Top Tax Tips from Novo CPAs

t Novo, we’re continually inspired by our customers. We’re excited to feature 6 Novo CPAs and their top tips for tax season.

As a small business owner, you probably are no stranger to the concept of estimated tax payments. Estimated taxes are, simply put, the taxes that you pay on income that is not subject to withholding. This includes income from freelance work, investments, and, of course, small businesses. 

Also known as quarterly taxes, estimated tax payments are due for small business owners, in addition to annual tax returns, four times per year. (And they always seem to be due sooner than when we’d like them to be.) For this tax year, the final two installments of quarterly estimated tax payments are due on the following dates: 

• September 15, 2022 (for business income received between June 1, 2022, and August 31, 2022)
• January 17, 2023 (for business income received between September 1, 2022, and December 31, 2022)

While estimated taxes can seem daunting, or at the very least, time-consuming and frustrating, they don't have to be. There are steps you can take to ensure that preparing and paying your estimated taxes is as smooth and stress-free as possible. This way, you can focus on running your business instead. 

Whether you're a small business owner who is just getting started or an experienced entrepreneur interested in optimizing your quarterly tax game, read on for key tax advice from five featured Novo customers and CPAs.

Quarterly Tax Advice from Novo CPAs

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Kelli Loo, CPA and Keila Hill-Trawick, CPA 

Co-Founders of Accountants of Color

About Kelli and Keila, and their business: Kelli Loo and Keila Hill-Trawick, BIPOC accountants who both founded their own firms, joined forces to found Accountants of Color. “Our mission,” they said, “is to empower BIPOC-identifying accountants to cultivate meaningful practices that revolutionize our industry to be accessible and equitable for all accountants and collectively shift professional structures to support social healing.” 

Their tax advice: Kelli and Keila advise small businesses to stay up-to-date on a regular basis with their business finances. “Review financials monthly to know the health of your business and cashflow. As business owners it’s easy to get lost in the details of the day to day. However, going through income and expenses monthly helps enable you and your team have more control and intention behind spending and budgeting.” 

How they use Novo to help during tax prep: “Novo has a great visual analytic feature to track the activity of your business over different periods in weeks, months or years.” They also use Novo to “easily reconcile monthly and streamline gathering data for bookkeeping and tax prep.”

Visit their website: https://www.accountantsofcolor.co/

Follow their business on social media: Accountants of Color Facebook Group and @acountantsofcolor on Instagram

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Sean Palmer, CPA 

Founder and Owner of Clifton Tax Pro

‍About Sean and his business: Sean has an impressive 14 years of tax accounting, auditing, and financial planning experience. He founded Clifton Tax Pro “to help my community by providing professional tax preparation and planning services from a Virginia CPA. I enjoy working with and guiding other small businesses and individuals through their tax compliance and savings journeys.”

Sean’s tax advice: Sean stresses the importance of documentation. “Keep accurate records of financial transactions,” he says. “This is so important because it is up to each taxpayer to ensure they are claiming all available deductions and credits. Timely and accurate records provide taxpayers and their preparers with information required to make accurate quarterly payments. Arming your tax preparer with this information will enable them to guide you through this process.”

How Sean uses Novo to help during tax prep: “Novo is a great tool that can be used for record keeping. I am vigilant to run all Clifton Tax Pro transactions through my Novo business checking account. Using this account exclusively for my business helps me separate personal and business transactions. Novo makes this easy by letting me link the various payment collection apps my business accepts to my Novo account. Novo also offers the ability to download account activity into files readable by spreadsheet software. I will happily accept this output from my tax clients as a source of record keeping.”

Visit his website: https://cliftontaxpro.com/

Follow his business on social media: Clifton Tax Pro Facebook Page

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Lontier Hicks, CPA

Founder and Owner of ZenBiz Accounting

‍About Lontier and her business: I'm Lontier Hicks, a wife, mom, and owner of ZenBiz Accounting in Chicago. I offer small business accounting and advisory services for overwhelmed online entrepreneurs all over the US.

Lontier’s tax advice: Lontier emphasizes how important it is for business owners to keep their personal and business finances separate. “Have a separate checking account for your business transactions,” She advises. “Whether you're using a spreadsheet or accounting software, it makes tracking income and expenses for your business so much easier when your personal transactions aren't commingled together. Having that separation allows you to maximize your tax deductions at year-end and determine your estimated quarterly tax payments with less stress.

‍How Lontier uses Novo to help during tax prep: “I love using Novo Reserves to automatically save for my quarterly tax payments. Every time I get a deposit from a client, a set percentage is allocated to my Taxes reserve. It's nice to have one less admin task off my plate so I can focus on running my business.”

Visit her website: https://linktr.ee/zenbizaccounting

Follow her business on social media: @zen_accountant on Twitter

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Mark Diehl, CPA

Founder and Owner of Diehl CPA

About Mark and his business: In Mark’s words, “Diehl CPA LLC is a tax resolution firm that offers transparency to our clients, helping them understand the process for resolving tax debt so they have realistic expectations for solving their specific tax problems.” His firm negotiates the lowest possible IRS payment amount allowed by law, working only with clients who are legitimate candidates for tax relief. “Because the IRS has stringent eligibility guidelines,” he says, “we let our clients know upfront what tax relief options are viable for resolving their specific IRS problems. This ethical and honest approach to tax resolution has helped our team achieve a high client satisfaction rate while saving clients’ money in back taxes and IRS penalties.”

Mark’s tax advice: “As a Certified Public Accountant,” he says, “one of the biggest issues I see when preparing tax returns is that small business owners do not make estimated tax payments during the year. This usually results in the business owner owing a lot of money during tax season and not having enough money to pay the tax bill. Estimated taxes are not only an IRS requirement but will help reduce the tax amount owed when it is time to prepare tax returns.  The best way to make estimated payments is that whenever you get paid by your customer, you take a percentage of that income and pay it to the IRS immediately or hold the funds in a separate account.”

How Mark uses Novo to help during tax prep: “My favorite feature of the Novo app is the Reserve system. This allows small business owners to take a portion of all sales and ‘set aside’ the funds to pay for estimated taxes. There is no longer a need for multiple bank accounts to separate expenses and track cash!”

Visit his website: https://www.diehl.cpa/

Follow his business on social media: Diehl CPA LLC on Facebook and Mark Diehl on LinkedIn

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Melisa Gage, CPA

Founder and Owner of Advanced Accounting Services Inc.

‍About Melisa and her business: The owner of Advanced Accounting Services Inc., Melisa is a certified public accountant with 20 years of experience “helping small business owners

find affordable financial solutions that will grow their wealth.”

Melisa’s tax advice: Melisa advises to “divide and conquer.” She says, “one of the biggest mistakes small business owners make is co-mingling all their money together. “Organize your money into four separate groups:

• “Operating: This is your main group and you will disburse to yourself, savings or tax account.
• “Personal: NEVER mix business and personal. 
• “Savings: Set aside a percentage for each deposit.
• “Tax: Think of this as a holding account for all your taxes (sales tax, quarterly

taxes, payroll tax, etc.) Out of sight, out of mind.”

Owning and operating a small business is “full of financial curve balls. This leads to fines, penalties and stress! Keeping your money separated is a simple, peace of mind solution that will

keep you better prepared for the expected and unforeseen.”

Visit her website: https://www.advancedaccountingservices.net/ 

Follow her business on social media: @advancedaccountingservices on Instagram

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This page is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be relied upon as legal, financial, or accounting advice. Please consult your own professional if you have any questions.