Tax accounting software has its basics in each of the three elements of the title. Accounting being the production of the financial accounts in a template format suitable for the tax system. Tax and tax software denotes the inclusion of the tax rules with software being a description of the fact that the process is automated.

Self employed accounting

To be most effective the self employed accounts should be in a format that can eventually be used by the accounts program to produce the financial information required to complete the tax returns. Tax returns vary in individual countries and the tax accounting software shpould account for all variations.

Database accounting software is frequently based upon a chart of accounts which is not necessarily tax return friendly. Accounting template spreadsheets being more fixed in nature do offer an opportunity to be tax friendly.

A means to distinguish between revenue transactions and fixed assets is required as fixed assets are subject to capital allowances which written off against the net taxable profit according to the tax rules as opposed to being able to deduct the whole cost of that asset in the one financial year.

Income Tax and Vat Tax Return Software

In the UK the self employed accounts need to supply the numbers for up to three different variations of the self employed tax return. With effect from the financila year 2008-09 the self assessment tax return has been replaced with the self employed tax return short and full versions.

The short tax return is completed according to the sales turnover of the business. Less detail then the full return is required with only totals required for businesses with a sales turnover under 30,000 pounds.

Where sales exceed the vat threshold the accounting package has to produce vat tax returns. With various types of vat schemes available the accounts package and tax software should be capable of dealing with different vat schemes.

Not all accounting packages have the facility to deal with diffenent value added tax schemes which is important to produce the desired results of an automated tax software package. It is important that tax accounting software provides the user with the specific tax accounting requirements.

Tax Software

To be effective in satisfying the description of tax accounting software the system should also include the tax rates and rules applicable. The tax accounting can then take those tax rates and produce an estimate of the potential tax liability which is a principal concern of all self employed business when the time for filing taxes approaches.

The term software indicates automation based upon data input which the computer package then processes to produce the desired output. Tax software produces the tax requirements of the user.

A tax accounting software package takes the prime financial transactions, converts those numbers to the format required to produce the year end self employed tax returns and quarterly vat returns as required. In addition the tax software function would also use the tax rates to automatically calculate the income tax and national insurance liability

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