Hardwood Flooring February March 2018

BUSINESS BEST PRACTICES FINANCE

Digital Financial Tips (Continued)

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There are yearlong and forward-thinking things that can be recognized the more you analyze your financial situation like the timing of purchases and how much money to put into retirement. It’s never too late to make your money work harder for you. Implement some of these digital tools, and you may be surprised at how much more efficiently things run for your business. Looking for some additional tax tips? Check out “Tips for Preparing for Tax Season” on pages 22-23 of the February/ March 2017 issue of Hardwood Floors that provided tips for preparing your 2016 tax returns and setting up 2017 to have an easier tax season in 2018. Those tips still apply to the current year. If you didn’t get a chance to implement those, it is not too late to try again this year. Bree Urech-Boyle is Chief Financial Officer at the National Wood Flooring Association in St. Louis. She can be reached at bree.urech-boyle@nwfa.org.

For individuals, there are proposed changes to income tax brackets, standard deductions, personal exemptions, estate taxes, and a potential repeal of the Alternative Minimum tax. For businesses, there are proposed tax rate cuts, the ability to fully expense new equipment, lower taxes on pass-through business income, and more. If any of these changes are made, they could have a significant impact on many wood flooring businesses. Most are not retroactive proposals. This means they all likely will apply to 2018 or later, but some, like the expensing of equipment, may be approved for retroactive treatment in 2017. This could lower your tax bill in 2018. Visit irs.gov to learn more or ask your CPA. IT’S NEVER TOO LATE It is important to state that it is never too late to start thinking about your financial and tax situation. We should get away from thinking that spring is the only time to focus on taxes.

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