The topic of taxation is perhaps one of the biggest and most contentious in the business world. Businesses have a finite amount of money and an unlimited amount of capital to run their operations. This money is either given to them as cash or they invest it in the form of stock. The money is allocated to the business based on the business’s need and the business’s ability to produce or receive the income.
While it’s no-doubt true that this is in fact an issue, the fact is this issue is one that affects everyone. Businesses are the same for everyone. If you’re a small business like a clothing manufacturer or a medical clinic you can easily justify the cost of your product and the cost of your staff.
The problem is that businesses also fall into the same traps that governments fall into. A government can allow its citizens to buy into a government bond, but the problem is that this bond is then held by the government itself. Even though the government is the owner of the bond, they are the ones who have to pay for the bonds and the interest. Businesses on the other hand are self-owned by whoever runs the company and so they can pay their employees as they see fit.
The trick here is to figure out what the cost of a business overhead is and how much the government will have to pay in order to allow that overhead to work. Most businesses don’t have a clue about this (and thus don’t pay attention to it), but the government is one big business with lots of people who know how to calculate things. This leads to the very real problem of how much tax to apply to these calculations.
The tax code is constantly changing, so if you need to change your business’s overhead you will need to be aware of the changes. While it may not be your company’s fault, you need to be aware of the consequences of your actions.
The IRS has a site that can help you get more specific about the kinds of things you can and cannot deduct from your taxes. The tax calculators on this site will also tell you how much you can deduct or pay tax on these deductions, and whether or not you can deduct any of your costs. But just because you have the ability to calculate your taxes doesn’t mean you should, but there is a certain amount of personal responsibility that comes with the job of being the business owner.
The IRS has a site that can help, as well as a tax calculator that can help you figure out what to do with the money you’ve saved by not having to pay taxes.
Business owners and managers need to be aware of the tax implications of their business and should have an overall plan in place to ensure that all of their business costs are covered (including overhead).
I think this is probably going to be one of the most talked about topics at this year’s GDC, and one of the things that is going to be covered in the panel discussion is the concept of “overhead”. In general, businesses are legally responsible for the business overhead costs of their activities, and this includes things like taxes, office rent, and even legal fees. Unfortunately, most of these costs are usually passed on to the employee, who then has to pay a tax on it.
As a business owner, how would you handle these costs? It would be common sense, but I’m not sure that it’s common for most of us to think about them. The tax is usually paid on the money we spend, not the money we earn. However, I think the most common way to handle it is to have an accounting system that takes the money we spend and sends it to a cash account.