Tax Preparation Las Vegas - Business Services

Quite often, while doing tax preparation in Las Vegas, I get asked the question by small business owners, "How can I reduce my taxes?". Almost always, the most important thing that they forget is that they don't keep their receipts so that they can deduct all the expenses that they pay. It's important, for tax preparation, that the Las Vegas business owner keeps track, even if you just take an envelope and put the receipts that you paid for (whether cash, or by credit card) in that envelope every single day, and at the end of the year, or at the end of the month you just add those up and put those on the expense sheet - that's a huge way you can save, and quite often, small business owners will just throw away the receipts (or they can't find them when it comes time to do their tax return)

Some of the most common areas where people forget their expenses are in the materials or the supplies that they might pay for. If they're a contractor for instance - they may run to a local hardware store and pick up some small supplies they need for a job, but they forget to keep the receipt, or forget to put it in that box or envelope at the end of the day. As well, there are office expenses, or meal and entertainment expenses. If they take employees out to lunch, or pay for a dinner with current clients or customers, and then they forget that, "Oh, that was something that I need to go ahead and deduct on my tax return".

Therefore, if you want to save on taxes, one of the key tax preparation methods in Las Vegas is to keep track of the expenses that you pay.

One of the biggest concerns that we have with our Las Vegas business consulting clients is, "How do I succession plan for my business?". In other words, 'How does the business owner build his business, grow it to a substantial size, and either have his children take over the business, have key employees take over the business, or just sell it to a third party?'. Business consulting in Las Vegas in an important first step, because typically it takes from 5 - 10 years to be able to transition the management, the style, and the culture that you developed in your business, as well as to make sure that the next generation wants to participate in the business in that way, or that there are key employees that have been trained and nurtured to operate the business and that they have been given sufficient control prior to you wanting to retire or transition out of the business completely.

Often times in Las Vegas it does take the management and the owner a few years where they may work closely with that replacement party (whether it by a child, or an employee, or even a third party). So they may have an employment contract for 2 or 3 years subsequent to the actual sale of the business. A successful business consulting plan is important because it provides for the continuing of the business, it allows the employees to feel secure and safe - that they have a job that will last for many many years, and it also allows the owner to feel good about the methods that he has used in preparing his business to meet the demands of the future.

I want to take a minute to talk about Las Vegas accounting services that you receive from your CPA. Las Vegas CPAs often provide what we call "compliance services" such as: financial statements that are required for banks or other lending institutions, or tax returns which, of course, our government requires. But the accounting services that really mean the most to clients are those that aren't required, but that really add value to you and your life. Those services we call "value-added services".

And so when you're looking for a CPA and trying to decide how you're going to employ someone to do those things that have to be done (those compliance services) also find out from them if they have an interest in, or a history of, providing these "value-added services". These accounting services include: helping you plan for retirement, helping you look for ways out of your business, exit strategies, succession planning, those kinds of things, as well as how to take the money that you make in your business, in your life and retain it so that you can live the life that you like through your retirement years.

The important thing is to make sure that your accountant is offering you the services that are most important to you life. Keep this in mind the next time you meet with your CPA to discuss possible Las Vegas accounting services.