Do I need an accountant or tax agent?
Do you need an accountant for sales tax? Yes, a tax accountant can advise on compliance, help register for tax, and ensure correct payment. Real estate transactions also complicate taxes – rental income, expenses, capital gains. Self-employed or small business owners may want to hire an accountant to file taxes, due to expenses, self-employment tax, and deductions. Shopify uses default sales tax rates, updated regularly. You can override when necessary. Shopify doesn’t file or remit sales tax for you. You may need to register with tax authorities to handle it. Shopify’s calculations and reports should help when filing and paying.
How do you account for sales tax collected?
Do you need an accountant for sales tax? Yes, a tax accountant can advise on compliance, help register for tax, and ensure correct payment. Shopify uses default sales tax rates, updated regularly. You can override when necessary. Shopify doesn’t file or remit sales tax for you. You may need to register with tax authorities to handle it. Shopify’s calculations and reports should help when filing and paying. Self-employed or small business owners may want to hire an accountant to file taxes, due to expenses, self-employment tax, and deductions.
Tax Compliance and Reporting
For international sales, accurately record taxes collected. Keep customer name, address, tax rate applied, exemptions, total collected. Verify before accounting reports. This ensures compliance. Real estate transactions also complicate taxes with rental income, expenses, capital gains. Software can’t do partnership tax returns. Talk to an accountant before buying software. Paying them may be cheaper than managing yourself. Always check with authorities you charge correct rates. Sales tax depends on your physical business locations. Have separate accounts for each state’s liability. Most states enforce sales tax on some goods and services. If selling taxable items, you may need to collect. Each state is different, so check their requirements.
To summarize, tax accountants help with compliance, registering, calculations, reporting and more. They are useful for complicated tax situations like small businesses, real estate, international sales. Software has limitations, so accountants may still be needed.