Top Accounting Tips for Businesses This Tax Season

Tax season is here and it’s important that you and your business are prepared well before the deadlines. We wrangled the Accounting Troops and asked our small business accountants that they provide us with some useful tax filing tips to ensure you get the best return possible.

General Tips: – Always itemize your deductions if you exceed the standard deduction threshold. – Review the tax documents you gave to your tax preparer last year to ensure nothing is missing from your current year documents. – Inform your tax preparer of major changes from last year that may affect your tax return. Changes include moving, new dependent, marriage/divorce, new job etc.

Refund/Balance Due Advice: – Always remember to e-file and setup direct deposit for a quicker refund. – File early for a quicker refund. – Use Direct Withdrawal if you owe taxes. You can file your return at any time and the funds will not be withdrawn until April 15th.

Penalties: – Always file on time regardless of your ability to pay tax liabilities. This will avoid the automatic failure-to-file penalty. – Be sure to determine your estimated taxes that are due for the current year in order to avoid estimated tax penalties.

Retirement: – Contribute the maximum amount on your 401k to reduce your tax liability. – Make contributions to a regular or Roth IRA by April 15th. The upper limit to put in is $5,000 ($6,000 if you are 50 or older), and you must have earned income at least equal to the contribution. Regular IRA contributions are usually tax-deductible, but withdrawals are taxable. Roth account contributions aren’t deductible, while withdrawals are usually tax-free. Income and other limits apply for both. Taxpayers stymied by the limits can do a -backdoor- Roth IRA: put up to $5,000 ($6,000, 50 or older) in a -nondeductible- regular IRA, and then convert it to a Roth account soon after. Income taxes are due on the conversion, but they will be minimal because the account won’t have earned much. – Filing an extension also provides self-employed taxpayers an extra six-months (until October 15th) to fund a SEP-IRA or SIMPLE IRA.

Medical: – Medical deductions need to exceed 7.5% of your adjusted gross income to be deductible on Schedule A (if you qualify). – Contribute to health savings accounts. You may deduct up to $6,250 per family ($3,100 single) for a health savings account if you had an approved -high-deductible- health plan linked to the health-savings account. The contributions may be made until April 15th.

Real Estate: – Remember to deduct your personal real estate taxes and mortgage interest on Schedule A. – If you refinanced your mortgage, be sure to properly deduct the points paid if any. – Points paid when you refinance may be able to be amortized and deducted over the life of the loan.

Charitable Gifts: – Employees who donate to charities via payroll deduction often forget to include the donations on their personal tax returns. The number isn’t on the W-2 form, and often there is no letter from the charity. – Donors may not deduct their labor or time, but they may deduct mileage or uniforms. For 2012 the allowance is 14 cents a mile. Board members or certain others may also deduct unreimbursed expenses for attending a conference.

Important Dates: – Feb 28th: File information returns, including Forms 1098, 1099, W-2G and form W-3 with Copy A for payments made during 2012. – March 15th: S Corporation tax returns and tax payments are due. – Remember April 15th is when Individual and Partnership tax returns and tax payments are due. Only tax returns can receive a six-month extension, not tax payments.

If you have any other tax related questions, we at Presti and Naegele are at your disposal.

About the author: Here at Presti and Naegele we offer tax services for both businesses and individuals. Investing in tax preparation services and income tax services in this period of the year can become profitable for both companies and individual taxpayers. If you have any tax accounting related questions, our staff is available on phone or via email (www.prestinaegele.com/contact) and if you decide to visit us in person, you are welcomed in our offices in Manhattan, Long Island and Philadelphia.

Review Online Post Graduate Degree Program At Baker College

Take your career to the next level at Baker College Online! If you are a busy professional and want to advance your degree in the shortest possible time, Baker College Online can help you achieve your goals – on your schedule and on your terms.

Online Post Graduate Degree Programs at Baker College Online

Doctorate Degree

Business Administration Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)

This online degree program is designed as a 90 quarter credit program over a period of three years. The Doctor of Business Administration curriculum combines a rigorous interdisciplinary content in addition to research seminars with assessed scholarly and professional development activities which is organized around two portfolios, the Professional Activity Portfolio and the Scholarly Activities Portfolio. Over the course of the program you will learn about real problems facing todays business leaders and managers. You will develop excellent skills such as being able to work independently and moving from a more structured content during your first year in the program to supervised scholarly activities in the second year then to independent research in your area of interest in the third year. There are five areas of specialization that you may choose from or you can design your own specialized field of study.

Masters Degree

Accounting Master of Business Administration (MBA)

If you already have an undergraduate degree in accounting and want to take additional classes that are essential to your managerial position then the accounting major degree program of advanced accounting is for you. To enroll in this program you must have a minimum of 16 quarter hours of undergraduate accounting and should include at least eight hours of principles of accounting and at least four hours of intermediate accounting

Finance Master of Business Administration (MBA)

This is a very intensive study program with emphasis on the most modern concepts, problem-solving techniques and theories analytic methods.

General Business Master of Business Administration (MBA)

This program combines the best of both conventional academic training and applied learning. If you do not have a specific need for a major, then this degree is designed especially for you. There is no need to declare a major; you can complete the core MBA course and then select three other online courses within the MBA program.

Health Care Management Master of Business Administration (MBA)

This program is designed to combine the best of both academic training and field-based learning with an emphasis on the allied health field. The curriculum stresses business discipline which is essential to the smooth operation of any organization or business.

Human Resource Management Master of Business Administration (MBA)

If you work within the personnel or human resources area, this degree is perfect for you. You will be trained on very specific issues that confront the human resource manager from day to day plus a variety of topics and issues that is highly relevant to the changing workplace.

Information Management Master of Business Administration (MBA)

If you wish to learn more about information resources outside of the information systems area, then this program is for you. You will acquire an understanding in managerial and leadership techniques, emerging technologies, management support system and information systems application among others.

Information Systems Master of Business Administration (MS)

This program is designed for professionals in this field who are responsible for managing the development, implementation, operation and acquisition of information systems in a variety of organizational setting.

Leadership Studies Master of Business Administration (MBA)

If your goal is to advance in upper level administration and management positions, the leadership studies can help you achieve your goals. You will acquire the essential leadership and problem-solving skills among others.

Marketing Master of Business Administration (MBA)

This program is for individual who work within the marketing, public relations or advertising areas of a company. In addition to the core MBA courses you will be exposed to issues that confront marketing managers on a daily basis.

About Baker College

Founded in 1911, Baker College is the largest independent college in the state of Michigan. Baker College is fully accredited by The Higher Learning Commission, and is a member of The North Central Association of colleges and schools. At Baker College online, you will receive job specific training. The training program is focused primarily on educating and training you for rewarding careers. You will be a working professional in no time with an online degree at Baker College.

Degree In Management Sciences And Accounting At The University Of Southampton

Heres a quick overview of the BSc degree in Management Sciences and Accounting offered by the Management School at the University of Southampton for prospective students.

The management sciences component of this BSc degree in Management Sciences and Accounting applies a rational, analytical approach to management, to improve organisational performance.

Using modelling, simulation and other analytical techniques, a management sciences approach can identify alternative strategies and guide practical action.

The accounting component of the BSc Management Sciences and Accounting degree course is concerned with the provision and analysis of information for a variety of purposes.

These include: regulation, resource allocation, and a range of other decision making tasks, both within and outside an organisation.

It is informed by a range of perspectives including those from economics, mathematics, behavioural and political science, psychology and sociology.

Both the management sciences and accounting components of the BSc Management and Accounting degree course carry equal weight in terms of assessment.

At the University of Southampton we have a great track record for producing high-calibre professionals who move into good careers soon after graduation.

A recent survey of Management School graduates showed that 89 per cent were employed or undertaking further study within six months.

This degree in Management Sciences and Accounting is recognised by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), and the Association of International Accountants (AIA).

This recognition means that graduates from the BSc Management Sciences and Accounting degree course will receive exemption from some professional accountancy examinations, depending on what modules they elected to undertake.

It is possible to find out more information about the BSc degree in Management Sciences and Accounting at the University of Southampton by visiting the Management Schools website.

All you have to do is go to www.southampton.ac.uk/management

Just what Accounting Products and services On the net Offer to help Smaller Businesses

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Accounts Payable Audit

Accounts payable audit (APA) departments nowadays are confronted by problems such as price variances, duplicate payments and overpaid taxes, a procedure that may cost a lot of cash and time. Some companies may find it hard to purchase contracts, which have been previously closed and review already paid invoices to check on if few payments were overpaid. One of the complexities that come with company functions they need for efficiency in accounting and recovering lost finances has risen.

Accounts payable audit makes it possible to recover lost duplicate payments, find accrual errors and under deductions. The development of this accounts payable audit went quite a distance in improving the businesses and companies perform their own work. Profit margins are what to anticipate with the APA. The reliability of this has led to the knowledge of how to improve business practices.

An audit involves a complete analysis of the payments made, questions such as why were there are errors when you are performing the calculations are asked. A lot of companies today cope with huge amounts of money meaning that because of small accounting errors thousands and millions are lost while transacting. An APA can be done with a professional; the rise in audit firms makes it evident that clearly companies need these types of services. Audit professionals not just offer you methods to the financial status of the firm but in addition help you recover a huge amount of money. The advantages of accounts payable audit are numerous.

Apart from offering efficiency, the process improves the visibility and instant accessing of documents, with this it’s rare to misplace or loose papers or duplicating invoices.