519-646-2222Taxes – The Scourge of Small Business
We have solutions for your tax dilemma.
Small business owners face tremendous challenges in dealing with taxes and taxation. The challenges are multifarious beginning with excessive taxation, as well as rules and regulations around the calculation, reporting and payment of taxes. Nothing is simple about Canadian tax laws.
Small business owners are often talented craftsmen or tradespeople but not often well versed in bookkeeping and tax preparation and reporting. The first set of challenges every new business owner faces involve generating business and revenue and then paying bills and taxes.
There is no forgiveness and very little wiggle room for tax reporting and payment, unless of course you are an extremely wealthy corporation or individual. Getting behind with taxes is very easy for new business start ups working on thin margins. Once behind getting caught back up can be very daunting.
What are the solutions? Obviously, a major change in government fiscal policy including a reformation of the entire tax system, the elimination and consolidation of some forms of taxation, especially double dipping taxes such as PST, GST and HST would go a long way to solving some of the issues.
Policy makers should also be more accountable for excessive expenditures – after all Canadians are now paying more than 50% of their income in some form of taxation. We spend far more on taxes than we do on housing. But that is only one part of the equation and while important ideas they are rather utopian.
If you are a small business owner and behind on your taxes filing a proposal or bankruptcy can reduce or eliminate some or all your tax liabilities leaving you in a better position to move forward with your venture. Some people are of the mistaken belief that government debt, particularly taxation, never goes away., but that is simply not the case.
Once you have resolved the tax debt issue it is important to engage the services of a good bookkeeper and/or accountant to keep you on track. Stay on top of your filing and remittances to avoid future problems.