Do You Know What is on Your Tax Return?

Family child care providers are responsible for the numbers that appear on their tax return.

If you don't know where a number comes from and you can't back it up with a receipt or other record, you will be in trouble if you are ever audited.

This is true even if your tax preparer made a mistake in putting down the wrong number!

Here's what I see when I'm helping providers who are audited, or when I'm reviewing their tax forms:

A provider's Schedule C says, "Supplies $1,200." I ask the provider, "Where did this number come from?" The provider answers, "I don't know. My tax preparer entered it."

I ask, "Does this represent supplies that were all 100% business, all shared, or some of both?" Answer, "I don't know."

The primary mistakes I see are providers claiming 100% their expenses for supplies (or other categories such as toys or repairs) when some of them are used for personal purposes.

How to avoid this problem

You must be able to provide receipts or other records to show where the numbers on each line of your tax forms came from.

Therefore, before signing your tax return, review each line and see if you can account for each number.

Sometimes providers list their business expenses under expense categories that don't match the expense categories that their tax preparer uses. Although, in the end, it doesn't matter what expense category you choose for each expense, you need to be able to match your expenses to specific lines on your tax return.

If a tax preparer asks, "what did you spend on supplies?" this is the wrong question! The correct questions are, "How much did you spend on supplies used 100% for your business?" and "How much did you spend on supplies that were used for both business and personal purposes?

"These same questions should be asked for almost all expense categories.

My Family Child Care Tax Companion is a tool providers can use to avoid this problem. If you fill out the worksheets in the book it will ask you about 100% items versus shared items. You then give the book to your tax preparer so they have the correct information to fill out your tax return.

After you get the book back, you can compare what you entered to what is on your tax return. Then you can ask questions if the numbers don't match.

It's the responsibility of a tax preparer to answer your questions about what they put on your tax return. Don't file your taxes until you are satisfied you can defend each line in an audit.

Tom Copeland - www.tomcopelandblog.com

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My Family Child Care Tax Companion is for providers who use tax preparers and want to make sure their tax preparer is not making any major mistakes.