Prepare For Your Tax Return

February is coming to a close and March is upon us. My how time flies when you are busy. Just six and a half more weeks until April fifteenth. Tax information is rolling in and our CPA is working every day including weekends. Even though I do not prepare tax returns, here are some helpful hints for your tax return.



The most important thing you should do to prepare for your tax return is to fill out the tax organizer provided by your CPA. The questions on the organizer will inform you of what documents you need to include in your tax information. Be sure to include all your W-2s and any other income you may have, such as a K-1 for your business or a 1099 if you provided contract or casual labor services. Be certain that you have included all documents for other sources of income or include the amount on your tax organizer.



In addition to your income, you need to enclose documents for your deductions. If you itemize deductions on your return, you will need such items as real estate taxes, state income taxes, mortgage interest and charitable contributions. Other itemized deductions are medical expenses and job and miscellaneous expenses if you are over the specified threshold. If you are a college student, you may be able to deduct your tuition. Also there is a state tax deduction for a part of your homeowners insurance, so be sure to include the declarations page from your insurance provider.



Your CPA should include any tax law changes in your organizer. The more prepared you are with your tax information, the sooner your return can be completed. So the best advice is be prepared.

Tax Season

We are about to enter into the eighth week of tax season. W-2's have been completed and next week we will wrap up 1099's and business licenses. I successfully completed the annual account with over four hundred checks to enter and the tax return has been completed. What seemed like it took me three days, the account actually only took me about nine hours total. I have also prepared fifteen financials which are ready for the tax return preparation stage. There are other accounts which I am through December; however I am still waiting on information from the client to complete the process. I do not complete tax returns as that is the job of the CPA.

One pet peeve of mine as a writeup accountant is when a client purchases Quickbooks and tries to do the bookkeeping on their own. Even though Quickbooks is an accounting software which is user friendly and not too difficult to learn, most of the clients that try to use it have no concept of accounting. Using Quickbooks does not make anyone an accountant. The thing that amuses me the most, is they are really good at creating their own accounts to code checks and often miscode them. Our job is to clean up their mess.

Then there are those that want the accountant to set it up for them and teach them accounting. I love what my boss says about this. "I do not take my car to the mechanic and ask him to explain to me how to fix my vehicle." Let the mechanic fix cars and the accountants do the accounting.Also there are those that complain about their bill for the tax return, because they think they have done the work necessary for them to do the return. They do not understand the work involved in cleaning up the account and properly preparing the statements. There are times when it would have been easier to enter the checks ourselves from the beginning rather than click and change.

Accounting Writeup

Life as an accountant in writeup has many deadlines. In January, the preparation of W-2's is due. February brings the preparation of 1099's and business licenses. In March, there is the completion of documents for property tax assessments. April brings the first quarter of payroll quarterly reports which are due four times in a year. During all these months and every month thereafter, payroll tax deposits are due by the fifteenth and sales taxes are due by the twentieth.

Everyone is familiar with the April fifteenth deadline for federal taxes and the May fifteenth deadline for state taxes. The preparation of corporate financials are done throughout the year. From January to March emphasis is placed on the completion of corporate financials for corporations which have a March fifteenth deadline. The corporate tax return has to be completed before the owner's personal tax return can be prepared. Then there are the extensions until September fifteenth for corporation returns and October fifteenth for personal returns.

Financials can be prepared monthly, quarterly, or annually. What aggravates me the most as a writeup accountant, is an owner of a corporation who writes more than one hundred checks in a year and waits until the end of the year to bring in his or her check stubs and bank statements for the preparation of the year's financials for the tax return. It is the annual accounts that take an excessive amount of time to complete before the tax return is due. For example, I am working on a client who brought in over four hundred checks written in a year and it is taking me three days to key it all in. Inevitably, I can prepare an annual financial statement and will have a list of questions for the client to answer about something which happened almost a year ago. Personally, if I had my own accounting firm, I would require client accounts to be monthly or at least quarterly.

Because of the number of extensions that may be filed by an accounting firm, the job of a writeup accountant is never boring. When I worked for a large accounting firm, I took care of approximately thirty clients writeup. We worked overtime during tax season at our discretion and would get paid for the overtime. Now I work for a small firm and prepare forty to forty five client's writeup. Little overtime is allowed with more clients and we always seem to be behind.

The job of writeup is constant and demanding due to the deadlines that have to be met. It is a challenge each month, quarter, and each tax season. Yet it is rewarding when progress is made and the tax return is complete.

Journey of a Hunt

I never dreamed I would be a hunter. Growing up the only gun I took to the woods was a BB gun. Now it is about two thirty in the afternoon and we are headed to a box stand made of wood standing about fifteen feet in the air. Our destination is a buck or doe away. We never drive up to the stand on the four wheeler, but we park within walking distance. As we walk along the way we look in the trails and green food plots for a sign of where the deer may be crossing. After we quietly climb in the stand, I check the sights with the scope on the rifle in all directions of the possibility of the appearance of a deer. From then on the journey of the hunt begins.
The first thing I need to learn is hunting requires patience. I stare in the direction in front, on the left, and to the right for any sign of movement along the edges of the extended line of woods in sight. This movement could happen quickly after arriving to the stand; however, most often the prize comes after a long wait or sometimes not at all. I think of the few times I have been successful on the hunt. If I had been impatient the doe would be still roaming in the woods. Therefore, I can leave the stand early empty handed, or I can accept the fact that this journey takes time and endurance.
The final thing I learn from this hunting experience is that I will have to remain persistent. I have to keep coming back and repeat the process in spite of the outcome. I remember being in the stand with my husband while he was hunting. On many occassions we would scan the forest for deer and find no movement at all. This is the time when I can enjoy nature and God's creation. I watch squirrels as they scurry from tree to tree. I can also see different kinds of birds as they fly from one end of the woods to the other and may even see a rabbit or two. Even if I leave the stand without the buck or doe, I cannot give up but leave with the expectation that the next time I enter on this journey, I could reach my destination.