Business Taxes 101

In this webinar, presented by the California Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and in collaboration with Accion Opportunity Fund, Yacanex Posadas of Yacanex Business Group goes over common misconceptions about business taxes and what you can do throughout the year to make filing your business taxes a smooth process. Yacanex clarifies that you only pay taxes on your Profit (Profit = Sales- Expenses). You need to be able to justify your expenses, so be sure to keep track of all your expenses so you can deduct them! Most businesses will fill out and file a Form 1040 and a Schedule C for their business taxes. 

Some of the small business tax tips that Yacanex discusses is: 

• Be sure to pay people with checks, not cash so you can appropriately deduct payroll and expenses from your taxes. 
• Separate your business and personal checking accounts, especially if you are a sole proprietor. 
• Common deductions: 
  • Marketing expenses (t-shirts, mail chimp, social media management subscriptions) 
  • Vehicle Milage (Apps like Mile IQ make it easy for you to keep track of business milage) 
  • Bank Fees 
  • Employees 
  • Education 
  • Permits 
  • Cellphone 
  • Website 
  • Business Debt Interest 
  • Forgiven PPP Loans (if 60% of the funds are used for payroll) 
  • If you use utilities, phones, or vehicles for both personal and business use, you can only deduct the percent of the utility that you use for business. 
• Recommended Bookkeeping Tools: 
  • Excel (if you are low volume only) 
  • Xero 
  • Freshbooks 
  • Sage 
  • Quickbooks