J.K. Lasser's Small Business Taxes 2013: Your Complete Guide to a Better Bottom Line

How to Use This Book

The purpose of this book is to make you acutely aware of how your actions in business can affect your bottom line from a tax perspective. The way you organize your business, the accounting method you select, and the types of payments you make all have an impact on when you report income and the extent to which you can take deductions. This book is not designed to make you a tax expert. It is strongly suggested that you consult with a tax adviser before making certain important decisions that will affect your ability to minimize your taxes. I hope that the insight you gain from this book will allow you to ask your adviser key questions to benefit your business.

In Part 1, you will find topics of interest to all businesses. First, there is an overview of the various forms of business organization and an explanation of how these forms of organization affect reporting of income and claiming tax deductions. The most common forms of business organization include independent contractors, sole proprietors, and sole practitioners—individuals who work for themselves and do not have any partners. If self-employed individuals join with others to form a business, they become partners in a partnership. Sometimes businesses incorporate. A business can be incorporated with only 1 owner or with many owners. A corporation can be a regular corporation (C corporation), or it can be a small business corporation (S corporation). The difference between the C and S corporations is ...