Tax season isn't over for small business. See why in 5 tips from Broward expert
'It's not about how much money you can get; it's about how much you can save,' Harris, 34, told the Miami Herald.
As a small business owner, Harris speaks to her clients about taxes from a personal perspective. All of the advice she shares with them is advice that she has already put into her routine.
Here are five tips from Harris that entrepreneurs should keep in mind when filing their taxes:
Get a certified public accountant and a lawyer
Before launching a business, Harris believes there are two people that should be contacted before anything else.
'Two things to start off with:' a certified public accountant and a lawyer. 'Trademark your business,' she said.
Track all deductions year-round
Harris believes that entrepreneurs should keep track of every expense so that they can cut back on the amount of taxes they have to pay. Using tools like QuickBooks can help people not have to file extensions when taxes are due on April 15.
'Track all deductions all year,' she said. 'Track any receipts, mileage, gross income and sit down with someone monthly to go over those expenses to see what those businesses are doing, Sit down to see what you can do to reduce your tax liability. '
Plan on filing taxes four times a year
Harris recommends that entrepreneurs pay taxes once a quarter, or four times a year.
'If you know you will earn more than thousands of dollars, sit down every few months,' she said. 'It will reduce your penalties if you pay the IRS in advance.'
Want business credit? Responsibly manage your personal credit
While entrepreneurs may not see the connection between business and personal credit, Harris recommends that they first focus on developing healthy personal credit habits.
'When it comes to business and personal credit, in most instances you cannot get anything in your business name without your personal credit looking decent,' she said. 'They just want to see if you're responsible.'
Manage your expenses
'Certain credit card companies don't play when it comes to maxing out, ' she said. 'It's good to keep your credit paid. Most places want to see a year of bank statements and want your credit score to be 680 or more. If you're making $100,000 a month, you probably don't want more than $30,000 in expenses. You still want to be profitable after expenses.'
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
5 hours ago
- Forbes
Business Technology News: Intuit Introduces QuickBooks Bill Pay
Signage for financial software company Intuit at the company's headquarters in the Silicon Valley ... More town of Mountain View, California, August 24, 2016. (Photo by Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images). Here are five things in tech that happened this week and how they affect your business. Did you miss them? This Week in Business Tech News Business Technology News #1 – Intuit introduces QuickBooks Bill Pay. Intuit has launched QuickBooks Bill Pay – a fully integrated solution aimed at streamlining business-to-business payments and automating accounts payable (AP) for small and mid-sized businesses. Some of its capabilities include automated bill creation. Businesses can forward their vendor invoices to QuickBooks, which auto-generates bills for review and approval. Flexible payment options allow vendors to be paid via ACH transfers or paper checks. Digital records store bills and payments in one place improving financial visibility. Transactions are automatically recorded and matched in your books, reducing manual entry up to 48 percent. QuickBooks Bill Pay has three pricing tiers – Basic (free), Premium, and Elite – each offering different levels of ACH payments, automation, and team controls. (Source: The Paypers) Why this is important for your business: This was inevitable. For years QuickBooks has been integrating with other similar services like BILL, which are all great. But now Intuit has decided to offer their own. On the plus side it should ultimately be seamless and easier to integrate. But on the other side products like BILL will offer more features and likely better support as this is the flagship offering. Regardless, all businesses using QuickBooks should be investigating and implementing automatic bill paying services to save time and increase productivity. New AI-based features will make these products even more powerful soon. Business Technology News #2 – Google's AI can now make phone calls for you. Google has just rolled out a major upgrade to its Search experience – AI-powered phone calls. The AI calling agent can call local businesses on your behalf based on the query entered in Search. Example – if you search for 'pet groomers near me,' you'll see an option to 'have AI check for availability.' Google's assistant will make the calls and summarize the results. It will then ask follow-up questions like when you need the service and how you want to receive updates. \ (Source: The Verge) Why this is important for your business: I do believe that automated phone calls will continue to grow in popularity. Our job as business owners is to be prepared to receive these calls. Will training be required? Will Google offer some way to automatically accept these calls without humans in our companies being involved? Business Technology News #3 – Microsoft promises to crack one of the biggest problems with Windows 11: slow performance. Microsoft is tackling one of Windows 11's biggest complaints: sluggish performance, especially on older PCs. In preview builds, Microsoft collects performance logs when testers experience slowdowns. These logs are stored locally and only sent to Microsoft if users submit feedback via the Facebook hub – 'System Sluggishness.' By expanding the scope of performance data, Microsoft hopes to pinpoint and fix speed-related issues more effectively. Common pain points include laggy File Explorer and slow search functionality. Microsoft is prioritizing these in its performance initiative. This effort is part of a broader push to make Windows 11 faster and more responsive, especially for users who've found it less snappy than Windows 10. (Source: TechRadar) Why this is important for your business: Frankly, I have not heard reports about slow Windows 11 performance from clients using the operating system but if Microsoft is doing this it's clearly a problem somewhere. To be sure make sure all of your devices are regularly updated the most recent version of the operating system and don't ignore notifications that new updates are available. Business Technology News #4 – Insurers making the turn to agentic AI – report. Insurers are cautiously embracing agentic AI – a form of artificial intelligence that can autonomously manage complex tasks and workflows. According to a new report from the Capgemini Research Institute, 20 percent of insurance firms are piloting agentic AI, and 12 percent have implemented it at scale. However, only 4 percent fully trust these systems as confidence in fully autonomous AI agents dropped from 43 percent to 27 percent over the past year due to concerns about accountability, explainability and ethical use. Insurers are integrating AI agents into workflows to assist brokers, underwriters, and service teams, embracing human-AI collaboration. Capgemini estimates agentic AI could generate up to $450 billion in value by 2028, but reaching that potential will require strategic investments, governance, risk frameworks and organizational design. (Source: Insurance Business) Why this is important for your business: This industry is ripe for agentic AI. The process of evaluating, approving and then writing up an insurance policy can be repetitive and doesn't have to require as much human effort as what's currently being spent. I'm sure that no insurance company is relying on agentic AI to do this right now but I can understand why they're investing in and testing these options heavily. As with so many other things around AI these are things that will be common in the not so distant future. Business Technology News #5 – Slack gets smarter: New AI tools summarize chats, explain jargon, and automate work. Slack is stepping up its AI game with a suite of new features designed to make workplace communication smoother, smarter, and more productive. An AI assistant embedded in Slack Canvas can generate project briefs, extract action items, and reformat meeting notes – all from your conversations. Enterprise Search lets connected users search across connected apps like Salesforce, Google Drive, and Microsoft Teams from one interface, turning scattered data into actionable insights. Hover over acronyms or jargon and Slack will instantly explain them using your organization's unique vocabulary and history. Slack can also identify and highlight follow-ups and deadlines from messages where you're mentioned. Slack Huddles now include automatic transcript and summaries. (Source: VentureBeat) Why this is important for your business: According to VentureBeat Salesforce – Slack's parent company – is also restricting external AI access to Slack data, betting its native tools will outperform third-party alternatives. If you're relying on Slack for your communications and workflows it's important that you understand and start testing these new features internally. I strongly recommend getting training from a Slack week I round up five business technology news stories and explain why they're important for your business. If you have any interesting stories, please post to my X account @genemarks
Miami Herald
8 hours ago
- Miami Herald
Will becoming a city help Brownsville and its neighbors thrive? Residents are split
At the corner of Northwest 27th Street and 54th Avenue in Brownsville sits a plot of land that was supposed to have a grocery store atop it. It has changed hands many times and suffered through many broken promises, Kenneth Kilpatrick told the Miami Herald as he drove through the community of more than 16,000 residents. Scattered throughout the neighborhood are a few corner stores. There are two flea markets at a nearby shopping center that includes a Foot Locker, a dd's Discounts, and a few fast food chains. Not one major grocery store is in the area. To get fresh produce, Kilpatrick has to go to neighboring Hialeah. In fact, for any entertainment – see a movie, eat at a sit-down restaurant, or any recreational fun – he has to leave the neighborhood. And the one shopping center the area does have isn't enough to sustain the community, he said. The vacant land, lack of grocery store, entertainment and ideal shopping options are a few of the reasons Kilpatrick, president of the Brownsville Civic Neighborhood Association, wants to see if it's feasible for the neighborhood, along with five other neighboring unincorporated communities in Miami-Dade County, to become a city. 'Quality of life has been an issue in Brownsville for decades,' he said. 'It's public safety, it's infrastructure, like a grocery store, better schools, better everything from your sidewalks to your street lighting, the parks and having funded programs for children, programs for seniors.' Kilpatrick now sits on the North Dade Municipal Advisory Committee that is tasked with the job of determining if the area has the tax base to thrive as a city. The efforts shifted into high gear after the neighborhood came under threat of annexation by Hialeah, which commissioned a feasibility study to determine if annexing 150 acres of Brownsville would generate revenue for the city back in 2023. Residents packed Hialeah city hall meetings pushing back against the annexation, which ultimately was dropped. RELATED: After dodging Hialeah annexation, this historically Black neighborhood wants to be a city The committee will be composed of members from each of the six communities, which include Brownsville, Gladeview, Gratigny, Little River Farms, North Shore, and Twin Lakes/Northshore Gardens. They are set to have their first meeting Tuesday, but not everyone is sure cityhood is the right path. They worry about increased property taxes and question the area's ability to generate revenue. 'There's nothing to draw any major businesses that want to come here, unless we invite them to come and develop some of the areas along Seventh Avenue,' said Little River Farm Homeowners Association president Munir Ingram. 'But what are people going to come here to do?' Still, Kilpatrick said there are potential benefits. 'You can create business districts in your city,' he said. 'You can create entertainment destinations and places for leisure all within the purview of your city limits, I think, if you have the right visionaries and right people at the helm, if you have the tax revenue. That's the biggest thing.' READ: Homeowners in Little Haiti are aging. Here's what the next generation is facing 'Our fair share' Brownsville is a community dear to Kilpatrick, whose roots in the community go back decades. His grandfather, George Kilpatrick, was a business leader in the community and founded the first merchant store, along with Neil Adams, Spic and Span, in the late 1940s. Originally called Browns Subdivision, the area was a farming development platted by W.L. Brown during the 1920s. The community became a model of Black home ownership and was home to Homeowner's Paradise, a subdivision where wealthy Black people lived. The community has birthed Black political stalwarts, such as the late Gwen Cherry, the first Black woman elected to the Florida legislature, and Joe Lang Kershaw, the state's first Black state legislator after Reconstruction. Kilpatrick moved to Brownsville 12 years ago, and described it as once a bedroom community. The predominantly Black area, like most in Miami-Dade county, has seen changes: it's become increasingly rental with the rise of Airbnbs. According to U.S. census data, about 31 percent of the units in Brownsville are owner-occupied, 69 percent are renter-occupied. Nearby Gladeview, which has about 14,000 residents, is a similar situation: 27.5 percent of its homes are owner-occupied and the remaining 72.5 percent of residents are renters. Despite the lack of big box businesses in the area and a shrinking homeowner base, Kilpatrick believes that incorporation could resolve some of the issues Brownsville and surrounding neighborhoods are experiencing because it would allow their tax dollars to go toward infrastructure that would benefit the community. Kilpatrick said it could also help with zoning. 'If you don't want a bunch of 28-story condominium apartments in your neighborhood, cityhood kind of helps you to balance that right because you control the zoning,' he said. As Kilpatrick drives through the neighborhood, he stops at the historic Lincoln Memorial Cemetery, Miami's historic Black cemetery. He stops to talk to Jessie Wooden, the owner of the cemetery who made its preservation a personal mission. Wooden, who lives 10 minutes outside of Brownsville, said he's optimistic about the area potentially becoming a city.'We just want our fair share given to our constituents and what they deserve in the community and to preserve the community that so many that came before me have built,' he said. 'What is the benefit?' While most of the residents living in the proposed incorporation zone agree on the area's issues, not everyone is convinced becoming a city will solve any of them. Huddled inside the living room of Richard and Jannie Johnson's home sat a dozen of Little River Farms homeowners who had a list of reasons why they don't see incorporation leading to much change, citing the lack of a tax base, shrinking homeownership, and too few businesses to attract new residents or visitors. The Johnsons have lived in Little River Farm for 50 years and have seen the changes in their community, which used to be predominantly white with few Cuban and Black families. They watched as one by one, homes were built and the community grew. Residents eventually formed a homeowners association to take care of their neighborhood. But the area has become plagued with developers looking to build upward and investors looking for cheap property to rent out. Longtime resident Everlina Chandler said many properties are being sold to developers and apartment buildings are being put on top of the land. 'No one is buying or purchasing homes anymore, and that brings down the property value in the neighborhood,' she said. 'They're just renting. So they don't care about their property value or how the community looks, the beautification of the neighborhood that will attract younger families.' RELATED: Residents divided on idea of historically Black Miami neighborhoods becoming a city 'You won't attract any of those types of people because everything is for rent,' Chandler continued. 'And those who own, they're elderly now, and they can't afford to keep the neighborhood up and purchase things to make the neighborhood better.' Jannie Johnson said she's also worried about the increase in property taxes. And while residents bemoaned having to leave the community to find basic needs such as groceries or entertainment, they're not convinced they have the tax base to be able to be a city, given the types of businesses in the area. Little River Farms HOA president Munir Ingram said there are also environmental concerns that impact their community, such as converting to septic, illegal dumping, and the threat of development encroaching on their lakes. In the nearby Gratigny neighborhood, residents raised the same issues. Gratigny Homeowners Association president Joyce Brown said there are several unknowns for residents, including how much taxes will go up should it be found that they can become a city. 'There are going to be some changes,' she said. 'But what is the benefit? I don't think the benefit is going to be worth it.' Longtime resident of Gratigny, Mary Bennett, 92, said she recalled a time when the neighborhood itself didn't have lights and sidewalks. The community petitioned the county to bring streetlights and pavement to the areas. Standing outside her well-manicured lawn, Bennett said she's more concerned about the threat of high rises coming into the quiet enclave. 'I don't like what I see going on in other neighborhoods, meaning skyscrapers. If you're going to build a home, where is the parking? Where are these people who are living in these 12 stories? Where are they gonna park? That's a problem.' 'We need to make an informed decision' Felicia Mayo-Cutler grew up in the North Shore neighborhood and described it as one of the few communities where well-off Black professionals lived. Nestled near Miami Shores, Mayo-Cutler has lived in the community since she was 2, only leaving when she went off to college before returning in 1990. She now owns a home in the community alongside the parents of the children she grew up with and serves as vice president of the North Shore Community Association. She noted that the community, once predominantly Black community, has seen demographic changes. Nearby construction has led to people driving through the neighborhood and taking an interest in homes in the area. 'It's still predominantly Black, however, the newer residents are not,' she said, adding that North Shore is still a neighborhood of predominantly homeowners. She estimated there are about 250 homes in the community. Mayo-Cutler, who will sit on the committee to explore cityhood, said she wants to weigh the options before deciding if she's for it, adding she sees added benefits in controlling tax dollars, but said she's pleased with some of the services provided by the county. 'We need to know what the options are, as well as share that information with our commissioner so she can make an informed decision as well,' she said. Trameka Rios, who handles social media for the Little River Farms community and will sit on the MAC, is of a similar mindset, and also understands the concerns of residents as her husband grew up in the neighborhood and his family owned a corner store in the community. They now live in his childhood home. Still, she emphasized that she hopes they can be open to the process and give the committee a chance to determine if becoming a city is even viable. 'My biggest thing is to give it a chance,' she said. 'If it doesn't work, we tried it, and if it does work, then we can all collectively come together and see what we want to have happen in our area.' But Brown, with Gratigny, said if the area doesn't incorporate, she thinks the various neighborhoods will eventually find themselves annexed by various cities – precisely the fear that led Kilpatrick and others to push for incorporation. 'We just will fight it and delay it as much as possible,' she said. 'But I think eventually it will happen.'
Fox News
18 hours ago
- Fox News
Extra: Tristan Harris On The State Of The AI Race
President Trump aims to make the United States the leader in artificial intelligence. His administration announced this week an action plan to boost AI development in the U.S., by directing 90 federal policy actions to accelerate innovation and build infrastructure. This came just days after President Trump attended an AI Summit in Pennsylvania, where technology and energy companies announced billions of dollars in investments in the data centers and energy resources the technology needs Shortly after the AI summit, we spoke with Tristan Harris, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and former Google ethicist. Harris weighed in on America's race to lead in AI technology and its fierce competition with China. However, he also urged caution as companies rush to become dominant, warning they should consider the threats AI could pose to our workforce, our children, and our way of life, as they develop more innovative and faster AI models. We often have to cut interviews short during the week, but we thought you might like to hear the full interview. Today on Fox News Rundown Extra, we will share our entire interview with Tristan Harris, allowing you to hear even more of his take on the state of the AI race. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
