Hey, you new business owner. Are you feeling overwhelmed with tax season approaching? Do you feel like a deer in the headlights? I know I have really big eyes. My mom always says, “Oh my gosh, look at your eyes.” My eyes are so big. I think they're bigger now than what they were when I was younger. Who knows? Anyway, don't worry, I got you. It's Thursday again. It's 10 am. You know what time it is – it's Coffee Chats with Candice.

This morning, when I was writing my notes in my brain, and I was saying, “You know what time it is?” It made me think of “Tool Time!” It made me think of Home Improvement Tool Time like all the people will yell, “What time is it? Tool Time!” Anyway, I thought that was really funny. You on the other hand, I don't think… it's fine. So, while this is not a tool show, I do give you some tools to use in your business. That's kind of what I do – just to give you tools and help in your business.

If you haven't seen my Coffee Chats before, take a moment to look around. I also have them and my blogs on my website. Go check that out as well. All right. So grab a cup of coffee or beverage of your choice. You know, I don't judge and that includes your business and finances too. Let's continue our chat about the last of “the January to do series” on this absolutely lovely February 1 morning.

Oh my gosh, y'all. Tomorrow is Groundhog Day. Is anyone excited about it? I AM! I don't know what he's supposed to do for us to get in early spring. Whatever it is, I hope he does it. I mean, you have one job, Phil! Can we count on you? All right, I'm feeling chatty today. I'm sorry. I'm probably going to figure out after my live is over, that there is no sound. And y'all are yelling at your screen saying, “I can't hear you!” But guess what? I can't hear or see you either. So, I just see myself anyway. All right. So let's get to why we're here. I'm going to take a drink of my coffee.

So taxes are a bad word or tax is a bad word for a lot of people. And it used to be for me, I mean, it's still a bad word, but like less than it was before. It's not as bad as it was and that's because I've learned that with good organization and good planning you can take the backpack of the burden off your back. So, yes, you can do it!

Remember that guy? What was his name? Tony, Tony something? “You can do it!” Anyway, sorry. I'm just having a field day today. I guess after my total screw-ups, I am just like, “Okay, well, it is what it is. So we'll just keep watching.” 

Does anybody have any questions so far? Put them in the comments or send me a DM. Now I can't answer any questions about Punxsutawney Phil because like I said, I don't know what he's supposed to do, but hopefully, he does it. Remember, no question is stupid; we were all beginners once. And honestly, I wake up every day as a beginner to something, I ask a lot of questions, and it annoys the crap out of my daughter. She's like, “Why do you ask so many questions?” And I'm like, “Well, because I don't know, and I want to know all the things – that's how you learn!” One of my mentors has said that the quality of your life is based on the quality of the questions that you ask (or something like that). I mean, I knew I would not remember it exactly. But anyway, the point is to ask questions, and the better your questions are, the better quality you're gonna have.

Sales tax and sales tax return – your accountant needs these reports and if you're going to be filing them yourself. I do my sales tax reports myself. I don't like it, but I do it myself. If you do those yourself, you have to send them to your accountant.

You don't charge sales tax? Have you made sure that your business doesn't require you to charge sales tax? If not, that would be the very first thing I would advise you to do. Well, finish watching my live first because I've worked really hard on it, then contact your state taxing authority. 

Mine, for sales tax, is the state comptroller's and it could be different where you are. So check it out. I would suggest speaking with a person so that you are 1,000% or 10,000%, or 1,000,000% sure of what you're doing, and what if you're doing right, right? Reading on their website could drive anyone off a cliff. I mean, I start reading and I'm just like, “Whatever. I don't even understand this. Why can't you make it English? Why? Why is it so hard?”  

Do you sell gift cards or gift certificates in your business? Do you sell them either physically or online? Guess what? Your accountant needs that year-end report as well. To do that, you will need to go into your point of sale system or your POS. You need to get at the dashboard in that system, and you need to find the reports, then you're going to look for the gift card label and you want to run the report for the entire year. For example, January 1 to December 31, 2023, get it to your accountant, save it, export it, and do all that! Save it as a PDF, save it as an Excel sheet, whatever you know how to do. That is showing your accountant that you care, which most people don't care about, but I care, and I hope you care. Is the sales of gift cards that you made? How much has been redeemed, and what is currently left to be redeemed? So what's left over that hasn't been redeemed in the year so that they can account for that?
 

All right, so that's all the knowledge I could pack into today because I was just too chatty and too funny. And I don't know. I mean, maybe I'm funny to myself, but hopefully, y'all think I'm funny because it makes you laugh. After all, I just want to make people happy. What do you want to know? What questions do you have about your business? How can I help you if you don't ask? Get in those comments or those DMs and ask the questions.

I've linked my Expense Tracker in the description and make sure you grab it! It's very, very helpful. Especially, preparing for taxes. I was talking to my nephew, he was here this week, he has a business of his own. He's an electrician. And I asked him, “Do you know what kind of things do you need?” And what I hear from everyone is that, what to keep track of, and how to keep track of it. This is the beginning of a new year. Please, please, please, if you don't remember anything else that I tell you, track what you spend for your business and make sure that you have a business banking account. You want the date, you want the location of where you went – so that’s the store, wherever you want the purchase amount, you want the description of what it was that you purchased, what was it for, because you were not going to remember next week, much less a year from now, so make sure to do that, and my Expense Tracker will help you do that. You just got to keep it and you got to make it a habit. And I think it's like 21 days to make a habit or I don't know, maybe 30 days? I don't know. You have to make it a habit. If you have to put it in your calendar, say: “Expense Tracker every day.” Well, did you do it? Okay, so you can write it off. Okay. You didn't go anywhere. You didn't spend anything? Fine. All right. I've also linked my three-part video series for Business Basics Bootcamp and you can learn more about it there.

If you found value in my video, or at least some humor, please, like, share, or leave a comment. I want to thank you so much for taking time out of your day to be here with me or catching the replay. I hope you have a fabulous Thursday, and a fabulous weekend. Enjoy your coffee or beverage, and I will see you here next week. Same time, same place for Coffee Chats with Candice.