The Tax Preparation Blog

Archive for July, 2008

Question: Does anyone know a good tax service franchise? I’m looking to open a tax office that offers instant checks.

Answer: There are a few out there, you can check out Franchise.com for a list but whatever you do don’t go with Liberty Tax Service, My friend owns a franchise with them and they are total screw ups, they don’t support their franchisee’s at all and they take huge royalty fees and give almost nothing back. The whole marketing plan this past year was to give all their offices a couple of boxes of t-shirts and stupid foam crowns to hand out…LOL…what a joke. He was so mad, he’s trying to sell his stores now.

Fortis Inc. Announces Offering of 10,000,000 Series H First Preference Shares

ST. JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR–(Marketwire – Jan. 11, 2010) – NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION TO U.S. NEWS WIRE SERVICES OR DISSEMINATION IN THE UNITED STATES. Fortis Inc. (“Fortis” or the “Corporation”) (TSX:FTS) announced today that it has entered into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by TD Securities Inc., Scotia Capital Inc., RBC Capital Markets and CIBC, pursuant to which they …

Ask John Hewitt | Liberty Tax Service | Tax Franchise Opportunity

Question: Canada income tax – file income as an independent contractor?

I’m looking for some info on filing income from being an independent contractor. I worked 6 months in 2008 doing contract work (graphic design). I gave the company invoices and was paid monthly with no taxes or other deductions taken off. I’ve been putting aside a certain amount from each cheque based on an income tax calculator.

Now that it’s almost tax time, I’m not sure how to file this income – I usually use Quicktax or another software to do it myself. Do I claim it as small business income (T2125)? I read that if you make under 30k (my amount is roughly 20k) from small business, you don’t need a GST number – I don’t have a GST number so I am hoping this is correct.

I may end up getting an accountant to do my taxes for me, but if it itsn’t too complicated I’d like to do it myself as I like to learn about these things and do it on my own.

Answer: You might want to get a GST registration number anyway, as you can get a refund of GST paid on items that you purchased to create your designs. It’s called an Input Tax Credit.

Laurentian Bank Offers Savers Some Practical Tools to Help Maximize Their Savings While Reducing Their Taxes

With only a few weeks remaining before the end of the RRSP season, now is the time to be thinking about tax returns. And when we are talking about taxes, we also need to be thinking RRSPs.

Question: Starting an online business, wondering if I have to register as an LLC or something?

A friend and I are starting an online business where we are going to be writing resumes for people and stuff- Do we have to register with someone as a business or file separate papers with the IRS? We were just thinking we could have the website and everything and just claim the extra income on our personal tax returns. Also, Do we have to become an LLC or something? I just want to make sure we trademark our ideas and don’t break the law. But we don’t have a lot of money to register(meaning $40-$50 is probably the max). Can anyone help, possibly a tax attorney?

Answer: I incorporated my podcast as an LLC, in retrospect it was kind of uncessesary. The biggest benefit to an LLC as opposed to a good old propretorship is liability protection. If your LLC gets sued, the plaintiff can’t go after your personal assets, i.e. your house. That is not the case with non-corporate entites. If you’re not concrned about that, you can certainly just claim everything for the business (including losses, which you can write off) on your personal tax return.

FYI, I incorporated through Legalzoom, the cheapest way to go, and it was still ~$600

Tentative tax deal marks health care breakthrough

WASHINGTON (AP) – In a major breakthrough, union leaders bowed Thursday to White House demands for a new tax on high-cost health plans as part of landmark health care legislation taking final shape in intensive negotiations. The tentative agreement on the tax, which included significant concessions by the administration, was disclosed as leading lawmakers set an informal timetable of Friday for …

Powerful Online Law Firm Marketing

Wells Fargo loses case on tax deductions

Wells Fargo has lost a lawsuit over more than $115 million in corporate tax deductions based on complex transactions.

Nordlinger Challenge to California’s Proposition 13

The Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions software is not only among the most powerful financial management programs of Intuit. It can even be considered as one of the most powerful and efficient management software in the market today. Indeed, only this solution can boast of being flexible and efficient enough to meet the different needs of various small and middle market businesses. While others strive in their complexity (and their hefty price tags), it is proud for being practical (costing only a couple thousand of dollars for the basic package) yet powerful.

Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions, it should be known, is an update of Intuit’s earlier Quickbooks products: the Pro and the Premier Editions of Quickbooks. And, of course, it has everything these two editions have and can do everything these products can do and more.

So why should companies opt for Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions, especially when the other Intuit software may seem be sufficient enough?

For one, this offers more space and a much powerful function compared to the Pro and the Premier. And while your business may have used these editions perfectly before, it is only imperative that you adjust the software you use according to the growth of your company. It is still best for small and middle-sized business, to be sure, but its functions and feature fit the growing needs of businesses and companies today, taking into consideration that the business of entrepreneurship is always changing and evolving.

For instance, Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions can store more information on employees and vendors, among others, compared to the previous Quickbooks. And certainly, this is an essential benefit for businesses that have outgrown the storage capacity of Pro or Premier.

Also, Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions does the previous editions better by allowing five simultaneous users. And this is only for the basic package. If your business is big enough to actually have more than five users, it can accommodate that for an additional price. Still saves you the trouble of getting more than one software, plus the additional bonus of systems integration. After all, no one department in a company can exist in a vacuum. This allows your employees and the company head to access any data stored in it.

Still, while using the same software, Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions allows employees to use the software differently since it has a lot of features and functions. And these functions are not even limited to financial management. With Quickbooks Point of Sale integration, this could be more beneficial.

Basically, Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions is an effective tool for businesses that haven’t integrated their financial data yet. It is very inconvenient to track information and data in several locations. How can one use these data properly if finding them is already posing to be a very difficult task? Quickbooks Enterprise Solutions choose no bounds. In can be used by any small and middle market business looking for the one great software that can make financial management easier.

Last-minute Tax Preparation Help

Haven’t filed your taxes yet? You can still make the April 15 deadline with the help of any one of these programs. So gather your W-2s, receipts, and beverage of…

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