As each financial year draws to a close, everybody is preparing to head off to their Sydney accounting services to get their tax done. For many people, getting their tax affairs in order is a frustrating task, especially if you have not kept your records in good order.

You are required to keep your important financial records for five years. To do your taxes properly any Sydney accounting service you use will require you to provide these records.

The guide below will help you choose what financial information should be kept for tax filing purposes:

* Documented income - includes everything you have earned during that year. It should be all-inclusive with payments from employers, income from your business or hobbies and any other payments (income) you received. You will need to provide records of all income.

* Car expenses - If you use your vehicle for business travel you should have a lot of mileage and expenses for petrol and repairs to provide to your accountant

* Do you travel for business? If so, keep all receipts for expenditures during business related trips.

* Clothing - if you must wear work specific clothing, such as safety glasses or steel capped boots, you may be able to claim the cost of these. You may also claim the cost of laundering your clothes.

* Bank fees - any fees paid on business or investment related accounts should be recorded.

* Education - any work-related study that you have done may be able to be claimed as well, so keep receipts of any courses or books you have purchased.

* Home office expenses - Your claim for the costs incurred in running your home office may be larger than you realize as you can include portions of utility bills and internet costs.

* Insurance payments - Business owners pay to insure their equipment. You may also have purchased insurance to cover liability or other risks and may be able to claim the costs paid throughout the year.

Sydney accounting services will ask you to provide the information and proof they need in order to complete your tax in a way that will provide maximum benefit for you. Help your accountant by submitting organized and complete records for him to use.

Also, many Sydney accounting services offer specialised advice in different areas, so you may want to consider this when choosing a Sydney accountant to go with.

Tags: accounting, accounting service, business tax, Finance, Sydney accounting service

This entry was posted on Friday, August 21st, 2009 at 2:54 pm and is filed under Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.