Business organizations often face challenges while filing their taxes. Without a proper estimation of your taxable income and payable taxes, you may find it daunting to pay off your taxes on time. As a result, you may need to pay hefty penalties and end up overpaying taxes. Continue reading this blog to know the best strategies to avoid overpaying taxes.
Top 5 Strategies to Avoid Overpaying Taxes
Follow the below pointers to save yourself from paying any extra amount of tax or penalties:
Know Your Obligations
With better insights into federal, state, and local tax obligations you can keep away from overpaying taxes. IRS audits businesses on a given financial year and every organization must pay their taxes on time. If you fail to pay the tax on time, you can attract penalties, or your business can be scrutinized. So, you can log in to the websites of the IRS and SBA to know about the obligations regarding tax forms, due dates, instructions regarding tax filing, etc.
Estimate Upcoming Year’s Income
Estimating your company income for the next year can help in getting a clear idea of your payable taxes. Thus, you can plan your finances accordingly and refrain from overpaying taxes. You can take help from professional financial advisors or estimate your income from the yearly W-2 that provides detail of your yearly revenue.
Go for ‘Safe Harbor’
Taking advantage of the ‘safe harbor’ can be ideal for taxpayers who are expecting a much higher or lower income in the upcoming year. By paying ‘safe harbor’ you can stay away from paying penalties. It is a minimal amount that does not burn a hole in your pocket. Moreover, if you fail to pay the taxes, fulfilling the safe harbor target will keep you protected from overpayment issues.
You can approach paying safe harbor in two ways. Either you need to pay 100% of the previous year’s tax or 90% of the next year’s tax. You need to divide this amount into four equal parts and pay the ‘safe harbor’ accordingly.
Calculate the Estimated Deductions
Deductible expenses include professional expenses, mortgage interest, dependent exemptions, etc. Calculating the tax deductions for the upcoming year can be another way to stay protected from overpaying taxes. In this way, you can predict your eligibility for deductible expenses in the upcoming year.
If you want lower deductible expenses in the upcoming year, you can reduce some deductions. For instance, you can reduce mortgage interest. Enquire about the next year’s expenses from the lender and pay off the maximum amount to reduce the interest. However, if you are unsure about any deductions in the next year, exclude them from the tax estimations.
Determine the Payable Tax
You can use the IRS tax table to determine your estimated tax payment. Your taxable income is decided after deducting the average gross income from your total income. After you get an idea of the taxable income use the tax table published by IRS on the previous year to determine your payable tax. You can use this table easily in the following way:
- Know your estimated annual tax.
- Divide the payable amount by the total paychecks you get in a year.
- You will receive the amount you need to deduct from each paycheck to reach a $0 return.
Final Word
If you find the above strategies hard to follow, hiring a professional can be fruitful. Though you need to pay them a charge, the amount you save from overpaid taxes will be worthwhile. Moreover, they will guide you to keep away from simple mistakes and pay penalties. So, if you are looking for any professional knowledge in this area feel free to contact us. Besides, if you want to know more about such company operation-related topics, browse our blog section.
Reference Links:
https://www.keepertax.com/posts/overpay-estimated-tax
https://www.purposefulfinance.org/home/Articles/2017/stop-overpaying-your-taxes
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