There are several parts of the calendar year I particularly enjoy, and others I bemoan.  This is one of those times of year I’m really not partial to.

Tax Season.

I really don’t like tax season.  It seems I pay through the nose during the year, and then end up writing a big fat check in the first part of March.

Why March? I thought taxes were due in April?

They are.  Unless you file a corporate tax return.  A Limited Liability Corporation (LLC), an S-corp, a C-corp…  Due on March 17th of this year.

The crux of that is that while corporate returns are due on March 17th (usually the 15th, but the 17th this year due to a weekend and a holiday), personal taxes are still due in April, even if you file corporate taxes.

The problem I always have is that while it’s much easier to file both personal and corporate taxes all at the same time, many of the documents required for a personal return don’t show up until the 11th hour.

For instance, the form 1099 won’t even leave TD Ameritrade until February 15th.  This doesn’t give my CPA much time to fill in all the blanks.

And then there’s the leg-work on my end.  I usually try to keep everything organized throughout the year so that by February, I just have to dump everything in a big envelope and ship it to the tax preparer.  That never goes as smoothly as one might think, and there are always documents to scrounge up and balance sheets to print out, oil and gas production to total and depletion numbers to calculate.

All this frustration and work just to find out I owe Uncle Sam an extra three grand.

With that, look forward to a few more posts on taxes, in particular corporate taxes and many of the tools to get you by for another year.

Taxes corporate taxes, Taxes