Applying for an EIN.    You may apply for an EIN:

When to apply.    You should apply for an EIN early enough to receive the number by the time you must file a return or statement or make a tax deposit. If you apply by mail, file Form SS-4 at least 4 weeks before you need an EIN. If you apply by telephone or through the IRS website, you can get an EIN immediately. If you apply by fax, you can get an EIN within 4 business days.

  If you do not receive your EIN by the time a return is due, file your return anyway. Write “Applied for” and the date you applied for the number in the space for the EIN. Do not use your social security number as a substitute for an EIN on your tax returns.

More than one EIN.    You should have only one EIN. If you have more than one EIN and are not sure which to use, contact the Internal Revenue Service Center where you file your return. Give the numbers you have, the name and address to which each was assigned, and the address of your main place of business. The IRS will tell you which number to use.

More information.    For more information about EINs, see Publication 1635, Understanding Your EIN.

Employee.    If you have employees, you must get an SSN from each of them. Record the name and SSN of each employee exactly as they are shown on the employee's social security card. If the employee's name is not correct as shown on the card, the employee should request a new card from the SSA. This may occur, for example, if the employee's name has changed due to marriage or divorce.

  If your employee does not have an SSN, he or she should file Form SS-5, Application for a Social Security Card, with the SSA. This form is available at SSA offices or by calling 1-800-772-1213. It is also available from the SSA website at www.ssa.gov.

Other payee.    If you make payments to someone who is not your employee and you must report the payments on an information return, get that person's SSN. If you make reportable payments to an organization, such as a corporation or partnership, you must get its EIN.

  To get the payee's SSN or EIN, use Form W-9, Request for Taxpayer Identification Number and Certification. This form is available from IRS offices or by calling 1-800-829-3676. It is also available from the IRS website at IRS.gov.

  

If the payee does not provide you with an identification number, you may have to withhold part of the payments as backup withholding. For information on backup withholding, see the Form W-9 instructions and the General Instructions for Certain Information Returns.

Reminder.    If your business is an LLC, how you elected to have the LLC treated for tax purposes (either as a corporation, partnership, or as part of the LLC owner's tax return) will determine what taxes you must pay and what forms you should use to pay your taxes.

Estimated tax.    Generally, you must pay taxes on income, including self-employment tax (discussed next), by making regular payments of estimated tax during the year.

Sole proprietors, partners, and S corporation shareholders.    You generally have to make estimated tax payments if you expect to owe tax of $1,000 or more when you file your return. Use Form 1040-ES, Estimated Tax for Individuals, to figure and pay your estimated tax. For more information, see Publication 505, Tax Withholding and Estimated Tax.

Corporations.    You generally have to make estimated tax payments for your corporation if you expect it to owe tax of $500 or more when you file its return. Use Form 1120-W, Estimated Tax for Corporations, to figure the estimated tax. You must deposit the payments as explained later under Depositing Taxes . For more information, see Publication 542.

The Social Security Administration (SSA) time limit for posting self-employment income.    Generally, the SSA will give you credit only for self-employment income reported on a tax return filed within 3 years, 3 months, and 15 days after the tax year you earned the income. If you file your tax return or report a change in your self-employment income after this time limit, the SSA may change its records, but only to remove or reduce the amount. The SSA will not change its records to increase your self-employment income.

You generally must withhold federal income tax from your employee's wages. To figure how much federal income tax to withhold from each wage payment, use the employee's Form W-4 (discussed later under Hiring Employees ) and the methods described in Publication 15.

Social security and Medicare taxes pay for benefits that workers and their families receive under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). Social security tax pays for benefits under the old-age, survivors, and disability insurance part of FICA. Medicare tax pays for benefits under the hospital insurance part of FICA. You withhold part of these taxes from your employee's wages and you pay a part yourself. To find out how much social security and Medicare tax to withhold and to pay, see Publication 15.

The federal unemployment tax is part of the federal and state program under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA) that pays unemployment compensation to workers who lose their jobs. You report and pay FUTA tax separately from social security and Medicare taxes and withheld income tax. You pay FUTA tax only from your own funds. Employees do not pay this tax or have it withheld from their pay.

Have the employees you hire fill out Form I-9 and Form W-4.

After the calendar year is over, you must furnish copies of Form W-2, Wage and Tax Statement, to each employee to whom you paid wages during the year. You must also send copies to the Social Security Administration. See Information Returns , later, for more information on Form W-2.

Form 720.    The federal excise taxes reported on Form 720, Quarterly Federal Excise Tax Return, consist of several broad categories of taxes, including the following.

Form 2290.    There is a federal excise tax on certain trucks, truck tractors, and buses used on public highways. The tax applies to vehicles having a taxable gross weight of 55,000 pounds or more. Report the tax on Form 2290, Heavy Highway Vehicle Use Tax Return. For more information, see the Instructions for Form 2290.

Form 730.    If you are in the business of accepting wagers or conducting a wagering pool or lottery, you may be liable for the federal excise tax on wagering. Use Form 730, Monthly Tax Return for Wagers, to figure the tax on the wagers you receive.

Form 11-C.    Use Form 11-C, Occupational Tax and Registration Return for Wagering, to register for any wagering activity and to pay the federal occupational tax on wagering.

Exclusive use.    To qualify under the exclusive use test, you must use a specific area of your home only for your trade or business. The area used for business can be a room or other separately identifiable space. The space does not need to be marked off by a permanent partition.

  You do not meet the requirements of the exclusive use test if you use the area in question both for business and for personal purposes.

Exceptions to exclusive use.    You do not have to meet the exclusive use test if either of the following applies. For an explanation of these exceptions, see Publication 587, Business Use of Your Home (Including Use by Daycare Providers).

Principal place of business.    Your home office will qualify as your principal place of business for deducting expenses for its use if you meet the following requirements.

  Alternatively, if you use your home exclusively and regularly for your business, but your home office does not qualify as your principal place of business based on the previous rules, you determine your principal place of business based on the following factors.

   If, after considering your business locations, your home cannot be identified as your principal place of business, you cannot deduct home office expenses. However, for other ways to qualify to deduct home office expenses, see Publication 587.

Which form do I file?    If you file Schedule C (Form 1040), use Form 8829, Expenses for Business Use of Your Home, to figure your deduction. If you file Schedule F (Form 1040) or you are a partner, you can use the worksheet in Publication 587.

More information.    For more information about business use of your home, see Publication 587.

Actual expenses.    If you deduct actual expenses, you can deduct the cost of the following items:

  If you use your vehicle for both business and personal purposes, you must divide your expenses between business and personal use. You can divide your expenses based on the miles driven for each purpose.

Standard mileage rate.    Instead of figuring actual expenses, you may be able to use the standard mileage rate to figure the deductible costs of operating your car, van, pickup, or panel truck for business purposes. You can use the standard mileage rate for a vehicle you own or lease. The standard mileage rate is a specified amount of money you can deduct for each business mile you drive. It is announced annually by the IRS. To figure your deduction, multiply your business miles by the standard mileage rate for the year.

  

Generally, if you use the standard mileage rate, you cannot deduct your actual expenses. However, you may be able to deduct business-related parking fees, tolls, interest on your car loan, and certain state and local taxes.

Choosing the standard mileage rate.    If you want to use the standard mileage rate for a car you own, you must choose to use it in the first year the car is available for use in your business. In later years, you can choose to use either the standard mileage rate or actual expenses.

  If you use the standard mileage rate for a car you lease, you must choose to use it for the entire lease period (including renewals).

Additional information.    For more information about the rules for claiming car and truck expenses, see Publication 463, Travel, Entertainment, Gift, and Car Expenses.

Monitor the progress of your business.    You need good records to monitor the progress of your business. Records can show whether your business is improving, which items are selling, or what changes you need to make. Good records can increase the likelihood of business success.

Prepare your financial statements.    You need good records to prepare accurate financial statements. These include income (profit and loss) statements and balance sheets. These statements can help you in dealing with your bank or creditors and help you manage your business.

Identify source of receipts.    You will receive money or property from many sources. Your records can identify the source of your receipts. You need this information to separate business from nonbusiness receipts and taxable from nontaxable income.

Keep track of deductible expenses.    You may forget expenses when you prepare your tax return unless you record them when they occur.

Prepare your tax returns.    You need good records to prepare your tax returns. These records must support the income, expenses, and credits you report. Generally, these are the same records you use to monitor your business and prepare your financial statements.

Support items reported on tax returns.    You must keep your business records available at all times for inspection by the IRS. If the IRS examines any of your tax returns, you may be asked to explain the items reported. A complete set of records will speed up the examination.

Electronic records.    All requirements that apply to hard copy books and records also apply to electronic storage systems that maintain tax books and records. When you replace hard copy books and records, you must maintain the electronic storage systems for as long as they are material to the administration of tax law. An electronic storage system is any system for preparing or keeping your records either by electronic imaging or by transfer to an electronic storage media. The electronic storage system must index, store, preserve, retrieve, and reproduce the electronically stored books and records in legible format. All electronic storage systems must provide a complete and accurate record of your data that is accessible to the IRS. Electronic storage systems are also subject to the same controls and retention guidelines as those imposed on your original hard copy books and records.

  The original hard copy books and records may be destroyed provided that the electronic storage system has been tested to establish that the hard copy books and records are being reproduced in compliance with IRS requirements for an electronic storage system and procedures are established to ensure continued compliance with all applicable rules and regulations. You still have the responsibility of retaining any other books and records that are required to be retained.

  The IRS may test your electronic storage system, including the equipment used, indexing methodology, software and retrieval capabilities. This test is not considered an examination and the results must be shared with you. If your electronic storage system meets the requirements mentioned earlier, you will be in compliance. If not, you may be subject to penalties for non-compliance, unless you continue to maintain your original hard copy books and records in a manner that allows you and the IRS to determine your correct tax.

   For details on electronic storage system requirements, see Revenue Procedure 97-22, available at www.irs.gov/Tax-Exempt-Bonds/Revenue-Procedures.

Purchases, sales, payroll, and other transactions you have in your business generate supporting documents. Supporting documents include sales slips, paid bills, invoices, receipts, deposit slips, and canceled checks. These documents contain information you need to record in your books.

It is important to keep these documents because they support the entries in your books and on your tax return. Keep them in an orderly fashion and in a safe place. For instance, organize them by year and type of income or expense.

A good recordkeeping system includes a summary of your business transactions. (Your business transactions are shown on the supporting documents just discussed.) Business transactions are ordinarily summarized in books called journals and ledgers. You can buy them at your local stationery or office supply store.

A journal is a book where you record each business transaction shown on your supporting documents. You may have to keep separate journals for transactions that occur frequently.

A ledger is a book that contains the totals from all of your journals. It is organized into different accounts.

Whether you keep journals and ledgers and how you keep them depends on the type of business you are in. For example, a recordkeeping system for a small business might include the following items.

The business checkbook is explained next. The other items are illustrated later under Recordkeeping System Example .

The system you use to record business transactions will be more effective if you follow good recordkeeping practices. For example, record expenses when they occur, and identify the source of recorded receipts. Generally, it is best to record transactions on a daily basis.

You must decide whether to use a single-entry or a double-entry bookkeeping system. The single-entry system of bookkeeping is the simplest to maintain, but it may not be suitable for everyone. You may find the double-entry system better because it has built-in checks and balances to assure accuracy and control.

There are computer software packages you can use for recordkeeping. They can be purchased in many retail stores. These packages are very helpful and relatively easy to use; they require very little knowledge of bookkeeping and accounting.

If you use a computerized system, you must be able to produce sufficient legible records to support and verify entries made on your return and determine your correct tax liability. To meet this qualification, the machine-sensible records must reconcile with your books and return. These records must provide enough detail to identify the underlying source documents.

You must also keep all machine-sensible records and a complete description of the computerized portion of your recordkeeping system. This documentation must be sufficiently detailed to show all of the following items.

For more information, see Revenue Procedure 98-25 in Cumulative Bulletin 1998-1, available at www.irs.gov/Businesses/Automated-Records.

Employment taxes.    If you have employees, you must keep all employment tax records for at least 4 years after the date the tax becomes due or is paid, whichever is later. For more information about recordkeeping for employment taxes, see Publication 15.

Assets.    Keep records relating to property until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the property in a taxable disposition. You must keep these records to figure any depreciation, amortization, or depletion deduction, and to figure your basis for computing gain or loss when you sell or otherwise dispose of the property.

  Generally, if you received property in a nontaxable exchange, your basis in that property is the same as the basis of the property you gave up, increased by any money you paid. You must keep the records on the old property, as well as on the new property, until the period of limitations expires for the year in which you dispose of the new property in a taxable disposition.

Records for nontax purposes.    When your records are no longer needed for tax purposes, do not discard them until you check to see if you have to keep them longer for other purposes. For example, your insurance company or creditors may require you to keep them longer than the IRS does.

This summary is a record of cash sales for the day. It accounts for cash at the end of the day over the amount in the Change and Petty Cash Fund at the beginning of the day.

Henry takes the cash sales entry from his cash register tape. If he had no cash register, he would simply total his cash sale slips and any other cash received that day.

He carries the total receipts shown in this summary for January 3 ($267.80), including cash sales ($263.60) and sales tax ($4.20), to the Monthly Summary of Cash Receipts.

This shows the income activity for the month. Henry carries the total monthly net sales shown in this summary for January ($4,865.05) to his Annual Summary.

To figure total monthly net sales, Henry reduces the total monthly receipts by the sales tax imposed on his customers and turned over to the state. He cannot take a deduction for sales tax turned over to the state because he only collected the tax. He does not include the tax in his income.

Henry enters checks drawn on the business checking account in the Check Disbursements Journal each day. All checks are prenumbered and each check number is listed and accounted for in the column provided in the journal.

Frequent expenses have their own headings across the sheet. He enters in a separate column expenses that require comparatively numerous or large payments each month, such as materials, gross payroll, and rent. Under the General Accounts column, he enters small expenses that normally have only one or two monthly payments, such as licenses and postage.

Henry does not pay personal or nonbusiness expenses by checks drawn on the business account. If he did, he would record them in the journal, even though he could not deduct them as business expenses.

Henry carries the January total of expenses for materials ($1,083.50) to the Annual Summary. Similarly, he enters the monthly total of expenses for telephone, truck/auto, etc., in the appropriate columns of that summary.

This record shows the following information.

Henry carries the January gross payroll ($520) to the Annual Summary.

This annual summary of monthly cash receipts and expense totals provides the final amounts to enter on Henry's tax return. He figures the cash receipts total from the total of monthly cash receipts shown in the Monthly Summary of Cash Receipts. He figures the expense totals from the totals of monthly expense items shown in the Check Disbursements Journal. As in the journal, he keeps each major expense in a separate column.

Henry carries the cash receipts total shown in the annual summary ($47,440.95) to Part I of Schedule C (not illustrated). He carries the total for materials ($10,001.00) to Part II of Schedule C.

A business that keeps materials and supplies on hand generally must complete the inventory lines in Part III of Schedule C. However, there are no inventories of materials and supplies in this example. Henry buys parts and supplies on a per-job basis; he does not keep them on hand.

Henry enters annual totals for interest, rent, taxes, and wages on the appropriate lines in Part II of Schedule C. The total for taxes and licenses includes the employer's share of social security and Medicare taxes, and the business license fee. He enters the total of other annual business expenses on the “Other expenses” line of Schedule C.

This worksheet shows the information used in figuring the depreciation allowed on assets used in Henry's business. Henry figures the depreciation using the modified accelerated cost recovery system (MACRS). He purchased and placed in service several used assets that do not qualify for the section 179 deduction. Depreciation and the section 179 deduction are discussed in Publication 946. Henry uses the information in the worksheet to complete Form 4562, Depreciation and Amortization (not illustrated).

Henry reconciles his checkbook with his bank statement and prepares a bank reconciliation for January as follows.

The only book adjustment Henry needs to make is to the Check Disbursements Journal for the $10 bank service charge. He does not need to adjust the Monthly Summary of Cash Receipts because he correctly entered the January 8 deposit of $600.40 in that record.

The Taxpayer Advocate Service (TAS) is an independent organization within the Internal Revenue Service that helps taxpayers and protects taxpayer rights. Our job is to ensure that every taxpayer is treated fairly and that you know and understand your rights under the Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

We can help you resolve problems that you can’t resolve with the IRS. And our service is free. If you qualify for our assistance, you will be assigned to one advocate who will work with you throughout the process and will do everything possible to resolve your issue. TAS can help you if:

We have offices in every state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Your local advocate’s number is in your local directory and at www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov. You can also call us at 1-877-777-4778.

The Taxpayer Bill of Rights describes ten basic rights that all taxpayers have when dealing with the IRS. Our Tax Toolkit at www.taxpayeradvocate.irs.gov can help you understand what these rights mean to you and how they apply. These are your rights. Know them. Use them.

TAS works to resolve large-scale problems that affect many taxpayers. If you know of one of these broad issues, please report it to us at www.irs.gov/sams.