Where can a business owner obtain tax information? When you
don't know what questions to ask, it's very helpful to take
some classes, and read a few articles prior to visiting with
a CPA. Enjoy these resources:

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
The IRS has the best free classes around! Call your local
office to find out when the home business or sole
proprietorship classes are held. The home business class is
a half-day class; the sole proprietorship class is a full
day. The difference between these two classes -- the extra
half day -- is spent dealing with employee tax information.
Take a class every year. Expenses are deductible and I bet
you will learn quite a few things each year.

Web site at http://www.ustreas.gov/, or call toll free (800)
829-3676. Ask for Business Kit Publication 454 and STEP
Publication 1057 (Small Business Tax Education Program).
Tell them what type of organization you are considering, how
many employees you will have, etc., so they can send you
other free helpful publications. They'll even send you a
very nice Tax Calendar. Just ask for it!

Local Authorities
Let's look at some local taxing authorities. In some states,
the Department of Taxation provides monthly classes for new
business owners. They cover state-specific topics such as
business income tax, occupancy tax and sales tax.

While we're on the local level, don't forget to contact your
county, city or town revenue offices, too. Yes, everyone
gets in the act of collecting some sort of tax! It could be
yearly, quarterly, or monthly. At the very least, call each
entity to see what they need from you and what materials or
classes they provide. Don't want to call? The end result is
fines and penalties later on -- usually many times more than
you would have paid in the first place.

Web Sites
Although the IRS is the premier source for tax information,
below are other suggested web sites to visit. Peachtree and
Intuit (Quicken, QuickBooks) offer bookkeeping, accounting
and tax software.

Sandy Botkin, CPA and attorney, is one of the most well
known national lecturers in the field of tax reduction and
audit proofing techniques for small
business.http://www.taxreductioninstitute.com/index2.htm

Since 1980, the Small Business Tax and Management has been
providing services to business owners. Lots of resources on
this site. www.smbiz.com/

Bookkeeping and Tax Programs: Quicken, QuickBooks, Turbo Tax
www.intuit.com/products_services

Taxes and Accounting
www.quicken.com/small_business axes_and_accounting
http://www.peachtree.com/

The Top 10 Essentials for Making a Hobby Into a Business
http:/ opten.org/public/AA/AA82.html
Dealing Effectively with the IRS
http:/ opten.org/public/AN/AN23.html

CPA or Bookkeeper?
Besides trading on Wall Street, I was an Operations &
Accounting Manager. At one point, I had bookkeepers and a
few CPA's working for me. I was able to sign off on the work
performed by the bookkeepers but I wasn't unable to sign off
on any internal audits. Why? Because I didn't have a CPA
License!

So you can see, there is a difference between a CPA and
Bookkeeper. Now-a-days, with Quicken and Peachtree, many of
us can set up our own bookkeeping and send out invoices - if
that is how we choose to use our time.

If you are a sole proprietor, you can
1) hire a CPA firm that will also do your monthly
bookkeeping
2) hire a CPA firm that will help you set up your monthly
bookkeeping system and then you can do your bookkeeping or
hire a bookkeeper
3) hire a bookkeeper to do your monthly bookkeeping
4) do it yourself.

Personally, I did my own bookkeeping for many years (I was
an accounting manager) and then brought my records to a CPA
yearly. I keep up with as many tax laws etc. as I can, I
guess because I like that sort of thing. Many folks don't
though! Know which you are!

As my business grew, I hired a bookkeeper and worked with
them to set up a monthly bookkeeping system. The system was
set up as suggested at the IRS Tax Class I attended - with
categories names and in close order to the tax forms I'll
use as a sole proprietor (Schedule C & Form 8829). I'll
choose the names of the sub-categories based on how I spend
money. They also suggested that you set up your file cabinet
with similarly named files.

Enjoy my article on CPAs. It's called "10 Ideas To Help You
Choose a CPA" http://www.coachmaria.com/articles/cpa.html



About the Author
© Copyright 2002 Maria Marsala is
an internationally known coach, author, and speaker. A former Wall Street trader and manager, she is the author of the ebook "Thinking of Starting a Business... Let's Talk About What's
Next." Subscribe to her free ezine "Helping You and Your
Business Grow" at http://www.coachmaria.com/ebook/download.html