If you ask the majority of tax-filing Americans what the most stressful time of year is, you’d find the two answers to be almost unanimously Christmas and tax season. While you are on your own with how you handle your seasonal shopping, there’s help for you when it comes time to get ready to file your taxes!
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Being self-employed means that you are in charge of your business, including paying taxes. You must take care of every aspect of your business to be successful. If you are newly self-employed, you may be unsure as to what tax breaks you can use when filing your taxes each year. Below are a few examples of expenses you can claim to help lower the amount you pay in taxes based on income.
Tax season is one of the most frustrating aspects of having a job. The one thing that compounds this frustration is waiting or forgetting to do your taxes until the last minute, meaning you have to rush just to get everything done on time to avoid a penalty. This can lead to mistakes and pointless errors that can cost you even more money. As taxes are officially due next week, it’s important to find a tax preparer that can complete this preparation quickly and without error. Thankfully, there are a number of tips that you can utilize when searching for a good last-minute tax preparer.
Verify Eligibility to File the Return
The tips for finding a good tax preparer when there’s not much time left before taxes are due are not all that different from tips for finding a good tax preparer when there’s lots of time before taxes are due. Following a few simple tips will always yield a good tax preparer. The only difference with waiting until the last minute is that it might be more difficult to find one that isn’t completely busy. The first tip to remember is to verify if the tax preparer is fully eligible to file your return. Due to certain regulations, all tax preparers are required by law to have a PTIN number in order to file your return. Ask immediately if the tax preparer has this number and make sure they are compliant with any further state regulations.
There is often some confusion around what you do and do not need to provide when someone is doing your taxes for you. To make it simpler for yourself and the tax preparer, I am going to give you some ideas as to what you don’t need and hopefully it will save you and your tax preparer some precious time.
Here is a list of the things you don’t need to provide to your accountant when they are preparing your personal tax return:
- GST Credit statement – If you receive a GST cheque or deposit from the government, this is not an item that is taxable, so you don’t need to provide it.
- Provincial Health Care deduction limit – Some provinces have a program whereby after a certain amount of medical expenses are reached, the province will cover the rest. This is not something used for preparing your tax return.
It can get very confusing when you start digging through your paperwork to find everything you need to do your personal income tax. There are many types of tax slips that you may receive, but I will just go over some of the most common ones to get you started:
T4 – You will get a T4 from any employer that you worked for throughout the year. The T4 is for employees, and it outlines how much you already paid for income tax as well as it includes information on Employment Insurance deductions, Canada Pension Plan deductions, and more.