Commercial Tax Planning and Return Preparation For Phoenix, AZ Businesses


Commercial Tax Planning and Tax Return Preparation


The complexity of your taxes will vary significantly depending on factors like how your business is structured, large expenses or losses you’ve incurred or the depreciation of assets. Most small businesses in Arizona are what’s known as a “pass-through” business.” Pass-through businesses aren’t required to pay taxes directly since all the profits are being passed along to the owner, who will pay taxes via their own personal income tax return.
C-corporations are required to pay federal income taxes directly. 

Even though most business owners technically pay their commercial taxes via their own personal income tax return, there are a handful of specific types of withholding every business with employees will need to worry about. 

For example, businesses will need to withhold payroll taxes each pay period. They should deposit those payroll withholding taxes monthly or even semi-weekly. Proper calculation of payroll withholding should prevent you from overpaying, but it is possible for small businesses to pay too much and be entitled to a refund. 


What We’ll Need to Generate Your Business Tax Return

The team at H&H Accounting Services excels at preparing tax returns for C-corps and for pass-through small business owners. One of the benefits of utilizing our bookkeeping and tax preparation services is that we have all the necessary information and access to prepare these things with little to no effort on the business owner’s part. If you’re a first-time commercial tax preparation client, we will need a variety of things from you, including:

  • Previous year’s tax return
  • A variety of identification information like your federal tax ID, date / state of incorporation, business code number
  • Information about your business’s financials, especially your tracking method (accrual vs cash accounting) and inventory tracking methods
  • Beginning and ending balance sheet amounts
  • Shareholder / partnership information
  • Bank and credit card statements
  • Payroll reports
  • Asset dispositions or purchases (including things like sales tax paid)
  • Depreciation schedules for existing assets
  • Information on fleet vehicles

There may be some extra things you’ll need to provide or certain types of information that won’t be applicable to your business depending on what it is your business does. Reach out to our team at (480) 561-5805 to discuss your specific business and the types of informational assets we’ll need to prepare your taxes.


What’s the Difference Between Tax Planning and Tax Preparation?

Tax planning should ideally be done early in your business’s life and optimized or modified based on your changing financial situation and business needs. It’s the process of planning your finances, spending, depreciation strategies, business formation and other financial matters in a way that’s advantageous for your business from a tax perspective. The goal of tax planning is to minimize your business’s tax burden. 

Tax preparation is the annual ritual and legal obligation of preparing a tax return to meet your tax obligations. 
There can be overlap between tax planning and tax preparation, especially when you use a single company like H&H Accounting Services to handle your business accounting and tax preparation services. We stay up to date on the latest Arizona and federal tax law to optimize our clients’ tax preparation. We are constantly on the lookout for ways to minimize your tax burden, so you have more assets on hand to grow your business. 

Although we do provide one-off tax planning and tax preparation services, businesses benefit most when tax planning is an ongoing effort. One of the benefits of utilizing our comprehensive suite of business accounting services (like bookkeeping, payroll, financial statement preparation, cash flow management, etc.) is we’ll constantly be on the lookout for ways to minimize your tax obligations while ensuring you remain in compliance with all state and federal requirements. 

Get Help With Your Business Tax Planning and Tax Return Preparation 

Are you a Phoenix or Scottsdale business owner looking for a partner for your tax preparation or business tax planning? The team at H&H Accounting Services is here to help. Give our experts a call at (480) 561-5805 for a free one-hour consultation and find out why so many small businesses choose us for their tax preparation and accounting service provider.