PayPal Stories Archive

Gene Marks: It’s 2017, and we have taxes on the mind. We want to know how can we save money, this coming year. Steven, Xero is an accounting application and can be an important tool to help save money on your taxes. What do you see businesses doing?   

 

Steven Larsen, Xero: Well, I mean, the best way to save money for taxes is by hooking up other business applications so you can get that data flowing into [an accounting tool like] Xero. Then, you work with your accountant or adviser throughout the entire year to minimize your taxes, making sure that you have the right deductions all year long.  So, by the time you get to the end of the year to file your taxes, it’s painless. It’s seamless.

 

GM: In my company, we have about 600 small- and medium-sized business clients. Most of them are still using desktop accounting applications. I imagine when they go to the cloud, they have the ability to integrate [their accounting application] with other applications to speed up data entry and get more accurate data. That will save money on your taxes. Bruce, do you have to be like a certain size to use accounting applications nowadays?

 

Bruce Phillips, HPC Technology Group: It doesn’t matter what the size [of your business] is.  Even if you’re a sole proprietor or small e-commerce seller, you should be using one of these [cloud-based accounting solutions]. It’s relatively inexpensive. It’s relatively easy to set up. There are [accountants and advisors] out there like HPC to help you get started. For example, we had a $100-million dollar company set up on Xero, so it can pretty much run the gamut. 

 

GM: Steven, Xero has a product called TaxTouch. It’s a mobile application where you can track your expenses and swipe right or left, depending on whether it’s a personal or business expense. Tell us about that. 

 

SL: TaxTouch hooks up to your bank account and as these transactions come in, you swipe left for personal transactions and swipe right for business transactions. At the end of the year, it automatically produces a Schedule C that you can upload into your tax software or you give to your accountant to help prepare your taxes. It helps save a bunch of time, ultimately saving you money at the end of the year as well.

 

GM: Bruce, your clients are telling you they want to save money on their taxes in 2017. What’s the biggest thing you recommend they do?

 

BP: Keeping their records up to date in a tool like Xero. We love the real-time data and the fact that the data is sharable between the business and the accountant. Also, you need to be in touch with your accountant. We’re talking to [our] clients year-round. We want to get to know your business.  We want to talk to you in the summer, in the fall, and in the winter when you can still do something about reducing your tax liability. Most people don’t even realize that taxes represent twenty to thirty percent of all the money that goes out of your small business.   

 

SL: And just to chime in there a little bit, your accountant is actually your business advisor. You don’t have a full-time finance person. You don’t have a CFO. So, they’re the ones advising you about your business financials and the growth of the company. So, you should be talking to them on a monthly, if not even weekly basis.

 

For more helpful tips and resources, visit www.paypal.com/thisisyouryear.