Audit-Proofing Your Meal & Entertainment Expenses

When looking for deductions to add to your taxes, don’t overlook your meal and entertainment expenses. These types of expenses must be “ordinary” and “necessary” to your business or trade and must be “directly related to” or “associated with” the active conduct of business. In order for the IRS to allow these deductions, documentation is […]

Are You Required to File 1099s?

If you use independent contractors to perform services for your business and you pay them $600 or more for the year, you are required to issue them a Form 1099-MISC after the end of the year to avoid facing the loss of the deduction for their labor and expenses. The 1099s for 2012 must be […]

Rental Owners Need to Prepare for the New 2011 Reporting Requirement

If you are a rental owner and during 2011 make payments of $600 or more to a service provider (such as a plumber, painter, or accountant) in the course of earning rental income, the 2010 Small Business Jobs Act says that you are required to provide an information return (typically Form 1099-MISC) to IRS and […]

Income Tax Document Roundup

If you haven’t begun to do so already, you will soon begin to sort through a year’s worth of accumulated cancelled checks and receipts to identify the items you need for preparation of your tax return. Bear in mind, however, that in some cases a cancelled check or other proof that you paid an expense […]