Can your business use turbo tax

Whether you are on a fiscal year or a calendar year once a year you must prepare taxes for your business. Nobody wants to think about doing their taxes so they try to put it off for as long as possible. But the good news is doing your taxes does not have to be that hard or that stressful as long as you are prepared and can follow directions.

It used to be that if you could not do your taxes yourself you hired somebody to do it, and this could get quite expensive, depending on how complicated your taxes were. And with businesses your taxes tend to be a bit more complicated than individual income taxes. There is now software available to help you do your own business taxes or help you get your return ready for your accountant.

When you use an accountant you have one of two options when it comes to preparing your taxes. You can simply give your accountant all of the paper work in no certain order and let them figure out everything, which can be quite expensive as they tend to charge by the hour. Or you can prepare your return for your accountant by getting everything in order, such as your year-end statements, payroll statements, profit and loss statement and anything else that they might need. Then your accountant will figure out the best possible deductions for your businesses and figure out if you owe any tax or not.

Accountants are good to use for preparing tax returns because they specialize in the area of finance and are usually current with the newest tax laws, but so are computer programs, like Turbo Tax. No matter what kind of business you run you can use Turbo Tax to file your company's income taxes. Currently Turbo Tax offers two different types of software for business taxes, Turbo Tax Home and Business, as well as Turbo Tax Business.

Turbo Tax Home and Business:
This software can be used to file personal and business taxes. It covers taxes for sole proprietors, self-employed, consultants, and contractors. Turbo Tax Home and Business will guide you step by step through the Schedule C, how to categorize business income and expenses, home office deductions, depreciation, and anything else that would be included on your tax return. The step by step guidance is in easy to understand terms about your business and Turbo Tax will take your answers and put them into the correct IRS forms that you will need to file. Turbo Tax Home and Business also uses an in depth deduction interview to ensure that you do not miss any deductions that your business can qualify for. And after all of your information is entered Turbo Tax Home and Business will double check your return to make sure there are no errors or red flags for the IRS. This version includes one free download for your state income taxes.

Turbo Tax Business:
This software is used strictly for businesses; if you use this software you must also file a personal income tax return. Businesses that can use Turbo Tax Business are corporations, partnerships, or a LLC and your business earns up to $250,000 a year. This program includes the same features that make Turbo Tax Home and Business so easy to use, but it includes IRS forms 1120S, 1065, and 1120. Turbo Tax Business takes you through each form step by step. And like Turbo Tax Home and Business it guarantees that your taxes will be done right and that the calculations are a 100% accurate. But remember the program does your taxes for you based on the information that you provide. This version does not come with business state tax returns, it must be purchased separately.

So as long as your business does not make more than $250,000 a year you can use Turbo Tax to file your income taxes.