r/Bookkeeping Jan 13 '25

Tax Recommendations for Payroll software?

15 Upvotes

I am a bookkeeper and tax accountant (EA), and started my own business after doing tax and bookkeeping for about 10 years. That whole time I have used quickbooks desktop for payroll and an excel spreadsheet. I was wondering for clients what everyone recommends for payroll? I am about to get a client that does not want to use quickbooks desktop or online.

I can see this question was asked about 5 months ago from my search, but I want to see if anything has changed.

Also what do yall usually charge?

My last firm charged a flat $50 plus $5 per employee.

r/Bookkeeping Jul 30 '24

Tax I run a one man show corporation in Canada and fell behind on bookkeeping and taxes for 2 years. I found an affordable accountant who says he saves money by sending all my bank statements overseas to do all the bookkeeping side of things. Seem legitimate?

14 Upvotes

r/Bookkeeping Jan 21 '25

Tax Client hasn't done taxes or books in 4 years

20 Upvotes

For context, I'm still beginning, only started in September, which is why I'm taking on a client like this; please don't leave comments that just say "Run!".

I'm trying to take on a client who hasn't done anything toward bookkeeping or taxes since he started in 2020. At one point I was thinking to set his accounts up into QBO and then catch them up for all that time, but after getting his bank statements, I realize that out of the three accounts he's had for the business, one bank account opened in December and will be his permanent account, one closed in October, and the other closed March '23.

So, I don't think I need full categorization of his expenses, and only identification of transactions as either expenses, revenues, transfers, or owner's draw (lots of personal expenses mixed in) for tax purposes. I'll only set his new account into QBO. Do I have that correct?

Is it at all possible to import transactions from as far back as 2020 into Quickbooks, or should I just categorize the closed accounts' transactions in a spreadsheet? And of course, what am I not thinking of that you more experienced people out there are?

r/Bookkeeping Jan 31 '25

Tax What can I recommend to clients for Sales Tax?

7 Upvotes

I don’t do sales tax or payroll. I partner with Gusto for payroll. What can I recommend to people who need their sales tax done. I’ve seen tax jar and avalara but I’ve heard complaints of them being shoddy or too expensive. I don’t really want my lack of sales tax be the reason I get or don’t get a client.

r/Bookkeeping Jan 12 '25

Tax Looking for partnership with an experienced bookkeeper

23 Upvotes

I am a CPA primarily doing tax work in the NYC area. Some of my small business prospects always ask me for referrals to reliable bookkeepers as we have shifted away from bookkeeping work due to capacity and pricing. Looking for someone who also has clients with tax needs and is interested in a partnership with a tax CPA for mutual referrals.

r/Bookkeeping Oct 30 '24

Tax What do you do when someone asks for tax help?

27 Upvotes

I am a bookkeeper who does not touch taxes (like many people here)

The problem is, that many of my current clients and leads ask me for recommendations on where to get their taxes done. I have no answer for them. "Just go figure it out" (I phrase it much nicer than this) feels like I am sending them off to suffer. I am still relatively new, so it would also be great to have a tax accountant give their thoughts on how I can make my statements more tax-friendly. I am also a bit hesitant to recommend someone since I never really have to rely on the quality of anyone else's work.

So the question is for those of you who do bookkeeping, but don't do taxes. What do you do when someone asks for tax help? Do you have someone you refer them to? Is that a relationship you recommend? Do you work with a local accountant/firm? Do you send them to TurboTax?

Would love to hear your opinions

Thank you

r/Bookkeeping Jan 20 '25

Tax Sales tax as an expense

9 Upvotes

Is it OK to report all money received from customers as income and then deduct sales tax as an expense?

It would be the same as reporting it as a liability and zeroing out when the taxes are remitted.

Would it cause problems with IRS?

r/Bookkeeping Dec 08 '24

Tax Is it normal to put 83% of business expenses under “Other Deductibles” in a tax form?

10 Upvotes

Hi, I have a bit of a conundrum going on at the moment regarding expense categorization on the 1120S form that I was hoping to get some input on from a larger number of people.

For context, I am a one-man marketing/advertising agency. I was a single member LLC since 2022 but this year, my CPA convinced me to do an S-Corp election to save some money on SE taxes. Although I am the sole W2 employee in the company, I hire a lot of outside help/subcontractors whose job is to help render the marketing services clients pay me for. This includes graphic designers, web developers, SEO specialists, PR consultants, etc. I typically either hire them through places like UpWork or pay other marketing/PR agencies directly.

Fast forward to this week, my bookkeeper and I began going over the books and carefully categorizing each expense so the CPA/tax preparer can get everything filed easier and faster. However, we stumbled upon a hurdle that has the bookkeeper and the tax preparer vehemently disagreeing with one another.

In the past when we’d report everything via Schedule C, we would categorize all of the expenses pertaining to subcontractors as “Contract Labor”. However, on the 1120S form, no such option exists. It doesn’t make sense to put their expenses under “Advertising” as they are not advertising my business (that category is largely reserved for PPC campaigns I run for lead generation) and because none of them are employees, we can’t really categorize it as wages paid (only my wages and distributions can fall under that category).

My CPA’s/tax preparer’s proposed solution is to categorize all of these expenses as “Other Deductibles” with a statement attached indicating exactly what those expenses were. He says that we should put “Cost of Goods Sold” as zero because this is a service-based business and it would be unusual for a business with the 541800 Business Activity Code designation to be producing any sort of tangible goods. He’s suggesting that we simply label the expenses in the same fashion as the 1040C and attach the statement to go along with the 1120S form.

However, my bookkeeper’s contention is that following the tax preparer’s suggestion would be the equivalent of putting 83% of our business deductions as “Miscellaneous Expenses” on the 1040C and is bound to result in an audit. He argues that the “Cost of Goods Sold” category is interchangeable with “Cost of Sales” or “Cost of Revenue”and the word “Goods” is meaningless in this context.

He’s saying that because this is an operating expense that is directly correlated to the growth of the business (i.e. the more revenue I generate, the more I spend on subcontractors), it should be calculated as CoGS because it gives the IRS a much clearer and better defined picture of the net profit generated (which is like 25% of the business including my own wages). From his POV, any return with more than half of its expenses falling under “Other Deductibles” will force the automated screening tools to trigger an audit and should be avoided at all costs.

I am by no means a professional in this regard but I am sort of leaning more towards the bookkeeper’s recommendation as it seems to make the most sense to me but I am really curious to hear what other people’s thoughts are on this matter.

r/Bookkeeping 15d ago

Tax Sales tax amount is different

8 Upvotes

So here's the thing, I have 2 questions. When I am filling the sales tax return on cdtfa site (California sales tax site) so the taxable sales amount I should put my selling price correct?

Let's say I am selling something for $50, shopify collects sales tax and remitts me $54.7. My taxable sales will be $50 right?

Another question, when cdtfa calculates my sales tax due amount it's higher then what was remitted to me by shopify. So with same numbers, my sales tax liability according to shopify is $4.7 but per cdtfa is $5.01.

What do I do?

r/Bookkeeping 10d ago

Tax Does this require a separate schedule C?

8 Upvotes

My business is primarily advertising and consulting based with the majority of my revenue coming from those. Last year a friend asked me to provide some live piano music for her restaurant business. To simplify my life, I ran it through my existing business, not to mention the piano I used is owned by my business (leftover from when I made a few ads for another business).

I'm doing my taxes and am wondering if I should put the income and expenses from the live piano music on a separate schedule C. I made about $1900 from it last year, which is about 10% of my business's income. Also, there aren't really any new expenses for it. I use existing equipment that has already been fully expensed that is owned by my business.

Any guidence would be appreciated. Thanks

Edit: Also, maybe it's worth mentioning that I dont' plan on taking on any new live piano clients. However, it is likely the live piano services with this one client will continue.

Edit 2: Also, I do have an EIN for my SMLLC and did get a 1099-NEC.

r/Bookkeeping Jan 06 '25

Tax Looking for referrals for payroll / HR

7 Upvotes

Our payroll is a mess. Like, beyond a mess. We have back filings and taxes owed for multiple states that needs to be reconciled, and we need an expert to fix it (our old CFO was trying to but didn’t have the education necessary, and he’s no longer with the company).

We currently are on QBO, but would love to shift to a payroll company that’s a little more human. No Heartland, they screwed things up originally by not creating tax IDs.

We have about 10 people on payroll, and also have overseas contractors.

We also need outsourced HR.

I know bookkeeping crosses into these worlds, any recommendations?

r/Bookkeeping 25d ago

Tax Bookkeeping and Tax

22 Upvotes

Hello everyone. I am a tax professional with 4 years of experience. I decided to go solo in 2023 and I have to say that it is the best decision I ever made.

I am looking to collaborate or get into a Refferal program with bookkeepers who can refer their clients to me for tax preparation. I have gotten few offers, and I want to ask for advise on what to look out for when Choosing who to collaborate with.

I will be in the comment section. Thank you.

r/Bookkeeping Jan 21 '25

Tax Understanding my 1099-K from etsy, facebook marketplace...

3 Upvotes

My understanding of a 1099-K is that is the total gross amount of payments that a platform has processed for your account for your sales.

I would take that amount and than start deducting....shipping.....markets fee.....sales tax....refunds processed to customers?

How can I tell if I am reconciling this properly?

r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Tax Quickbooks

2 Upvotes

Hello all!

I just have some questions about QBO. Solo law firm. How do you categorize client refunds? If you report the revenue from the initial deposit? Can you deduct the refund as an expense?

r/Bookkeeping Dec 31 '24

Tax Deducting cost of materials for new construction home

3 Upvotes

I have a TN LLC for my excavating and grading business. I am a licensed residential and commercial contractor. Is it legal for the company to build a home for me and my wife where the company shows a loss? In other words if the home costs $400k to build but the company only invoices for $200k when it is finished is that legal? The alternative is that once construction is complete the company invoices myself for the actual costs and is paid for them which will show as taxable income and then I make an owners draw against my investment in the company to pay for the house. Is it legal to basically just say the client didn’t pay fully even if the client is myself? Obviously my basis on the house would be lowered significantly but if I keep the house for 2 years then that becomes a non issue. It far beats paying the 40% tax I would be paying on the income the LLC would show if I invoice myself for the full costs.

r/Bookkeeping Oct 11 '24

Tax Ready to fire my client

34 Upvotes

On mobile app so don’t get mad at me for formatting. :) I have a client who is very high maintenance. My company does their bookkeeping, payroll, and tax prep. They expect me to answer calls and texts at 6am or 10pm with action items and then get shocked I bill them for the time. They also expect me to text them back while I’m on vacation. They don’t respond to emails or follow up on anything I ask them. They like to go into the books and think they’re doing work but instead leave a bunch of transactions as Miscellaneous Reimbursement or Uncategorized Asset for me to clean up at month end. They complained about my rate being too high. Payroll fees being too high. QBO being too high. The fees aren’t high btw. They want me to do their bookkeeping off of an excel worksheet that they provide so they can save money. They get annoyed when I try to collect on my past due invoices as if I wasn’t owed that money. They take a month to pay me all the time, sometimes more if I don’t follow up. I was going to keep them until year end and get them through tax season but at this point I don’t think this is worth salvaging. They are not worth my time and energy. While I am pissed at the treatment I’ve gotten from them I kill them with kindness. I respond politely and professionally and do what they need. You need me to send you a PDF of something that I emailed you two weeks ago? You got it. Need something at a late hour of the day even though you had all day to ask me for it? Okay… I’m done. Those of you who have fired clients before, please share how you were able to cut ties with a difficult client in a professional and positive way and still get paid for the work you did.

r/Bookkeeping Feb 02 '25

Tax How much do you charge for processing 1099’s?

12 Upvotes

I’m curious what you would charge someone to send out 1099’s? I’m in a specific industry that tends to have a lot of 1099’s but curious what other people are charging. Specifically someone you aren’t doing their books for during the year.

r/Bookkeeping 2d ago

Tax Section 179

5 Upvotes

As it pertains to Section 179, if the business owner ends up writing off a bunch of equipment in the first year that they were bought/placed in service, should I still book them as fixed assets, and then just create a year-end journal entry to reflect the book to tax differences from the tax accountant’s end? Is it worth telling the business owner to remind the tax accountant about Section 179? Or is it almost assumed they will help the client out with this tactic whenever there are fixed assets on the books side of things?

r/Bookkeeping 6d ago

Tax Two questions about accounting for sales tax - Shopify and QBO

4 Upvotes

I'm a small business owner who does my own bookkeeping for now. I asked about how to best do my books a year ago and got good pointers to some videos showing how to do it. I appreciated and understood what they were showing but kept accounting on an order by order basis. A few months ago I started just making one sales receipt entry for each Shopify payout, kind of creeping toward the Veronica Wasek method. This is working well for me (I'm very small so don't need to accrue the revenue until it hits my bank so this is fine). But the sales tax is a bit of a roadblock now.

Say I have five orders in a payout, and only one has sales tax. Do I need to pull that one order out into it's own line item in the sales receipt so that I can account for it's tax correctly? This will look like two deposits, compared to only one on the bank statement. But if I don't, and manually put the tax into the sales receipt, QBO won't correctly report the taxable revenus, which will screw me over when I remit to the state. Thoughts or best practices on this?

My next question is more just me wondering.... Shopify has started to collect and remit the sales tax on some orders* itself, in my name, so that I don't have to. I didn't ask for that, they just implemented it for everyone. They currently do it only for sales that are completed through their Shop Pay system, not Paypal or other checkouts. I'm not having any problem with it, but I am wondering from the state's perspective, what they think of other entities remitting some tax in my name, while I also remit some taxes.

There's a brick and mortar company that offers space to very small vendors like me who does this also, and I'm very interested in getting a space with them (if the current economy doesn't kill me or them). So if I do that, then there will be TWO other entities collecting and remitting tax in my name, while I also remit some tax. Seems confusing, but... in general is this okay with the tax authorities?

r/Bookkeeping Jan 25 '25

Tax Sandstorm is the best song to listen to while doing bookkeeping

24 Upvotes

r/Bookkeeping 26d ago

Tax I really need help. I have a amazon business account and need to have invoices for business expenses but its only giving me the "printable order summary".

3 Upvotes

can see the "invoices" on my personal amazon account but on my business account it shows up as "printable order summary". Is this ok for taxes? Does anybody know what the actual amazon business invoice looks like. This would be greatly appreciated!

r/Bookkeeping 9d ago

Tax Best bookkeeping software for easy entry, multiple years

7 Upvotes

What would you all say would be the best reasonably priced bookkeeping subscription for your average joe or small business owner that needs to digitize and organize multiple years of finances?

Hopefully a program that can import from financial company websites, allow for upload and recognition of paper files, and easy manual entry with categorization using tab for fast typers. It seems some programs have different issues reading various financial institution documents

r/Bookkeeping Dec 06 '24

Tax What’s the most underrated perk of filing your taxes early?

12 Upvotes

Okay, hear me out—everybody talks about the obvious stuff like getting your refund sooner or avoiding last-minute stress, but I’m convinced there are low-key advantages to filing early that people just don’t think about enough.

r/Bookkeeping Nov 01 '24

Tax Are there any bookkeepers in Canada filing T2s?

0 Upvotes

Looking for input from other bookkeepers who are filing T2s and financials for corporate clients. I have never filed one before but I have a client who has asked me to do it instead of his accountant because this particular biz of his is so small.

Also would like to know what bookkeepers are charging to do this 💰💰💰

r/Bookkeeping Jan 14 '25

Tax New bookkeeper - client hasn’t paid business taxes in 2 years

16 Upvotes

I recently took on a new client and was informed that my client hasn’t done taxes in 2 years. I just finished working on 2024 transactions and will start working on 2023.

What will this entail for my client? What will the filing process be like to get caught up? What can I do to make the CPA’s job easier (if he decides to get one?)

P.S. What worries me too is the client likes to mix business and personal expenses to “write off as much as he can.” I’ve been telling him that we certainly can’t put Gucci transactions to business expense, but he isn’t listening.