business owners pay a whole lot less in taxes than others…even on the very same income. Why? Because all the small businesses that pay less, have proper accounting system that make tax planning possible. Most SMEs do not keep proper books of accounts that make preparation of their financial statement possible which allows them to take advantage of the provisions of tax laws. Another factor which makes them to have a higher tax liability is they always fail to render all the necessary returns to both the regulatory authorities and tax authorities, and the penalty resulting from this adds to their liability.

Most SMEs take a reactive approach when saving money on their taxes. And, it’s that reactive approach that can cause you to overpay…sometimes significantly on your taxes…sometimes for years. I mean, how would you ever know? Really. Most small business owners are just happy to get their taxes done on time and, hopefully, accurately enough that red flags aren’t sent to the tax authorities…

WHAT I DISCOVERED

When small business owners come to me, I review their small business accounting system and books, I find lots of mistakes, no proper books of accounts, cheque books kept haphazardly, no filing of relevant source documents that can serve as evidence and no internally generated source documents and all these made things difficult for your auditors and tax consultants not to intimately and completely understand YOUR business. At the end of the day, that means money out of your pocket. Money you could put away for your children’s education…money you could use to take fun or leisure trips with your family.