An accounting service provides a variety of services that are an integral part of operating a financially solvent business and maintaining compliance. It’s essential that Individuals speak with several firms before choosing one to ensure that it will be able to meet business needs.

Some accounting firms offer a comprehensive range of services, while others specialize in one or more areas. Business owners may have requirements beyond bookkeeping, payroll and tax filing. It’s critical that the accounting service provide the services unique to a particular business operation.

Bookkeeping and Payroll

Owning a business doesn’t automatically mean that the owner is good with the financial responsibilities of operating an enterprise. Accounting firms can process payroll, issue checks, and provide the appropriate forms for onboarding new employees. The firms help business owners monitor cash flow and may offer services for accounts payable, receivable and past due.

Taxes

An accounting service will provide advice and assistance in planning for tax time, prepare the necessary documents, and file federal and state taxes. The firm can also represent a client in IRS audits and reviews. Accounting services work closely with clients to identify beneficial strategies and business structuring to take advantage of tax laws. Services ensure that clients are in compliance with state and federal regulatory and tax laws.

Valuation and Financing

Businesses want to grow and that may include obtaining a loan to purchase new equipment or expand a facility. It can also encompass mergers and business buyouts. An accounting firm can provide the documentation to prove the company’s valuation, worth and growth for banks or investors.

Estate Planning

Businesses have needs for estate planning that are unique An accounting firm is adept at identifying those needs. The firm will work with an attorney skilled in estate planning to establish a family trust or business ownership transfer.

At Peavy and Associates PC our mission is to assist you with all your tax preparations, payroll and accounting needs.  We provide our clients with professional, personalized accounting services and guidance in a wide range of financial and business needs. Give us a call today and discover why our clients return to Peavy and Associates, PC year after year!

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The tax code is highly complex. There are ways in which individuals can reduce their tax burden, many of which they’re unaware. Anyone can save themselves a significant amount of time, money and stress by hiring a tax accountant.

However, the tax professionals provide far more than assistance at tax time. Tax accountants help clients attain their financial goals, recommend tax strategies, and ensure taxes are filed accurately and on time. More than 74 million individuals and business owners received assistance from a tax professional in 2020. There are 3 essential questions to ask when hiring a tax accountant.

Self-Employment Taxes

Many individuals are operating side hustles and working in the gig economy without realizing that the IRS considers that self-employment. That makes earnings subject to additional taxes. Individuals should ask their tax accountant if they’re paying self-employment taxes and if there’s any way to reduce the amount.

Self-employment taxes include Social Security and Medicare, along with state and federal taxes on income. There are ways to reduce the tax burden and a tax accountant will know how to accomplish that.

Payroll

Business owners need to ask their tax accountant about placing themselves on the company’s payroll in the future. There’s a tax deduction that can be taken by doing so. Not all business entities are able to do this and a tax accountant will know if the client qualifies. For those that do qualify, it’s viewed as a distribution for IRS purposes and owners will be taxed as an employee.

Estimated Taxes

Many small business owners encounter problems during their first years of operation because they don’t budget for their taxes or fail to make estimated tax payments. A tax accountant will be able to provide sound advice and guidance on whether individuals should be making estimated tax payments.

At Peavy and Associates PC our mission is to assist you with all your tax preparations, payroll and accounting needs.  We provide our clients with professional, personalized accounting services and guidance in a wide range of financial and business needs. Give us a call today and discover why our clients return to Peavy and Associates, PC year after year!

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An accounting firm is a great way to relieve the stress of tax time and it’s a real time saver for individuals already pressed for time. Hiring the right firm may not be so easy, though. In today’s world, being “good with numbers” or the least expensive option isn’t enough. One little mistake in this field can have serious and expensive repercussions.

A good accounting firm does more than simply keep the books and file your taxes. It will be able to effectively communicate a wide range of business information and opportunities. The following are the top qualities that an accounting firm should exhibit.

Personalized Service

Each business is different and a superior accounting firm understands that. A full service tax firm will be able to help you develop tax strategies, create plans to meet financial goals, and help you manage your assets. Your accounting firm should meet with you several times a year, not just at tax time.

Experience and Education

The accounting firm should have experience in your particular industry. That means they’ll know your business and any applicable deadlines. Tax laws change frequently and without notice. An accounting firm will be cognizant of current tax laws and how they impact your business. The firm’s accountants will have extensive education and should have met the licensing requirements of a certified public accountant (CPA).

Accuracy and Detail

You’ll obviously want a firm that’s accurate, which means it will be detail oriented. The firm will prepare reports to keep you informed of your financial status, identify potential issues and suggest solutions, and provide guidance to reduce costs, enhance revenues, and maximize profitability.

Technology Literate

The days of accountants laboring with paper and pencil are long gone. An accounting firm should be utilizing state-of-the-art technology, advanced accounting software, and other technology-based tools.

Business Strategies

An accounting firm will be able to provide effective advice and strategies whether the business is a start-up or an established company of long standing. The firm will be able to provide you with the information you need to make sound and informed business decisions that helps your enterprise grow and evolve.

At Peavy and Associates PC our mission is to assist you with all your tax preparations, payroll and accounting needs.  We provide our clients with professional, personalized accounting services and guidance in a wide range of financial and business needs. Give us a call today and discover why our clients return to Peavy and Associates, PC year after year!

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Business owners mistakenly believe they’re saving money by attending to their accounting task themselves. What they’re actually doing is taking time away from their families and other business tasks such as planning for future growth. Hiring an accounting firm to care for your finances saves time, money, and enables you to focus on other priorities.

Business Planning

Professional accounting firms work with businesses at all stages of development – from startups to long-established endeavors. They have a wealth of experience they can utilize to help you advance your business to the next stage in its evolution and provide guidance on managing monetary growth. They can also assist if you need to make changes in its structure.

Informed Decisions

Your accountant will be able to advise you on multiple issues to help you make better informed decisions about your business. They can advise you on a variety of topics ranging from strategies to provide the best return on your investment to endeavors that are risky for your business.

Streamlining

A professional accountant can streamline your books, establish better bookkeeping practices, and “find” money you never even knew you had. You’ll know exactly where your money is going, how much, and discover ways to save your business money. A professional can also assist with strategic spending and saving money with vendors and others with which you regularly conduct business.

Tax Penalties

An accounting professional will be cognizant of all the current tax laws to save you money and avoid errors or omissions that lead to tax penalties. The firm’s professionals will know your business and meet all applicable deadlines, while minimizing taxes and maximizing benefits for greater profitability.

Exit Strategies

There will come a time when you decide to retire and an accounting firm can help you define the best time to exit or what you may need to do before selling the business.

At Peavy and Associates PC our mission is to assist you with all your tax preparations, payroll and accounting needs.  We provide our clients with professional, personalized accounting services and guidance in a wide range of financial and business needs. Give us a call today and discover why our clients return to Peavy and Associates, PC year after year!

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There are five classifications from which you choose to file: single, married filing jointly, married filing separately, head of household or qualifying widower with dependent child. If for some reason, more than one status applies to you, you should choose the status that gives you the greatest tax benefit.

Determining your status as a single filer seems simple enough, but there are different situations that exist that can qualify the taxpayer as single. For example, if you are legally separated even in the last month of the year, you are considered single for the entire year. With no dependents and you are unmarried, you are considered single. Divorce and annulment within the year also qualifies you to file as single.

However, even if you are single, but you have a dependent, or were widowed during the tax year, and you have dependents, your filing status would change to head of household or widowed with qualifying dependent child, not single.

When it comes to determining your status as a married taxpayer, there are simple qualification assessments that establish your legal filing status and if you’re considered married. Obviously, if you are legally married and living together as husband and wife, even for a small part of the tax year, then you would be considered married. If you are living together as common law spouses, and it is legally recognized in the state in which you live, or you lived part of the tax year in the state where the common law marriage began, then your filing status is married. Your filing status is still married even if you are married but not living together, but are not legally separated or divorced.

If you have unique circumstances, it might not be so easy to determine your filing status. If, for example, you were widowed during the tax year and did not remarry, you can file as married with your deceased spouse, and then file as widowed with qualified dependents for the next two years, so long as you do not remarry. If you remarry within the tax year that your spouse passed away, you would file as married with your current spouse, and file with your deceased spouse as married filing separately.

If you are married and want to file a joint return, your tax status is married filing jointly. All income to the household must be included on the one return, and both spouses must sign and date prior to submitting the tax return. All exemptions, deductions, and credits are reported on the joint return, and you share equal responsibility and liability for the information reported on the tax return, as well as any tax money owed. There are ways to ask for release from joint responsibility, either through innocent spouse relief, separation of liability for spouses who have not lived together for the past year, or equitable relief.

There are sometimes reasons that a spouse cannot sign a joint tax return, such as a spouse stationed abroad for the military. In this type of situation, you may sign for your spouse as a proxy, and attach a written explanation.

Choosing your filing status, while lengthy and sometimes complicated, is an important in the process of completing your Federal Income Tax return.

At Peavy and Associates PC our mission is to assist you with all your tax preparations, payroll and accounting needs.  We provide our clients with professional, personalized accounting services and guidance in a wide range of financial and business needs. Give us a call today and discover why our clients return to Peavy and Associates, PC year after year!

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Most people probably think of bookkeeping and accounting as the same thing, but bookkeeping is really one function of accounting, while accounting encompasses many functions involved in managing the financial affairs of a business. Accountants prepare reports based, in part, on the work of bookkeepers.

Bookkeepers perform all manner of record-keeping tasks. Some of them include the following:

They prepare what are referred to as source documents for all the operations of a business – the buying, selling, transferring, paying and collecting. The documents include papers such as purchase orders, invoices, credit card slips, time cards, time sheets and expense reports. Bookkeepers also determine and enter in the source documents what are called the financial effects of the transactions and other business events. Those include paying the employees, making sales, borrowing money or buying products or raw materials for production.

Bookkeepers also make entries of the financial effects into journals and accounts. These are two different things. A journal is the record of transactions in chronological order. An accounts is a separate record, or page for each asset and each liability. One transaction can affect several accounts.

Bookkeepers prepare reports at the end of specific period of time, such as daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly or annually. To do this, all the accounts need to be up to date. Inventory records must be updated and the reports checked and double-checked to ensure that they’re as error-free as possible.

The bookkeepers also compile complete listings of all accounts. This is called the adjusted trial balance. While a small business may have a hundred or so accounts, very large businesses can have more than 10,000 accounts.

The final step is for the bookkeeper to close the books, which means bringing all the bookkeeping for a fiscal year to a close and summarized.

At Peavy and Associates PC our mission is to assist you with all your tax preparations, payroll and accounting needs.  We provide our clients with professional, personalized accounting services and guidance in a wide range of financial and business needs. Give us a call today and discover why our clients return to Peavy and Associates, PC year after year!

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There are many reasons that accounting is being outsourced more and more by various companies. Some may think that utilizing outsourced accounting services is a bad concept because of less control and more expenses, however that is a myth that has actually been proven wrong countless times again and again. In reality, there are way greater benefits from outsourcing your accounting services, then by arranging your own accounting department or doing your accounting yourself. We will discuss the advantages of outsourced accounting and permit you to see why it is a popular action that lots of businesses and organizations are taking.

Using outsourced accounting services can, in fact, save you a lot of money in the end. By outsourcing your accounting needs you there’s no need to hire staff members to establish an in house accounting department. This conserves not only cash but also time. It costs money and time to find certified employees to run your accounting department. With outsourced accounting services,  there’s no need to stress over incomes, employee compensation, insurance coverage, or a number of the other expenses that having staff members entails. Another major benefit is that you do not have to fret about losing an employee and having to discover another in house accountant to change the one you lost. There are also lots of accounting firms that can incorporate their services with your own accounting software so that it provides a simple accounting integration.

By removing the need to focus on your accounting you preserve better relationships with your clients…

Another benefit that comes from outsourcing your accounting, is that you can focus more on the accounting information. This removes needing to focus on entering your accounting details and allows you to look at your present circumstance and make preparations for future enhancements and developments with the information provided. By outsourcing, you can focus entirely on payments, billings, and profit and losses. It free’s up your time so you will be able to spend it more productively by building and preserving much better relationships with your providers and clients.

By using outsourced accounting services, you have a lower threat of error and problems with your accounting. It is much better to trust your accounting requirements with a certified professional rather than attempting to do your accounting yourself. Unless you are a certified accounting professional, you have an there will always be the threat of making an error with your accounting. This possibility of error is nearly null and void when you utilize an outsourced accounting company that their sole focus is on the field of accounting. Any errors can have a very negative impact not just on your records of what is owed and needs to be paid but also on your present costs and forecasts associated with your profits and losses. By not correctly and properly preserving accounting records, you run a high risk of failure as far as your personal or business accounting is concerned.

Clearly outsourcing your accounting has shown to offer many benefits. These advantages will not only save you money and time but will equally provide the solutions to help you grow and expand your organization. Accounting can be an extremely exhausting job that requires a lot of attention to information along with understanding to have it done properly. Because accounting can be contracted out quickly and can be done at a lower rate contracted than in house, outsourced accounting has actually shown over time again and again to be the best solutions for businesses and personal accounting solutions alike.

At Peavy and Associates PC our mission is to assist you with all your tax preparations, payroll and accounting needs.  We provide our clients with professional, personalized accounting services and guidance in a wide range of financial and business needs. Give us a call today and discover why our clients return to Peavy and Associates, PC year after year!

 

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