Simply Accounting (and tax) for Small Business
by Mark O’Donnell
We are honored to contribute this column to the readers of Small Business Monthly. Our commitment to you, a small business person, is to provide practical, understandable information about your business, your financials, and ideas to save you tax dollars. Allow me to add a bit of fun right from the start. It’s a joke of sorts (warning! most accountants will object).
Businessman Joe flies hot air balloons as a hobby. He especially likes new areas and sometimes gets lost. This time he flew over Kansas and, sure enough he was off course. There was a town ahead, so he descended hoping someone would provide location information. As fate would have it, a guy in a suit (Dudley), white shirt, and tie was leaving his house. Joe lowered the balloon and got Dudley’s attention.
Joe: “Hey, my name is Joe. I am lost. Can you tell me where I am?”
Dudley: After thinking carefully responds, “My name is Dudley. You are in a hot air balloon 200 feet above the ground”.
Joe: ”Dudley, are you an accountant?”
Dudley: “Yes! That’s amazing; how did you know? Was it my suit?”
Joe: ”No, Dudley, it’s not your suit. It’s because your information is more accurate than useful.”
Our commitment to this series is to provide accurate and useful information. If I get off track, please send an email to me starting with “Dear Dudley.”
What to Expect
Often accounting and tax regulations are difficult to understand; there are exceptions to the rule and exceptions to the exceptions. The business art to the technical “science” is in making the expertise accessible and actionable.
You deserve relevant accounting and tax information so you can make timely and effective business decisions. That is what you should expect, that is what we provide.
I will start with basic concepts and gradually build a usable framework for understanding your financial statements, important supporting financial reports, and, from time to time, a timely tax issue, like this one:
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has provided relief for certain taxpayers/businesses located in the City of St. Louis, Montgomery, St. Charles, and St. Louis counties.
Partnerships and S corporations due September 15 and Individuals and C corporations due October 17, who had a valid extension to file their 2021 return, will now have until November 15, 2022 to file their income tax return.
The November 15, 2022, deadline also applies to 3rd quarter estimated income tax payments due on September 15, 2022, and the quarterly payroll and excise tax returns normally due August 1 and October 31, 2022.
Next month: Maps and your financials and tax returns.
Comments or questions? Please send me an email at connectwithus@stcpa.com.
Mark O’Donnell, CPA, is Partner at Schmersahl Treloar & Co. He can be reached at 314.966.2727.