry making and business organization. Those are all tax deductible. It just will sharpen and cultivate me more.

8.Collect receipts of business related activities and enter them in the correct place instead of dumping them in the purse and forgetting them. Make a habit to document them in the right month page which can be done on a daily or weekly basis.

9.Finally, consider taking the help from a professional tax accountant. This service is 100% deductible and might be worth it.

Do you have tax tips that you want to share ?