The dreaded "T" word

I'm talking about TAXES.   First, let me just say that I HATE, HATE, HATE taxes!!!!!  I have several businesses, a corporation, and rental properties.   I know this should be easy...save your receipts, tally them up, hand off to tax-man.  But it's only easy if you put all your receipts in one place and keep up on it on a regular basis - which I'm terrible at doing.

Second...we were audited a year ago and I still get anxiety attacks over the whole ordeal.  We came out unscathed (finacially speaking) but it was a nightmare that I don't care to ever have the unfortunate displeasure of going through again.

Alright...now we are all understanding how I feel about taxes right?

So now I'm wrapping up my 2010 tax crap (yes, I know I'm late) and I am starting to go through the same anxiety that I've gone through for the past 3 years.

2 business down
1 corp, rentals, and personal still left to go - oh joy

 mmm can relate  totally about the record  keeping  .   Throwing  th receipts  into a box at the end of any given day really helps  me not lose them  and they add up to a remarkable amount  over weeks and months .-  mostly  tax deducible .  Its really important to have  the proof .

As far as the audits go  ... U may have triggered  some automatic  audit -me  flag  by  deducting "too much "  for  home office expenses  ( thats a frequent one)  ...  donations  and charitable contributions  ( thats  another really big one)  ....  there  are  specific  PERCENTAGES   for these things Ure not supposed to exceed  or U risk getting flagged by  the computers .

Know what those limits are  and dont go anywhere  NEAR them is my advice... and Ull fly happily under the radar ....

as far as  thinking because U  got audited in the past and were  "clean"  that that will  mean they'll leave U alone ....  statistically  its not true .  Ur chances are  actually   very good   that they WILL  audit  U again  unfortunately  ..probably because  people  keep  trying to pass off  the  the same  over-the -alloted  percentage   red flag  deductions that got them audited  originally  ....

U can  figure out what  the percentages are   from the   internet .  If U dont exceed them or come even CLOSE   I think U  will ride off into the sunset  unmolested  no problem  ... 

The "trigger" was that my husband started his own business AND had a W-2 for the first 5 months of the year.  He had huge deductions for the business and they wanted to call it a hobby because he had a "real job" with a W-2.

Unfortunately I fully expect to have to go through another audit or 2 but the plus side is that I NEVER deduct anything that I can't prove.  I'm all about getting my full deductions but if I can't prove it - I don't even touch it.

I have a home business that is a corp.  and the corp leases the farm from me so now I have rental income which is a whole new set of forms.  I have a great accountant that does all my taxes and gets a pretty penny for it but keeps me out of trouble.  I guess that is the payoff.  Anyway, this year I am doing all of everything, corp, farm, personal, in quickbooks so hopefully when it is time next year, I will not have to dredge through everything to locate all the deductions. 

And speaking of taxes, because my Corp is a service industry, we pay 35% taxes on the first 1$ earned.  That seems totally unfair.  Other corps get a break on the first earnings, then a lower rate.  But not us.  So it is critically important that I not have the Corp earn any money or at least not much.  I'm getting ready to send the 1st half year stuff to the accountants to see where we can make changes before the end of the year because we are showing a profit at this point.  Who would know that is such a bad thing?

It gets so complicated - thank god for Accountants!

I'm trying to do everything in Quickbooks but I do the big "no-no" of occasionally mixing my personal and business finances and I'm terrible at keeping up on all of it.  My mom is a bookeeper and she gets on me all the time about not mixing my money.

Grrrr...I know my headache is all my own fault for not keeping up on it monthly but it's still a headache.