279,878
My husband takes care of this.
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
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Ajay Pandya
Columbus, OH
4,319,419
Bruce Walter - I have a spreadsheet that I update for non-recurring expenses and for recurring, you know what they are.
Flat tax? Not a good idea. Some agents spend 5% and some 50%! It will not be fair.
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Ajay Pandya
Columbus, OH
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
634,482
I keep everything up to date so it's usually not more than 3 hours.
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
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Inna Ivchenko
Encino, CA
1,153,794
Anywhere from 6 to 8 hours sounds about right. I've been a proponent of a flat tax ever since writing my first check to the IRS. At 12% that would put me ahead of the game with tons less aggravation too!
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Michael Mahoney
Boston, MA
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
533,993
just looking back through some of the old Q and A's. Just leaving a comment so you know i was here :)
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
1,622,432
Long painful hours......Since I'm not that organized as Kathleen ( bravo Kathleen!)I wish I could pay taxes just by post card based on some basic questions, no deductions. But my tax return can be quite complicated.
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
3,986,258
YOur idea is good but it will never happen. I don't spend a lot of time on my taxes with good record keeping.
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
3,988,007
I keep records contained throughout the year and have a checklist so when I do my personal I am also doing my business taxes. It usually takes about a half day and then another couple of hours the second day.
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
5,772,575
Bruce,
It takes several hours, and then it is all turned over to the accountanta who do their thing. A
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
927,795
Bruce, it takes Chief Cook about eight hours to do mine, and at least another eight hours to do hers. I am not sure about the flat tax unless those of us who are little guys get a bigger deduction than those 1-5%ers!
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Bruce Walter
West Lafayette, IN
6,392,879
A flat tax would likely not be sustainable and it would be a disincentive to small business owners.
4,800,082
630,251
938,407
Frank, thanks for your input. Does your 8 hours include all your time throughout the year?
969,858
Flat tax for business would not work. That would mean we would start paying taxes. I need to do my tax's. I re check everything before I send to the CPA. I should get done in about 8 hours.
938,407
870,312
938,407
Inna, I agree with you and for those who are very organized and keep up with all deductions daily I still wonder what the TOTAL hours are for people to file their return. It takes TIME to keep a daily log book of mileage explaining where you went and for what purpose concerning business and to log the purpose, conversation, and application to business for a business meal to name a few!
938,407
Praful, the spreadsheet sounds like a good idea! I understand your point about the deductions, but I wonder how much cheating goes on or people under reporting legitimate business deductions where it would even out?
938,407
Kathleen, do you use any type of software or spread sheet system to help with your organization so it takes so little time?
938,407
Debbie, but how many hours do you spend the whole year preparing and keeping up your records so you can do your taxes in about six-eight hours?
938,407
William, I sadly agree that the flat tax will never happen. That would put about 75% of the lobbyists out of business!!!!
938,407
Kevin, the key thing is where to set the flat tax percentage rate that would determine if people liked it or disliked it.
If business owners and individual taxpayers could do their taxes on a post card there would be lots of tax accountants and lawyers looking for work in other areas of their practice.
938,407
938,407
Ron, I envy you that it is less than 20 hours for both of you!!!
Do this. Subtract all your deductions off your gross and see what the tax is and how much all your deductions knocked off as a percentage.
Ron, I think we would find that the more money a business earns as a Schedule C or as a corporation the GREATER the loopholes and deductions that are taken under the current system. A flat tax would negate all those deductions depending where the percentage was set at.