I am about to get a business license in the current town I reside in. The town next to me where I will also be doing business in does not require one. I will be getting insurance as well. Possibly an LLC to protect my person assets & make sure no one uses my logo and/or name.
I am currently in the planning stages and have been purchasing equipment (most of it from online stores) using my own personal credit card. I also have been using various email accounts for the purchases. But I have been keeping track of every purchase I have made (every dollar spent, what it was, & where from). I just type it into google docs. So far I have spent a total of $946.40.
Thank you. Is that how you did it from the get-go? Right now I don’t have any clients. Also do you have to save all the emails that contain your order #, what you purchased, how much the total purchase was, etc.?
I stick my receipts in an envelope and input everything into customer factor. It even keeps up with mileage. I am at the get-go but for $49 per month it’s worth it. I used it years ago when I did this and it was the second thing I did once I returned with the first being insurance
Excel spread sheets with macros and formulas.
Monthy copies of all receits on pdf and originals on monthly envelops
Cost nothing if you know what u doing
Your cpa will also do a memo transferring those pieces of equipment to the business and deduct all of it as start up costs.
Get a cpa. They’re worth their weight in gold if any good. He can log into my Quickbooks and ask me about anything in it with a 5 minute phone call. CPA should be the next step after insurance and license.
The other beautiful thing about a good CPA is, when you meet with them quarterly before your quarterly taxes are due they can give you a dollar amount to spend on stuff that you’re going to need anyway most likely to drop yourself into a slightly lower bracket, or whatever. Lastly, if a certified public accountant signs off on your taxes the chance of getting audited is significantly lower
I second the comment about a business credit card. Use it for everything. Fuel. Supplies. Lunch. Whatever. Get on that offers cash back or points or both. Pay it off monthly or even weekly. It’ll surprise you how quickly that 1-2% incentive can accumulate.
I do a combination of these things. 1. Business only cash back card 2. Use a CPA 3. Use an automatic mileage tracker 4.Have wife that collates everything and talks to the CPA
Like yesterday. If you want to apply for business credit most lenders/vendors use the date your business account was opened as your business birth date.
And if you open another one, DO NOT close your first one until you have 5-7 tradelines on your Dun & Bradstreet report.
Hey everyone. So I don’t have a business license yet or a business debit or credit card. I think I will use the credit card instead & pay it off in full every month. The $1,000 so far that I have spent on supplies/equipment is there any way I can get tax back from that (I used my own personal cards) or should I just consider that gone?
I know for sure I need a business license as the town I live in requires one. But what a LLC, DBA, INC. LLC is to protect your own personal assets and your logo/business name correct? But why do some people choose a DBA or INC instead of an LLC? If its any help to anyone, I am in Florida.
No wife or CPA. Lol I may get the CPA when I get things rolling. I wish I had the money right now for all of this stuff but I’m still living at home, don’t have a lot of money… I’m just trying to make sure the bare essentials are covered from the start (licenses and insurance, equipment). Other stuff I will look at a little down the road.
I’m using my own personal vehicle for now. I am curious though. Why would you track mileage?
Do you do it like this… So one day you go out to hand out business cards, talk to store owners trying to get accounts… You leave the house with 100,000 on odometer. You come home with 100,050 miles. So you put in a notebook or a spreadsheet the date and 100,000 to 100,050. Just curious why someone would track the miles?
Any thing you spend on the business can be deducted. Just keep receipts. You really want to hire a cpa come tax season. They know about all the writeoffs you can use. For example if you use your personal vehicle for work…say 80% of the time. The you can deducted $80% of your monthly payments and gas…or something along those lines. You can even deduct a portion of your rent if you say that you have a home office. Meals while youre on the job, etc… My cpa charges me $600 a year to do all my accounting and file corporate taxes
Every state may be different, so I’m not sure about what Clean was saying above about deducting stuff on your personal vehicle like your payment. But here is how my CPA explained it to me. Personal vehicles are personal vehicles. It can only be considered a company truck IF it is owned by the company and titled as such, and used 100% for business purposes. If its titled in your name and used any at all for personal use, it can not be considered a business vehicle and no deductions can be used for it and the company can not cover any costs related to it (gas, payments, tires, oil changes, etc.). However, I do track my mileage and that is because the company can reimburse me personally for miles that I accumulate for business purposes. I think its like $0.495 a mile. And that reimbursement is not taxable to me personally and I believe can still be a deduction for the company. Not sure about that last part. But the company can not pay for any gas or anything related to your personal vehicle. That is your personal expense. BUT you get reimbursement for miles that should pay most of the expenses. If any of that makes sense.
But as far as any business expenses you have already incrued, that is still deductible as long as you have receipts to show proof. Doesn’t matter which account you paid it out of. I had expenses that I had before I got my business account set up. Just keep all receipts and you should be fine. And definitely get a CPA for tax time. I only use mine once a year to file my taxes mainly but can call him any time I need something. May cost a little bit, but will be well worth it.
