Everybody makes mistakes, and that’s pretty normal. However, entrepreneurs’ mistakes have significant repercussions for a newly developed business, as it has not matured enough to sustain them. When the errors are related to taxes, you can get stuck in a long-term trap hard to overcome. This is why it’s essential to understand some of the most glaring mistakes so that you can avoid them in the future.
Tax structuring and placing your business at the right location are two of the most prominent challenges entrepreneurs face. The common mistakes entrepreneurs should avoid early include keeping a low personal liability and setting up costs. That can only happen if your business is in a vicinity that you know a lot about. This will be where you live in many cases as you know laws and regulations governing businesses in that area. Once entrepreneurs can structure and place their business properly, they can invest their time developing their products and improving their services as there will then be plenty of time for that.
Not Collecting Sales Tax for Online Sales
New business ventures that are related to e-commerce often fall prey to assumptions. They assume that they do not have to pay sales tax for online purchases because they are not supposed to collect them. That is one of the glaring mistakes that entrepreneurs can make. The selling of online products or services is bound to local taxation laws. If the state or city has laws that govern you to collect the sales tax, you should collect it and file the returns.
The issue of online sales tax becomes even more complicated with the passage of the Marketplace Fairness Act. According to the act, all non-exempted merchants are supposed to collect taxes from individual customers located in the vicinity of the law. E-commerce businesses are thriving in this digital age. The government is optimizing the laws that govern these businesses to ensure the steady influx of tax from these business ventures. Companies are bound to abide by these laws, and being aware of them is the first step in ensuring their implementation.
Not Keeping Financial Records
Keeping accurate financial records is a tough yet mandatory job for a newly established business venture. Knowing about your financial position is critical to your business’s success as it will keep you out of issues related to taxation.
Any new business’s initial focus is to up their sales one way or another and creates a solid customer base for their products and services. That makes sense because you have ventured into a business from your account, and you aim to earn some profit. However, by the end of the year, you are left with a pile of paperwork and taxes that are left unattended because all of your focus has been to increase your sales. In such a scenario, you would either hire an accountant or try to file the tax returns yourself, which can be a pretty bad idea.
Some of the most common mistakes entrepreneurs make include improper handling of receipts and records of the business sales and expenses that could lead to several problems. You could overstate your expenses or profits and end up paying higher taxes than otherwise. The point is that if you are not careful in maintaining proper paperwork for your business daily, the result might not be in your favor. Apart from that, you would also not have an accurate understanding of your business’s financial standing, which is a lot more hazardous than dealing with taxation issues.
How to fix this problem
Everyone makes mistakes, but it is your ability to fix them that makes the difference. Accounting is the basic language of business. However, you do not have to be an accountant to keep track of your financial matters. Hiring a bookkeeper and getting online software will solve most of your issues related to organizing financial information. You need to review the numbers weekly and monthly to have a clear picture of what’s going on.
Out of all the mistakes entrepreneurs make, waiting to hire an accountant at the end of a year is one of them. Involving a professional in the process earlier rather than later could help you avoid any undesired circumstances related to paying your taxes. Lastly, keep your business books clear of personal expenses, at least for the first year.
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