The recent changes in the tax laws have definitely put small
businesses in a tight spot. There is no denying this fact. But that in
no way means that small businesses cannot work their way around it in
order to mitigate the effects of such aggressive tax laws. For starters,
aggressive year-end tax strategies is not what small business owners
should be banking upon at this point of time. Your tax strategies should
not be stringent. They should be flexible enough to accommodate
benefits or losses incurred due to preplanned or unplanned policies.
A
small business cannot always plan all its expenses in advance. It is
common knowledge that there are times when a small business owner needs
to pump more money into the venture than was planned in order to cover
up some extra efforts that the company is probably making that could be
related to marketing, increased production, etc. Alternately, there are
times when a company is not able to spend as much as it set out to due
to some reasons. This is why planning taxes in advance makes them bound
to a plan and unable to make changes that would benefit them in the long
run.
It is prudent that you try and maximize your deductions in
order to minimize your taxes. When following this advice, keep a tab on
the timing. In case you've had a particularly bad year financially, and
you do not expect a change from this in the next year too, you would be
placed in a lower tax bracket. So you do not need to take deductions
right now, as your taxes would already be low. If things turn around
however, you will be placed in the higher tax bracket, and this is when
you should implement your deductions plan.
It is important that
you as a business owner understand that when you spend $1, it is not $1
worth of tax paid, but $1 worth of money spent. So don't just go about
spending money hastily for no reason in order to save tax.
The
most commonly held false notion surrounding year-end tax planning is
that it is wise to 'zero out your business bank account by 12/31'. While
this is a good way to defer present year's taxes into the next year's
it will not result in any complete tax deferral. Make sure you make your
company's tax strategies keeping the above points in the hindsight.