Solo vs employee's

[orangemower]

Originally Posted by yardguy28

EVERYTHING I purchase for my business is paid for by a business credit card. so there is a trail of what was purchased. there are one or 2 things I do use business checks for but it's not like I don't have records of business purchases.



as for writing stuff off I don't believe I do any of that.

I give my accountant 3 numbers each year to do my taxes. my total income, my total expenses and any equipment and there dollar amounts. oh and I give him how many work miles I put on my truck.

that's it. he never sees a list of my actual expenses. the only reason I categorize expenses is for my personal knowledge of how much I'm spending on say fuel or supplies.

I don't think not having every single receipt is going to hurt me in an audit.

There's SO many things wrong in your post it's not even funny.

With that last sentence, you act like Travis Tritt and that song "ten feet tall and bullet proof" comes to mind. You don't run a business.

How can you say "the only reason I categorize expenses is for my personal knowledge" when a accountant NEEDS to know ALL the expenses. You have to be the most eccentric person ever.

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by orangemower

There's SO many things wrong in your post it's not even funny.

With that last sentence, you act like Travis Tritt and that song "ten feet tall and bullet proof" comes to mind. You don't run a business.

How can you say "the only reason I categorize expenses is for my personal knowledge" when a accountant NEEDS to know ALL the expenses. You have to be the most eccentric person ever.

well orange.....

care to explain why he doesn't get a list of my expenses? care to tell me why all he's ever asked for is my total income for the year, my total expenseses for the year and any equipment I purchased or sold?

I know he depreciates the equipment. so that's why he wants that. and I know why my total income. but like I said, if I had 10 grand total in expenses that's the number he works with. he has no idea how much of that was for fuel or mulch or office supplies.

I have no idea how he files my taxes or what he does. and really I don't care. as long as my taxes get paid each year and I'm making the kind of money I wanna make. and so far for the 7 years I've been in business I've been doing that.

[orangemower]

Originally Posted by yardguy28

well orange.....

care to explain why he doesn't get a list of my expenses? care to tell me why all he's ever asked for is my total income for the year, my total expenseses for the year and any equipment I purchased or sold?

I know he depreciates the equipment. so that's why he wants that. and I know why my total income. but like I said, if I had 10 grand total in expenses that's the number he works with. he has no idea how much of that was for fuel or mulch or office supplies.

I have no idea how he files my taxes or what he does. and really I don't care. as long as my taxes get paid each year and I'm making the kind of money I wanna make. and so far for the 7 years I've been in business I've been doing that.

You should look for another accountant. If he isn't breaking it all down, then how does he know how much fuel was used in the truck or the mower or the handhelds? What about the work boots you bought this year (example so please don't say you didn't buy any) or the work pants. What about trimmer line? How does he know how much you bought? He's setting you up for a audit. When that happens, you'll be totally screwed without itemized records.

Also, you're banking on him knowing everything about your business. You are not running your business. All you're doing is working as a employee for yourself. Who's actually running the business then?

[Darryl G]

My business income and expenses all go on Schedule C of my 1040. I don't know how someone could possibly complete Schedule C with only total gross income and expenses. I know not everyone uses Schedule C, but I would imagine that a sole proprietor such as Yardguy would. My business is actually set up as an LLC with myself and wife as partnerrs but for tax purposes a sole proprietorship. I keep all of my receipts filed alphabetically by vendor name; I have a seperate manilla folder for each vendor for each year and have them filed chronologically by date within each folder.

Here's Schedule C: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sc.pdf

[ELS Landscape]

Originally Posted by Darryl G

My business income and expenses all go on Schedule C of my 1040. I don't know how someone could possibly complete Schedule C with only total gross income and expenses. I know not everyone uses Schedule C, but I would imagine that a sole proprietor such as Yardguy would. My business is actually set up as an LLC with myself and wife as partnerrs but for tax purposes a sole proprietorship. I keep all of my receipts filed alphabetically by vendor name; I have a seperate manilla folder for each vendor for each year and have them filed chronologically by date within each folder.

Here's Schedule C: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sc.pdf

If you live in a common law state you can set up as a sole proprietor or as the form says LLC Disregarded entity.

I have quick books accounts mapped the various parts of the schedule C and import that into Turbo Tax.

It is not perfect but it does give me a big head start on filing those forms.

[cpllawncare]

You guys are losing me with all this tax talk, That's one area I let the accountant tell me what's best, I know I should understand it better but for some reason it's like chinese to me.

[yardguy28]

Originally Posted by cpllawncare

You guys are losing me with all this tax talk, That's one area I let the accountant tell me what's best, I know I should understand it better but for some reason it's like chinese to me.

couldn't have said it better myself.

I let the accountant tell me what's best. I just give him what he asks for and let him do his job.

[Darryl G]

Originally Posted by ELS Landscape

If you live in a common law state you can set up as a sole proprietor or as the form says LLC Disregarded entity.

I have quick books accounts mapped the various parts of the schedule C and import that into Turbo Tax.

It is not perfect but it does give me a big head start on filing those forms.

Yeah that's the easiest way. I've tried the direct import before but you have to make sure all your tax lines are assigned properly or it's all screwed up...you know the garbage in garbage out thing. Now I just print a summary report or 2 and enter it into Turbo Tax myself. Maybe someday I'll take the time to set QB up properly to allow a direct import to TT.

[ELS Landscape]

Originally Posted by Darryl G

Yeah that's the easiest way. I've tried the direct import before but you have to make sure all your tax lines are assigned properly or it's all screwed up...you know the garbage in garbage out thing. Now I just print a summary report or 2 and enter it into Turbo Tax myself. Maybe someday I'll take the time to set QB up properly to allow a direct import to TT.

It is not that hard really if you do your taxes yourself you know were to map. The manual part for me is that all my truck expenses go to one spot. Not sure if I break them out in QB if they will map to each vehicle or not

[Darryl G]

Yeah. I had it right at one point but then I guess some lines changed or got screwed up somehow and I never remember to fix it and at that point I'm just trying to get my taxes out, try to merge and it messes up and I say, OK, next year I'll fix it, lol.