subject: Start A Profitable Business Preparing Taxes For Others [print this page] Every citizen is liable to submit a tax return, but many people simply hate this or they don't have the necessary skills. They can of course go to an accountant, which will probably charge them and arm and a leg. This is where you come in: to file taxes for other people as income doesn't require you to be a rocket scientist and it can bring in quite good money.
Your first step will be to get familiar with the basics of the tax laws and regulations in your state. It's not rocket science: just get hold of a decent book explaining the subject and make notes of which types of income are taxable and which not, as well as which kinds of expenditure your client can claim against his taxable income.
Then you have to meet with your client and get all the relevant information from him. If he for example works for a salary and has no other income, filing his tax return is straight forward and you can easily do it in a couple of minutes rather than hours.
If your client has a salary and a part-time income, however, things get more tricky. Let's say he works as a plumber by day and at night he does private jobs. Then there will be certain expenses which can be tax deductible, while others can't. Take his cell phone bill for example. He should preferably keep records of all calls, indicating which ones are private and which are business related. Otherwise you will have to apportion those expenses in a way that the tax office will find acceptable.
He might also be able to claim part of expenses that would otherwise be considered private. A good example of this is when he uses a home office. The electricity bill for that office, telephone accounts, computers, printing paper and printers all form part of business expenses now, although he might occasionally play computer games on the office computer!
Vehicle maintenance is another gray area. The regular service bills for the vehicle which he uses partly for private and partly for business trips, should be apportioned in a way which is acceptable to the tax office.
During the course of your new job, you will no doubt find that customers are prone to throw away cash slips which they should have kept for their tax records. This is an ongoing training process: you have to convince them how important it is to keep all those little slips!
Once you know the relevant regulations and you are familiar with the affairs of your clients, to file taxes for other people as income isn't rocket science: it simply takes an orderly approach and the ability to think logically.
by: Kyle Muzzy
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