Franchise Flag Maker

Choosing the right tax CPA Houston preparer is one the most important financial decisions we make in our life. Although many people don’t often think about it, your income taxes are your largest lifetime expense, more than your home mortgage, your retirement contributions or your children’s college expenses.

As someone who has prepared over 10,000 Federal Tax returns, I know that controlling your income tax expense can make a tremendous difference in your financial well being. So let’s examine the types of tax preparers and how they work.

The most common type of tax preparer is the non-CPA who works for a national tax franchise. This type of preparer generally has no formal education in accounting and frequently has only a few weeks of training. Often they are retirees looking for a few weeks of extra income each spring. This type of tax preparer is not licensed to respond to IRS inquiries and generally has only a rudimentary understanding of the techniques used to reduce taxes. An unlicensed tax preparer should never accompany you to an IRS audit, and in fact this type of preparer would probably not be allowed by their employer to do so. The non-CPA tax preparer is in my opinion usually appropriate for only the simplest types of tax returns, such as an hourly worker that has household income of under $50,000 a year and that does not invest in stocks or itemize deductions.

A Tax CPA Houston is very different from the unlicensed tax preparer found in most franchised tax operations. The CPA normally has at least 5 years of college study in accounting, has passed a comprehensive technical examination. In most states a new CPA has to apprentice under an experienced CPA for 2 years before getting their license.

For any business tax return, or for an individual who itemizes deductions or makes investments, or for any situation where there is a dispute with the IRS or in which tax planning is required a licensed Houston tax CPA is a must.

Of course not all CPA’s operate the same. Some tax CPA’s only want to fill out the tax forms (the historians), and others are afraid of the IRS (the phobic’s).

The rarest type of tax preparer is pro-active and likes to search tax saving opportunities for the future while preparing your current year’s tax return. At Trippon & Company CPAs our goal is to be forward thinking enough to protect our clients now and in the future. Call us at 713-661-1040 and put our experience at work for you!

At times we all think that we are invincible to failure or bad things happening to us. If you are thinking of becoming a franchisee or are already one you obviously want to be successful. It is so easy to think of all the good you have coming to you as a franchisee, you will make money, be your own boss, own your own business and feel a sense of accomplishment. However, even the best of business men or women need to plan for problems at time. You must be realistic in your endeavor to franchise. Things cannot be good all the time, but if you make room for a little error or problems you will have a better chance at success!

In the beginning of your franchise career you will need to plan on additional expenses that may come up. For example hiring new employees, cost of certain resources that are necessary for your franchise to run, building problems, broken equipment, repairs and much more. If you plan for the beginning for these problems they will not be as big a deal when they happen. If you take out the extra money to allow for error, you may actually save yourself from more expense from extra financing or financing charges.

You can plan for many problems you may incur as a franchise owner by simply having a backup plan. Keep in mind that not everything works exactly as you plan originally. You would not want to be forced into something that really does not suit your needs or may cost you more in the long run. So therefore you should keep a backup plan in your pocket just in case things don’t go your way.

The 10 most severe problems for small-business owners in order are:

? Cost of health insurance

? Cost and availability of liability insurance

? Workers’ compensation

? Cost of natural gas, propane, gasoline, diesel, fuel oil

? Federal taxes on business income

? Property taxes (real, personal, or inventory)

? Cash flow

? State taxes on business income

? Unreasonable government regulations

? Electricity costs (rates)

Health insurance costs were a “critical” issue for 65.6 percent of respondents, the highest percentage for any problem in the survey’s 22-year history.

This list is to give you can idea of some problems you may face as a franchise or business owner. However if you plan ahead you can still be a successful franchise owner.

Make sure that before you begin as a franchisee you consider all the things above and realistically figure out what you will personally have to deal with. Since you will be franchising some of the above may already be taken care of or planned such as health insurance. However costs and government regulations are definitely something you will need to consider. If you do the planning ahead of time you will be on your way to being a successful franchisee.

Even though every franchise will encounter problems, they will not all plan for them and they will not all be successful. So plan on problems and you can still be successful!

That Franchise Tax Board (FTB) has begun mailing notices (FTB 4106 MEO) to taxpayers who meet the mandatory e-pay threshold. The new mandatory e-pay law requires taxpayers to remit their payments electronically if their tax liability exceeds $80,000, or they made estimated tax or extension payment exceeding $20,000. The first payment that would trigger the mandatory e-pay requirement is the 2009 taxable year first quarter estimate that was due April 15, 2009. This first payment did not have to be made electronically, but all future payments should be made electronically. For the 2009 calendar year the FTB will not impose the mandatory e-pay penalty (1% of the amount paid) to allow taxpayers and practitioners additional time to implement practices and procedures to comply with the requirement. (FTB e-file News, 05/05/2009)

Electronic Payment Methods

Make your tax payment using one of the following methods:

Pay online with Web Pay. Request an Electronic Funds Withdrawal (EFW) on your e-file return.  [From GROCO:  This needs to be set-up with your tax return preparer..] Pay by credit card.

A pay-by-phone option will be available in July 2009.

You may only send tax payments due to the Franchise Tax Board electronically using one of the methods above. If you owe tax to other agencies that require an electronic payment, you must make those payments directly to them.

NOTE: Making a payment using your bank’s online bill payment system is not an electronic payment. Your bank mails a paper check to FTB which does not meet the requirement to pay electronically.

For the complete story of e-pay, please see the FTB’s website at the link below.

http://www.ftb.ca.gov/individuals/Mandatory_e-pay.shtml

I am always available for questions or comments at (510) 797-8661 x237.