Ensure you're prepared for tax season and maximize your savings with this year-end tax planning checklist.
By Roll Editorial Team on November 04, 2024
4 min readEnd-of-year tax planning makes for busy times for small business teams nationwide. A well-thought-out end-of-year checklist covers a wide range of financial and operational aspects that you’ll need to review and address.
Even though you do this every year, getting your business and personal taxes in order can sometimes feel a little overwhelming. But don’t sweat it. You’re not alone! Our expert team are pros at simplifying complex tax and reporting requirements and has compiled this handy year-end tax planning checklist to help you get everything squared away.
Ready to breeze through the process and develop a stellar year-end accounting checklist to ensure every detail is covered. Then, let’s dive in.
For most small businesses, deadlines were April 15 for regular filing and October 15 for those with an extension. So, hopefully, your tax checklist for 2024 should already be done and dusted.
But hold off on the victory lap for now. Why? Because this moment is golden for reevaluating your tax documents planning checklist for 2024. It's the ideal time to refine your approach, lighten your tax load, and align your strategies with your financial goals for 2025.
So, here you go with the ultimate cheat sheet. It's time to navigate the seas of year-end tax tips and guidance. Full speed ahead!
When it comes to your taxes, your checklist must encompass a comprehensive review of your financial management. Here’s a rundown on the primary financial aspects that any complete tax checklist should cover:
1. Review Financial Statements
Review your profit and loss statement, balance sheet, and cash flow statement to assess the overall financial health of your business and get a firm grip on your assets, liabilities, and equity. The best methodology is to request an end-of-year statement from your bank and carefully reconcile any loan balances to ensure they match.
2. Organize Documentation
Practice makes perfect! So, review your year-end tax planning checklist for 2024 to ensure that all financial records, receipts, invoices, and other financial documents are well-organized and easily accessible so you and your team can emulate the process for next year’s tax preparation.
3. Evaluate Estimated Tax Payments
Review your quarterly estimated tax payments. If your business experienced significant changes, such as increased revenue or expenses, consider adjusting your estimated payments for the following year to avoid underpayment penalties.
4. Depreciation and Asset Purchases
If you purchased fixed assets like equipment or machinery during the past year, consider whether you need to calculate and record depreciation expenses. If you decide to go ahead, you’ll need to calculate the cost of each asset over its life cycle and assign a realistic annual value.
From an employee perspective, your year-end tax planning checklist should encompass standard benefits and remuneration packages, plus any additional payments you’ve made:
1. Review Employee Benefits
Ensure that all employee benefits are up to date and compliant with current regulations. You’ll need to check:
2. Year-End Bonuses
If you plan on awarding year-end bonuses, calculate the amounts and ensure they are properly accounted for in your payroll processing procedures. Be sure to accurately report all bonuses on employee W-2 forms and withhold the appropriate payroll taxes to avoid complications down the line.
If you deal in physical inventory, you’ll need to run a comprehensive stock check and reconcile the count with your inventory records. If you discover discrepancies due to shrinkage, dead stock, etc., adjust your financial records accordingly and consider writing off the losses.
An effective tax return checklist considers ways to make even more tax savings across the coming year. These are the primary bases you should be looking to cover:
1. Charitable Contributions
Charitable donations can be deducted from your business tax return. So, if you’ve contributed to any charities during the year, make sure you keep all relevant documentation. Ensure you retain receipts, acknowledgment letters, and any related documentation so you have proof of each transaction.
2. Tax Credits
Review potential credit options like the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit, which could be worth as much as 50% of the costs you pay toward employee premiums. To meet the eligibility criteria, you’ll need to prove that:
3. Personal Retirement Plans
Business owners with employees can contribute to an individual Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) or 401k through the same plan they offer their workers. This can lower your tax bracket because you can deduct the contributions from your business income.
Depending on your location and industry of operation, compliance standards can vary. However, these are the main points to cover on your tax return checklist.
1. State and Local Taxes
While small business taxes are governed at a federal level by the IRS, state and local tax obligations covering sales tax, income tax, and property tax can vary. Always make sure you double-check the requirements and ensure you've filed for the correct amounts.
2. Annual Reports and Renewals
Many states require annual reports or proof of renewal for business entities to maintain active status. So, you’ll need to review all licenses, permits, and required professional memberships and check to make sure they’ll remain current over the coming tax year.
In addition to everything we’ve covered so far, your year-end tax planning checklist should encompass some general strategies that will help keep you on track over the coming year. A few examples include:
Whether you’re preparing business or personal taxes, a checklist can be an invaluable tool to ensure you cover all bases and maximize your returns with minimal stress.
Now, it’s time to make your taxation processes seriously stress-free.
Backed by ADP, the expert team at Roll specializes in making it easier for small business owners to meet their financial and regulatory responsibilities. Roll offers small business owners so much more than just managing payroll for full-time, part-time seasonal, and 1099s, such as:
Cloud storage of employee hiring forms such as w9s, w2s, w9s
Whether it's insights on seamless employee onboarding, strategies for compensating 1099 contractors, navigating compliance intricacies, or taking the worry out of payroll taxes, rest assured, we've got every angle covered for you. And the best part? You can do it all right in our payroll app!
Ready to roll with a range of features specifically designed to simplify and streamline every aspect of tax compliance for small businesses? Get in touch today and discover the power of Roll.