On Wed, 02 Feb 2005 18:20:40 -0800, Jim Stewart
wrote:

Robert Davidson wrote:

My wife/
bookkeeper spent several hours figuring out
how to do the research tax credit and saved
us several thousand. And tought the tax
consultant how to do it...



Looks like you have lived through a bad experience, and learned from it.
Best of luck finding a competent tax advisor in the future...or learning
the skill yourself!

Well, it helps that we knew about the research
tax credit. Most, if not all, tax accountants
who work with smaller businesses never have a
need to use it. It's a pain to calculate as
you must have records of your R&D expenses
going back however many years you've been taking
it.

Luckily, we were associated with a bigger company
early in our history and we learned about it from
them and have kept the records.

I don't blame the tax accountant (though a discount
for teaching him would have been nice). It's just
something he hadn't dealt with before. Anyone
with his own business learns something from his
customers from time to time (:


This points out an important point about tax accountants. If at all
possible get one who is familar with your line of work.

My CPA does the taxes for a lot of writers and artists so he
understands my business very well. That fact alone has saved me a lot
of money over the years.

--RC
"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells
'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets
fly with a club.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.