by Domainguy | May 26, 2016 | Uncategorized
Welcome to Alvarez Tax Service LLC. We are thrilled to join the social media world and to provide you with upcoming events and exciting tax news!!!
by Domainguy | Oct 13, 2018 | Bookkeeping
The life of a small business owner, especially in competitive markets like Orange County and Southern California, is stressful. You don’t just have to worry about keeping your boss happy and paying your bills, you are the boss and have to keep your employees motivated and pay them as well as your own expenses. Throw in plans for expansion and exceeding client expectations, and your plate is already overflowing.
Check out these 5 easy tips for reducing your stress so you can stay focused on running a successful business.
Get organized
Set aside time every day to identify your tasks. You can do this at any time but consider starting your day with this exercise. Not only will it help you focus on what needs to be done, but will help you plan your day, week, and month.
Prioritize
Most of your projects will have multiple tasks that need to be completed at different times, so identify what needs to be done urgently, what can wait until later, and what you can delegate to someone else — keep reading for more information on this critical tip. Once you prioritize your workload, you can get started and enjoy the satisfaction of checking things off your list.
Find a mentor
As a business leader, you spend a lot of time supporting and celebrating the success of your team, which is great for morale, but who’s your cheerleader? Finding a mentor who can offer you support and celebrate your successes as well as help you find your way through challenges can improve your motivation and give you positive reinforcement.
Take care of your health
It’s also critical that you take care of your physical and emotional health. For example, leave yourself time for lunch and make sure to eat nutritious meals, at least most of the time. You should also make time for 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day. It might sound like a lot, but a quick walk after dinner can help you maintain a healthy body weight and protect your cardiovascular health.
Delegate
And finally, learn to delegate. Whether it’s a task for a member of your team or outsourcing business administration responsibilities like payroll and accounting, find the person with the expertise to make your life easier.
The experts at Alvarez Tax Services, a leading business and tax firm located in Orange County Ca provide the support you need to run your business efficiently, so you can focus on what you do best. Contact Alvarez Tax Services today for the expert bookkeeping service your business needs.
by Domainguy | Sep 25, 2018 | Tax Facts
Common Tax Mistakes by New Business Owners
Starting a business of your own is, naturally, a source of immense pride and satisfaction. Knowing that you actively run a business of your own is a deeply satisfying experience, and something that is sure to leave you with a greater level of self-belief and happiness than ever before.
At the same time, though, running a business on your own takes no small amount of effort and hard work to make that possible.
Taxation is one of the most important parts of business management, and is something you need to invest huge amounts of time into for a long-lasting business.
Prosperity matters, and some of the most common tax mistakes that people can find themselves coping with are bound to come up in your new business. To help you avoid such frustrations and challenges, you should almost certainly look to avoid making the following common yet damaging tax mistakes long-term:
- A major failure that many businesses make at first is not deducting the costs of the business starting up in the first place. A common mistake, this can mean that your business cannot deduct all start-up costs until you make your first sale as a business.
- Any start-up expenses invested before your first sale cannot be deducted until that takes place.
- The total lack of record keeping. Receipts, for example, should be kept for anything that you think could maybe come back to be an issue in the past. Take the time needed to look further into this and you might realize just how much challenge and effort awaits if you don’t follow this process accordingly.
- Any failure to be able to show records, especially early on, is one reason why new businesses can struggle to keep the IRS on-side.
- A common tax mistake by new business owners, too, is to try and put a bit of personal lifestyle stuff in with the business expenses. At the start it can be a legitimate excuse that you spend X on Y as an experiment to see if it would help the business, which it didn’t.
That being said, anything that stands out too much should be avoided from being included – the last thing you need is the IRS wondering why you have a swimming pool in your expenses!
Do yourself a favor, then, and invest some money and capital into getting a qualified Southern California Tax Service Company. Together, you can ensure taxes are genuine from year one.
#commontaxmistakes #newbusiness #businessowners #taxtips #tax2018 #taxblog
by Domainguy | Aug 30, 2018 | Bookkeeping
HERE ARE 4 TIPS TO GET YOUR BUSINESS RECORD KEEPING ON TRACK.
1) Separate Business & Personal Bank Accounts
The law varies depending on your type of business entity, but the reality is you should keep your business and personal finances separate. Most banks offer low cost checking accounts you can open and use solely for business. Just having all your business transactions run through their own account will help you keep your business and personal finances separate, which is important. It will also give you the most basic look at what money is coming in and out of your business.
2) Use Accounting Software
There are some great options out there that range in cost from Free up to $100’s per month depending on the size and complexity of your business transactions. Most have a free trial. Try testing a few to see what works for you, or talk to a bookkeeper to see what software they would recommend for business size and type. A few options you might consider are Quickbooks, Freshbooks, or Xero. Even if you are using a simple spreadsheet, that is a step in the right direction.
3) Scan Your Receipts
Receipts are the proof that your expense was indeed business related. In our world of technology and smartphones, there is really no excuse to not having record of your receipts. Many accounting softwares now have receipt scanning built-in, so you can snap the receipt on your smartphone and it auto loads into the software. You can also use Evernote to snap pictures of receipts to save in your digital filing cabinet. I strongly recommend storing your receipts in digital form. This way they won’t fade, degrade, or get lost as easily (We all know how tricky they can be!) Plus with all of the things we buy online, most of our receipts are already digital.
4) Hire a Professional Tax Preparer
Do it yourself Software is great for many people, but if you aren’t sure how to answer the automated questionnaire then you’re out of luck and it won’t think the ask the questions a tax professional will. As much as we all want to be able to save money and do it ourselves, you’re not a tax expert. How do you know what is and isn’t deductible; how to properly depreciate vs deduct; whether or not you need to file 1099’s for those you have paid but weren’t employees; or how much to pay in estimated taxes? If any of those terms confused you, that is good sign you want to work with a professional, and save the frustrations of trying to do it yourself. If you need help, please consider Alvarez Tax Services, you can contact us by calling us at 714-400-9201.
by Domainguy | Aug 24, 2018 | Bookkeeping
3 Bookkeeping Mistakes, Don’t do this!
Running your own business? Even tiny bookkeeping mistakes can end up being a huge pain. Here are 3 mistakes to avoid.
#1 Completing your own tax return – Running your own business is complicated enough, and it’s always better to have a professional do your taxes. If you end up doing it yourself and you make a mistake, you might draw attention of the IRS.
#2 Combining business and your own personal expenses – When you just start running your usiness, you might get into the bad habit of using your personal account or credit card for the occasional business purchases, or you end up making a personal purchase with business funds. Don’t do this, this makes for very messy bookkeeping because you will have to sort this out later, and you might miss out on some really good tax write offs.
#3 Throwing away reciepts – As you know, most of us throw away our everyday personal reciepts, but it’s a must to save business receipts. When doing taxes, your accountant will have an easier time to include all your expenses. And if the IRS decides to look into your return, you’ll have the peace of mind to proved that your write offs are accurate and true.
Need more tips or help, we are just a phone call away.
Contact us at: 714-400-9201
by Domainguy | Aug 9, 2018 | Bookkeeping
Keeping good records always pays off in the long run
by Domainguy | Aug 1, 2018 | Bookkeeping
“Behind Every
Good Business
Is A Great
Bookkeeper“
by Domainguy | Jul 27, 2018 | Bookkeeping
Top 5 Bookkeeping Tips
- Keep all your receipts
- Reconcile bank account regularly
- Follow up unpaid invoices
- Put money aside for tax
- Keep books up to date
by Domainguy | May 16, 2018 | Tax News
On April 30, 2018, the California Supreme Court issued its long-awaited opinion in Dynamex Operations West, Inc. v. Superior Court, clarifying the standard for determining whether workers in California should be classified as employees or as independent contractors for purposes of the wage orders adopted by California’s Industrial Welfare Commission (“IWC”).
The Court held that there is a presumption that individuals are employees, and that an entity classifying an individual as an independent contractor bears the burden of establishing that such a classification is proper under the “ABC test” used in some other jurisdictions.
To meet this burden, the hiring entity must establish each of the following three factors, commonly known as the “ABC Test”:
(A) that the worker is free from the control and direction of the hiring entity in connection with the performance of the work, both under the contract for the performance of the work and in fact; and
(B) that the worker performs work that is outside the usual course of the hiring entity’s business; and
(C) that the worker is customarily engaged in an independently established trade, occupation, or business of the same nature as the work performed.
Fail just one part, and the worker is an employee under California wage and hour law. This new test is even stricter than most other states’ “ABC Tests”, which usually include two ways that Part B can be satisfied.
California employers will now need to reevaluate the way they treat independent contractors under the “ABC Test” to determine whether any or all such workers should be reclassified.
