Exactly what Your Accountant Requires From You, The Small Business Owner

Tax season is extremely stress filled for the majority of small business owners. This is due usually to a last-minute rush to try and obtain the necessary paperwork required by your tax accountant, or CPA, in order to finalize and file your company tax return.

There's an easier way of preventing the tension of tax season. Know what exactly your accountant needs to carry out his or her job adequately and have those items together beforehand.

There certainly are a couple reasons to have your items together before going to your CPA:

You save time, which is money, by not trying to put together information with several trips back and forth to your CPA's office.

Your CPA is given time to discover all the deductions possible because your detailed records are available immediately.

Your data is all together in one location which makes retrieval in the event of an audit less of a challenge and faster, costing you less in addition to saving time, and a good deal of stress.

Now, what kind of information will you need to deliver your CPA at tax time? The following is a list of items you need to have ready and accessible for your CPA in your first off meeting during tax season. (According to your business, this list are probably not all inclusive, but it's a good start.)

1.All 1099 and 1096 forms including INT, DIV, B and MISC.
2.Any kind of W-2 or W-3 data on you or your business
3.1098 forms which lists mortgage interest along with property tax
4.Schedule K-1 (income/loss from S Corps, Partnerships, Trusts etc.)
5.Bank statements and reconciliation reports in the end of the taxable year and the beginning of the present year.
6.A backup copy of your personal accounting software
7.Small Cash reconciliation
8.Mileage on all cars
9.Pay-roll reports from software program or 3rd party pay-roll organization
10.Information and statements from stocks, bonds or other investment transactions such as dates of buying and cost basis or date of sale along with the selling price.
11.Listing of Inventory and Assets
12.Every 3 months tax forms if accustomed to document on a quarterly basis
13.Statements associated with any real estate transactions including refinancing or foreclosure
14.Balance sheet, profit and loss statement and trial balance for year end
15.Withdrawal and Investment data on partners or shareholders from the business account.
16.Any kind of documentation specific to your business unlisted above. This can include work from home business expenditures not mentioned above.

This list is, in no way comprehensive and lots of CPA?s have an actual listing of documents they are going to need to be able to ready your taxes. Those items listed above are merely for reference to enable you to have a majority of your documents together in one location. This way you'll be able to quickly sort through your paperwork and bring exactly what you will need to your accountant's office when the time comes.
Many reasons exist for keeping your documents together, but none more valuable than making sure your accountant has got adequate time to find the most deductions possible for your company. Don't let a sloppy documentation system cheat you out of your hard earned cash!