Archive for the ‘I didn’t keep Records’ Category

Larisa’s Response:  First of all, you only have to pay taxes on the profit from the business. This means after to subtract your expenses from your income, you pay tax on what’s left. Since you haven’t kept track of mileage or supplies, you will have to estimate. I hope you have an appointment book you can reference to tell you where you went for each cleaning job. From that you can figure your mileage. If you don’t have where you went written down somewhere, you will have to try to remember. In the future, please remember to write this info down!! It is very important if you plan on taking a deduction for mileage. Next, you should check your bank statements and credit card statement to find your supply purchases. By the way, a business owner should never pay for anything in cash!! If you did pay for the supplies in cash, I hope you kept the receipts. If not, again, you will have to estimate and begin today to keep  records. You  should be able to find some kind of records–maybe even bank deposits–to substantiate your claims for mileage and supply purchases. Find all the documentation you can and use it to figure out these issues.