Right about now, everyone is thinking about last year’s taxes.  We’re waiting for all those 1099s and W2s and whatever else people send us to file our annual income or business taxes.  The accountants are gearing up for the April 15 deadline.  So like everyone else, truckers are getting their records in order.  As you look at your trucking business, the question is probably coming to mind:  is my trucking software package going to help or stall my process for filing my taxes?

Keep in mind – we’re not accountants.  Consult an accountant or CPA for tax advice.  We’re here to talk software, not if you can deduct your daily latte from your taxes.

Trucking Business Software for Your Trucking Business

There are a lot of numbers that a trucking business has to pay attention to (besides the interstate numbers.)  Miles per state.  Fuel taxes.  Driver settlements.  

When you use a trucking business software like TruckingOffice, you can be confident that when you enter your dispatch information, the program will use those numbers in every way possible.  Your dispatch leads to your invoice, which includes all the necessary expenses that are billed to the shipper.  Your miles per state are computed automatically when you use our PC*Miler interface (available with the TruckingOffice PRO version.)  IFTA reports tell you what your quarterly taxes are.  Your on-the-road expenses (as much as they’re legal – consult a tax expert about those) and your maintenance expenses are all tracked by TruckingOffice.

You know where you stand financially when you use TruckingOffice.  You can find out immediately with the Company Overview Report or the Profit and Loss report.  We have several other reports that will help you make good financial decisions about growing your company.

That’s a lot.  But as they say – there’s more!

Trucking Taxes, Trucker’s Taxes?

We know about the quarterly IFTA taxes that we have to pay.  And IRP is simply another tax, as is HVUT.  

The greatest strength of trucking business software is that it’s programmed to help you pay those taxes.  Whether you own one or ten trucks, you can know and anticipate your trucking taxes.

Most of us, however, struggle with the income and business taxes that the IRS demands we pay.  Most small businesses are expected to pay taxes quarterly, based on last year’s income.  After the past couple of years, that’s got to be a challenge to plan for.  Some truckers know what they paid last year per quarter and put it aside on a regular payment to themselves to pay the taxes when they’re due.  

If you’re an owner-operator, you might have to pay your income taxes quarterly.  Or not.  It really depends on the IRS.  

Business taxes can be predicted.  Personal taxes are trickier.  Whatever deductions you have will impact the final amount.  And if you’re a sole proprietor who is filing business income with a personal income tax 1040 filing – oh boy, things can go sideways fast.

We can’t file your personal taxes.  We don’t recommend any specific tax program, but let us tell you something we did figure out this week.

TruckingOffice => QuickBooks => TurboTax

TruckingOffice PRO has the ability to export your financial data to QuickBooks.  It’s pretty simple to do and immediately copies accurate numbers from your trucking business records into a format that your tax accountant likes.  No switched numbers, no mixed-up clients.  It’s all pretty easy.

Here’s what we just realized.  QuickBooks owns TurboTax tax preparation software.  There’s a way to move your data from QuickBooks into TurboTax.  You can find the instructions on their websites.  

We’ll bet that if you have an accountant doing your taxes – this is what they’re doing.

So if you’re doing your own taxes this year, we salute you.  And recommend that you use TruckingOffice PRO to make this year’s income taxes easier than ever!  

Want to know more about TruckingOffice PRO and how we can make your trucking business successful when you use TruckingOffice to 

• Create dispatches with PC*Miler
• Manage invoices
• Track expenses
• Produce IFTA and IRP reports
• Keep maintenance records
• Manage driver information
• Export data to QuickBooks.

Try our free trial right now to discover how easy it is to use and how useful it is to make your trucking business easy to run.  TruckingOffice makes it easy!  (That’s our motto, by the way.  We mean it.)