The type of business you’re running will largely determine whether doing your own business taxes is a smart idea or not. Look at the different business structures listed below to identify your type:
- Sole proprietor/single member LLC
Do you operate under your own name and Social Security, or are the only member of your LLC?
- Partnership/multi-member LLC
Does your business have multiple owners who have formed an LLC or partnership but whom are not taxed as a corporation?
- S corporation
Does your partnership or LLC have to be elected to be treated as a corporation for tax purposes?
- C corporation
Is yours a large company that is a completely separate legal entity from its owners?
To make matters more confusing than business taxes ordinarily are, each of these business types has their own IRS form and filing due date. Depending on the structure, associated business taxes are paid by the owner or the business itself. In short, seeking professional help with your business taxes is always going to be the simplest, most efficient and most accurate way to file your taxes potentially save money, and stay on the right side of the IRS, but if you own a sole proprietorship you may be able to use tax software to file your taxes. Similarly, if yours is a simple partnership, you may also be able to do your own filing using tax software.
However, there are definitely instances when as a business owner, you should hire an accountant.
Complex partnerships
Attempting to file your own taxes using a complex partnership business structure is never wise as they can be especially complicated. If you have gross receipts over $250,000, business assets over $1 million or a partnership with more than 5 partners, it’s definitely time to call a CPA for help!
S corporations
Any mistakes made at the business level require the individual owners’ returns to be fixed, too, and while S corps do have relatively low audit rates, this is probably due to the fact that this type of return is taken care of by skilled tax professionals who know exactly what they’re doing. Blunder through your S corps taxes, on the other hand, and you could well end up on the IRSs radar.
C corporations
As the most distinct type of business filing, C corporations are accompanied by a whole host of factors that complicate matters; as such, they tend to have the highest audit rate. Finding an accountant to help you with your business taxes in this instance, is always recommended.
Many business owners believe that tackling their own business taxes gives them the opportunity to save on the cost of hiring an accountant, but more often than not, this can result in costly errors and an untimely visit from the IRS.