Here’s Why Uncle Sam Wants You To Start A Business!

(Reprinted from article written by Sharon Lechter, CPA)

A lot has been said about the many tax advantages of starting your own business. Let’s start with the tax incentives. It’s no secret to anyone that the tax laws are written to promote business ownership. So what do what the rich do. Start your own business and take advantage of the favorable tax advantages that come with owning a business.

Build First, Pay Taxes Last

The difference between the employees and the business owner is that the employee pays taxes FIRST on what they earn and then get to live on whatever is left over. The business owner spends their earnings to build their business FIRST and then pays taxes on what is left. The business owner will always pay less tax than the employee simply because they can reduce the income amount they have to pay tax on. This enable the business owner to grow their business faster and for the business to generate investment dollars quicker.

That is also why there is such an advantage in starting a direct selling business versus a traditional business from scratch. You can immediately begin earning, instead of spending, the time and money to set up the back office administration, product development, advertising, and other functions that are often necessary when you begin a new business.

Tax Advantages of a Home-Based Business

To take advantage of these deductions, the tax code states that these expenses need to be only “ordinary and necessary” and that your business needs to be one in which you are endeavoring to make a profit. Here are some of the other business deductions you may be able to take advantage of:

·         Home office expenses (repair, maintenance, property taxes)

·         Business equipment (computers, cell phones)

·         Office supplies

·         Internet and telephone services

·         Software and subscriptions

·         Mileage and other auto expenses

·         Travel, meals, and entertainment

Proper Documentation a Must

Don’t be afraid to take advantage of these deductions. As long as your expenses follow the tax code guidelines and you retain proper documentation to back-up the expenses, you will be protected in the rare case of an audit.

G. L. Giddings, Director

GLG and Associates, LLP

The POWER Group Organization Team

http://ibourl.com/17hk 

Office: (502) 209-TEAM {8326}

What Are You Doing To GROW Your Social Networks?

By G. L. Giddings

If you are online for any considerable amount of time, whether it be a laptop, smartphone, or PC, chances are that you are involved in some sort of SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORK. There are so many, I can't keep track of them: Twitter, Facebook, MeetUp, LinkedIn, and many others. And as much as I love to meet people on these great mediums, I sometimes get discouraged because as a small business owner, I rely on these networks to make meaningful connections that can help me online.

About a week ago, I was introduced to a network called IBOSocial. IBO stands for "Independent Business Owners" and once I registered for the free account, I began to start meeting people right away, even before I had my profile all set up and running. IBOSocial has a host of great marketing tools that you can use like a URL shortener, you can add videos, post press releases, and many other things that will take me all day to share.

It allows you to build a network of fresh leads, contacts, and great friendships that I am finding very helpful. It's definitely fast-paced and a little knowledge in "copying and pasting" will definitely go a long way as I can't keep up with the various requests I receive from the network. This is great for me because I wanted to basically meet new individuals who may be interested in my particular services. If you are looking for a way to gain additional connections for your business opportunities, small business, or just want to meet some really great individuals, then consider joining and getting a free account. You have nothing to lose and so much to gain! Have FUN with your new IBO Social Network and I will soon see you on "The Wall"!  

Get your IBO Social Network FREE account today by clicking the TOP banner on the RIGHT of this page!

G. L. Giddings is the owner of GLG and Associates, LLP and "Our Small Biz World Blog" in Southern Indiana.

A dozen deductions for your small business

By Dana Dratch • Bankrate.com

Small-business tax rule No. 1: Don't mess with the IRS.

But that doesn't mean you should cheat yourself. Take every legal deduction you can. Here are a dozen that even savvy small-business owners and entrepreneurs sometimes forget:

The deductible dozen:

1. Home office
2. Office supplies
3. Furniture
4. Other equipment
5. Software and subscriptions
6. Mileage
7. Travel, meals, entertainment and gifts
8. Insurance premiums
9. Retirement contribution
10. Social Security
11. Telephone charges
12. Child labor

1. Home office

Concerned that claiming a home-office deduction is tantamount to sending an engraved invitation to an Internal Revenue Service auditor? Don't be, says Jan Zobel, author of "Minding Her Own Business: The Self-Employed Woman's Guide to Taxes and Record-keeping."

I don't agree that chances of getting audited are greater with a home-office deduction," says Zobel, a San Francisco Bay-area tax expert, who specializes in serving the self-employed. The key is that you use the term "home office" the same way the IRS does. The tax agency says it must be a space devoted to your business and absolutely nothing else. Deducting the den that houses the family computer and serves as a guest bedroom won't fly with Uncle Sam.

"If you only have one computer and you have a child over four, the IRS is going to be pretty certain that the child is using the computer," says Zobel. "And the burden of proof is on you."

The deduction, however, isn't limited to a full room. Your home office can be part of a room. Just how much of the space is deductible? Measure your work area and divide by the square footage of your home. That percentage is the fraction of your home-related business expenses -- rent, mortgage, insurance, electricity, etc.-- that you can claim.

To read the entire article, click here: A dozen deductions for your small business -  http://www.bankrate.com/finance/money-guides/a-dozen-deductions-for-your-small-business-1.aspx#ixzz1eqYJrvxF

Tax-Advantages Of Owning A Home-Based Business

By G. L. Giddings, Chairman and CEO, GLG and Associates, LLP®

(The POWER Group Organization Team®)

I have been involved in the home-based business industry since 1979 and today make a GREAT living from home. Even though I work from the comfort of a laptop and not-so-sophisticated phone systems (2 mobile and 1 business land-line phone), I do go out on appointments with business owners, meet with potential clients, and attend many networking events. I operate a home-based business, not a home-bound business. I regularly have to itemize ALL of my business expenses, which can add up very quickly with utilities, supplies, marketing tools, travel expenses, among other things that can pop-up out of the blue and throw one for a loop!

If you ever wanted to work for yourself, starting a home business can be very challenging, but I wouldn't change it for anything in the world! I have total control of my time, no glass ceiling to worry about, no one telling me what to do, and the BEST part, I can make as much MONEY as I want, whenever I want, wherever I want! But here's the catch. If you don't take your business seriously, you'll be BROKE in no time!

Since the holiday season is here and tax time is right around the corner, I wanted to share a couple of tips any home-based business owner can do to take advantage of the many deductions available to them so you can keep the MAJORITY of that tax money in YOUR POCKET instead of giving it all to the IRS!:

 

·-- Employ your children in your home based business and pay them up to $4,400 a year per child tax free to them and tax free to you. After paying them, you can then have that child pay his/her own expenses (with the parent’s supervision) such as clothing, allowances, college funds, entertainment, school supplies, etc. There has been a court case ruling authorizing a child as young as 6 years old can work in the home-based business to qualify, but if the child can answer the phone and take messages, they are old enough to justify paying them up to $4,400 a year.

·--Deduct mileage @ $.325 per mile when driving anywhere to conduct business. In addition, mileage back and forth from your home based business to your place of employment could be deductible as a Schedule A deduction (mileage between two places of employment). Providing you conduct some kind of business before you leave your home based-business and when you get back to your home based-business. By doing this, you can now convert a lot of your non-deductible mileage into deductible mileage.

·--All telecommunications expenses (except for basic residential service) such as long distance, call waiting, call forwarding, 3-way calling, internet, pagers, cellular phones etc. can be deducted 100% if they are business-related.

·--Travel expenses could be deductible for the entire family by properly structuring & planning your travel itinerary around business activities.

·--Employ your spouse and supply them with a 100% Medical Reimbursement Plan as an employee benefit. This makes 100% of all your medical, dental & optical expenses such as premiums or partial-premiums, deductibles, co-pays, prescriptions, teeth maintenance and repair, braces, contacts, eyeglasses, cosmetic surgery, etc. (for your spouse that is employed and the entire family which includes you, the business owner).

·--Deduct the business use % of all expenses associated with your house and/or apartment such as mortgage or rent, utilities, improvements and/or repairs, insurance, real estate taxes, security systems, lawn care, etc. (This deduction is one of the smaller deductions and can only be deducted to the level of gross receipts for your business. The amount remaining would roll to the following year.)

·--Deduct 50% of all entertainment & meals when in the activity of conducting or discussing business.

These are just a few of the many tax deductions available to you in a Sole Proprietor home-based business. Of course, you need to visit a tax professional in your state to get the details on each of these deductions.

To read more information about this topic, watch this short YouTube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7wRgCPDbG-w&feature=colike

 

Four Home-Based Business Myths

By Lesley Spencer Pyle


Published December 01, 2010

WomenEntrepreneur.com

The home-based business industry is buzzing with new startups, products and services. If you are considering launching a home-based company, it's a good idea to have all the facts. There are a lot of misconceptions about what it takes to run a successful business from home.

Separate fact from fiction, and find out whether these oft-repeated notions are just myths.

Anyone can start a home-based business.

While anyone can launch a home-based business at virtually any time, not everyone will succeed. It's not as easy as you might think. So before you jump in head first, make sure you're in touch with reality. First of all, building a business from the ground up is a slow and sometimes tedious process. You will not become a millionaire overnight.
There is a lot of information to take in and a lot of junk to filter out. The truth is that running a home-based business is, in most cases, a trial by fire. Lots of people throw in the towel before they ever see any real money.

It doesn't cost anything to start a home-based business.

If you are offering a service, this might be true. Emily Suess, a freelance writer in Indianapolis, launched her business virtually overnight without any startup fees. "I already had a laptop and a high-speed internet connection," says Suess. "The only thing I needed was to find my first client."

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.foxsmallbusinesscenter.com/sbc/2010/12/01/home-based-business-myths/

Residual Income (Passive Income) - What Is It?!!

Everyone dreams of earning money without actually having to do anything. Residual income or passive income really enables you to do that. Here we speak of the three most significant residual income opportunities that everyone can use to improve their financial health.

If you compare how earning lifestyles are functioning today with the way they were going on until a few years back, you will see a marked change. Today, most people have no qualms about chucking their day jobs and entering into an opportunity that pays them and keeps paying them. In fact, many people who are in daytime jobs already have a source of residual income bringing cash into their coffers.

Simply put, residual income or passive income is the money earned from a job that you do once, but which keeps on paying by itself for a long time. It is something like the concept of a perpetual motion machine – the machine that can produce work without consuming energy. But there is a difference. With residual income opportunities you do have to put in efforts and, unlike the perpetual motion machine, residual income is very much possible.

Passive income opportunities have always existed in the world, but with the Internet becoming an important part of the machinations of the world, the opportunities have multiplied drastically. There are many avenues quite easily open for you if you want to make some money on the side. Most of them do require some kind of talent, and hence you will have to check out where you fit in. Let us see some of the most happening residual income opportunities open for people like you and me.

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.buzzle.com/articles/residual-income-passive-income.html
 
What Is YOUR Plan "B" Income Stream?!! - http://www.greatworkplan.com/ggiddings

How To Create Multiple Income Streams

Written By Leo Babauta, Making Money
 
What do you do if you have one main client and for some reason the work from that client dries up?

Perhaps the client goes out of business or goes in a different direction or just has a lull in business?


Your main source of income is then gone. Which is why it’s crucial for anyone who relies on their freelance revenues to have multiple streams of income. That’s easier said than done, of course, as many freelancers have two or three main clients and are happy to focus on those alone. But as many experienced freelancers will tell you, that’s a mistake.

Today we’ll look at a few different ways to set up multiple streams of income to make your freelancing business more stable and ensure that you’re living the freelancing good life for years to come. Please note that the following are just different options you can choose — I’m not recommending you do all of them.


To read the entire article, click here - http://freelanceswitch.com/money/how-to-create-multiple-income-streams/
 
What Is YOUR Plan "B" Income Stream?!! - http://www.greatworkplan.com/ggiddings

Why EVERYONE Should Have A Home-Based Business, Even If You Already Have A JOB

Written By G. L. Giddings
Chairman, CEO, and President 
G. L. Giddings and Associates, LLP
The POWER Group Organization© Team

Quote: "If you can find a VOID and FILL it, you can become VERY WEALTHY."

 
I was an employee in the food service industry for over 28-years, working in places ranging from the U.S. Air Force and Monmouth Medical Center to restaurants like Ruby Tuesday's, Quaker Steak and Lube and Applebee's. I enjoyed cooking and having the chance to be creative, but was never full-filled financially. I worked long hours, was a hard-worker, but never felt I earned what I was worth. To make matters worse, I seemed to always get "passed over" for jobs I knew I was qualified for. Management and supervisory positions always flew right past me! I held a few trainer positions, but all those were just "glorified titles" for cook. I only made slightly more than my counterparts.

I have researched over (300) home-based business opportunities since 1985, and found many to be legitimate. Companies like Gillette, MARY KAY, Specialty Merchandise Corporation (SMC), and AVON use independent affiliate contractors to market their services. Others like Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., DISH Network, SPRINT/Nextell, AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile also use independent contractors as well as network marketing to get the word out about their products and services.

There are many advantages to starting a home-based business. One is is that most of your businesses have low or no start-up costs. Unlike franchises, where you have to have a large amount to get started, you don't have that worry. You have total control of your TIME, which is what attracted me more than the money. My time is VERY IMPORTANT to me, so I needed to be sure that I wasn't wasting it on companies that didn't produce income or provide opportunities for me to advance. Another is that you can work full-time, part-time, or spare time. And because of this, your can pretty much dictate your income. You can make as much or as little as you want. And usually there is no teritorial restrictions.

I found a list of statistics about the home-based business industry. Let me know what you think. Also, please read the earlier blog about why it is important to have a "Plan B", especially in today's economy. Having a "Plan B" is a great idea because your "job" (I jokingly call it being "JUST OVER BROKE"!) isn't promised to be there tomorrow. There are many tax advantages to starting a home-based business.

Doing your research BEFORE you jump-in head first and you could find that pot at the end of your financial rainbow!

Call G.L. Giddings and Associates, LLP at (502) 992-9472 (OFFICE) for more information about the home-based business industry and how to get the most out of working from home! http://www.greatworkplan.com/ggiddings

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Recent Statistics About Home Based Businesses
Number of Home Business - 36 million to 18 million

According to IDC, a top national research firm, there are between 34.3 million and 36.6 million home office households in the United States alone.

Nationwide, the number of home-based businesses may range from 18 million to 38 million, depending on who is doing the counting. U.S. Census figures. Pittsburgh Business Times

The number of home-based businesses in the United States surpassed 20 million in 2002, and is expected to eclipse 25 million by 2003 according to International Data Corp.

In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that there are now more than 18.3 million homebased businesses in the United States. (Entrepreneur Magazine )

The number of U.S. households that have a home-based business currently exceeds 12 percent." - Office of Advocacy, Small Business Administration


Newsweek magazine reports that by the year 2005, it’s anticipated that 50% of the households in the United States will be involved in a home-based business!

To read the rest of the statistics, click here - http://www.kristiet.com/home-biz-fact-sheet.htm

What Is Your "Plan B"? Five Ways To Plan For The Unexpected

Your "Plan B" Wardrobe

By Diana Pemberton-Sikes

Earlier this month, a textile mill in Tennessee closed abruptly one day when the owner couldn't make payroll. Hundreds of people were thrown out of work. In Colorado, a friend is waiting to see whether her husband will lose his job of 20 years because his company hit rough times and became vulnerable to a hostile takeover. Here in Delaware, several friends who work at Bank of America have already lost their jobs.

No doubt about it: the current financial climate is claiming unsuspecting victims at every turn. No one knows who could be next.

So how are YOU responding to this threat? Are you crossing your fingers and hoping for the best? Or are you putting together a "Plan B" just in case?
My recommendation is to make a "Plan B". Because when you take time to consider all your options, it gives you more control. Why willingly trap yourself in a corner when, with a little forethought, you could have an escape route in place?

Now I realize that thinking about alternate plans is a challenge for some people. It smacks of change, and change is hard. Even THINKING about change can be stressful. So don't think of "Plan B" as change. Think of it as "exploring your options" as you play a REALLY tough game of WHAT IF? with yourself:

What if you lose your job?
What if you have to relocate?
What if you have to change industries?

To read the entire article, click here - http://www.career-intelligence.com/management/Five-ways-to-plan-your-wardrobe-for-the-unexpected.asp

What Is YOUR Plan "B" Income Stream?!! - http://www.greatworkplan.com/ggiddings