This is Bruce. Bruce lives in Bowie MD. He runs a small IT company which helps other small companies keeping and the computers and servers in order. Bruce is a very busy man. He wants to provide the best service in the area, but his resources are stretched out. As a lot of small business owners he is running around between service calls and client’s meetings. He knows if you want to do it well, do it yourself.When Bruce has a small window in his schedule, he spends it looking for new clients. He knows more clients mean more revenue, which is essential for a business of his size. Bruce worked very hard for last spring and got several new contracts signed this summer. It will help his business for a while. Bruce is happy. His business is doing well. It’s spiraling up and getting stronger. He may even go on vacation after he files his tax re-turn later this year.
Busy fall passed by, he even had to work on a Thanksgiving day. Once of his client’s server crushed and Bruce had to spend whole day fixing it, while all of the families in the country were gathering for a tasty Thanksgiving dinner. Christmas followed and Bruce was ready to bring his papers to file his Tax Return. However, Bruce didn’t notice how his business grew bigger. He knew he was doing better than last year, but didn’t think to evaluate how much better. As usually he brought his papers to Fred, a CPA. Fred is an old family friend and he always does a good job with his taxes. As usually, Fred files tax return on time, but couple of months later Bruce re-ceives a notice from IRS. This is very surprising. Bruce have never received one before. The notice states that Bruce owes a xxx amount of money for not paying estimated tax during the year. What Bruce didn’t know that with his business growing, he gained more responsibilities be-fore IRS, such as estimated taxes, that turned out he had to pay every quarter. Bruce was not paying attention to his books and now Bruce has to pay … attention … to IRS. Bruce has to pay! The timing is so bad, since Bruce was planning to go on a much needed vacation in Bahamas. He deserves it. He worked hard the whole year. He was waiting for it.
Bruce doesn’t know that he has a company just next door which does accounting and tax re-turns. This company helps small companies like Bruce’s to keep all the books in order. If he only knew that just for $19/month Bruce could catch the changes in his business. If he only knew, he would be on his way to his favorite Breezes in Bahamas right now. Now he has to use his vaca-tion fund to pay penalties to IRS. He knows that he can’t joke with IRS. Don’t be like Bruce.