Tax Planning
With an appointment…
Tax season is a very intense time for a tax professional. Many DON’T want to see the client… less effort, less time, more money! We PREFER to see the client… more deductions, less taxes, more service! Greater deductions and less tax happen when your accountant asks a lot of questions and actively gets to know you. Use a tax professional who enjoys and cares about his work and his clients enough to go the distance! Are you married? We encourage BOTH spouses to attend a tax appointment.
Without an appointment…
Okay. So maybe you’re incredibly organized, don’t have the time to come in, or just plain live too far away! Fill out your organizer and drop it off or mail it in. We will crunch the numbers, touch base on the phone and make sure nothing was missed before finalizing the return.
At Bottom Line, Inc., we know that you must be proactive and diligent when it comes to minimizing your tax liabilities. When you work with us we make sure that tax planning is part of our overall financial strategy and not just something we do at year-end.
You can be confident that our firm is on top of any current developments. At Bottom Line, Inc., we make this a priority by attending frequent tax seminars that keep us up to date on emerging tax developments by reviewing proposed legislation and regulations, new laws, and IRS rulings. We offer tax planning that is practical and proactive that puts your business or personal needs first.
There are several basic tax-cutting strategies that we will consider for your individual and business planning needs:
- Shifting deductions from one year to another in order to have them fall where it will be taxed at a lower rate.
- Deferring tax liabilities through certain investment choices such as pension plan contributions.
- Splitting income among family members or legal entities.
- Growing and preserving your assets by keeping Uncle Sam out of your pockets.
Business Accounting and Bookkeeping
As a small business owner keeping track of your books and accounting transactions is time consuming. With the everyday challenges of running your business, it might not be a practical use of your time to keep track of your books and less time managing your business. We take care of your books for you, so you can get back to the job of managing your business and generating profits!
Each month or quarter Bottom Line, Inc. will do the following procedures for you:
- Reconcile your bank account
- Generate an income statement
- Clean up your general ledger
- Provide unlimited consultations
Bank Reconciliation
Reconciling your business checking account each month allows us to keep your bank account, accounting, and taxes up-to-date. Having us reconcile your account each month allows us to:
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- Detect and prevent excess/unjustified bank charges and ensures transactions are posted correctly by your bank.
- Identify lost checks, lost deposits and unauthorized wire transactions.
- Helps detect and prevent embezzlement of funds from within your company.
- Know how your business is doing? You can’t really know unless all accounts are reconciled and properly accounted for on your financial statements.
- Manage your cash more effectively. Proper management of funds not only saves money, it makes money for you.
- Protect yourself. By timely reconciling and promptly objecting to your bank about any unauthorized, fraudulent or forged checks presented to your bank and paid by that bank, you can relieve your business of responsibility for the shortfall and transfer the risk to the bank.
Income Statement
An income statement allows you to…
- Track revenue and expense trends to determine the operating performance of your business.
- This will allow your business to determine areas that your business is over or under budget.
- Identify specific categories causing unexpected expenditures. Examples, office expenses, supplies, or mail.
- Determine your income tax liability.
Balance Sheet
Is like a credit report. It gives you a snapshot of your business’ financial condition at a specific moment in time.
A balance sheet helps you…
- Quickly get a handle of the financial strength and capabilities of your business.
- Determine if your business is in a position to expand.
- Determine if your business can easily handle the normal financial ebbs and flows of revenue and expenses.
- Determine if you need to get an additional line of credit to increase your cash flow.
- Determine if your business has been slowing down payables to forestall an inevitable cash shortage.
Maintaining a Clean General Ledger
The general ledger is the core of your company’s financial records. These records constitute the main hub of your system. Since every transaction flows through the general ledger, a problem with your general ledger throws off all your books.
Having us review your general ledger system each period allows us to search for any discrepancies such as double billings or any unrecorded payments. Then we’ll fix the discrepancies so your books are always accurate and kept in the best shape.
Payroll
Payroll can be a very time consuming task for small business owners. Bottom Line, Inc. offers payroll solutions that meet your business needs and enable you to spend more time running your company.
Why have us handle your payroll…
- We will prepare payroll checks and calculate related tax liabilities on a weekly or periodic basis for business entities.
- We will also prepare payroll tax returns on a quarterly basis along with year-end W-2’s and 1099’s.
This will help you to save time and cut costs. You will be able to use your staff more efficiently by letting us handle payroll and the associated legal details. In addition, this allows you to focus on Core Competencies.
New Business Entity Formation
We know that starting your own business can be stressful and an exciting time for you. Making the right decisions is a good start for your company. There are many tasks and decisions that will put you on the right path to a healthy and successful future. To accomplish this Bottom Line, Inc. will help you avoid the common pitfalls that many new small business owners make when starting their new venture.
Our team will help you…
- With your initial business plan.
- Determine your start-up capital needs.
- Advising you on the tax implications on your entity structure for your new business (i.e., C-Corporation, S-Corporation, Limited Liability Company, Partnership, Sole Proprietor, etc.)
- Prepare and file your application for the entity’s Federal Tax Identification Number with the IRS.
- Assistance working with your attorney to review Secretary of State Filings.
- Provide bookkeeping advice as well as suggestions on how to properly use and maintain the corporate bank accounts.
- Provide payroll and payroll tax filing when you bring on your first employee.
- Prepare any necessary City Business Tax or license registration.
- Assist in preparing projected financial statements or cash flow projections that are usually necessary for start-up financing.
Audit Representation
Sometimes audits happen. Fortunately only about 1% of the individual taxpayers are audited in a year. It can be very unnerving to receive an IRS or state audit letter in the mail. Audits will require you to gather all your records and substantiate the financial information reported on your tax returns.
With the federal and state deficits soaring, the authorities leave no stone unturned in its mission to determine the accuracy of your tax return. Auditors are trained to extract more information from you than you have a legal obligation to provide and know that most people fear them and are ignorant of their rights.
In most cases our clients do not even have to speak with the IRS nor is it encouraged for you to correspond with them. We handle it all for you so that you need not take time off from your business or job to handle the bureaucracies of the IRS. You can simply forward the notice to us and we will handle it from there.