Do not look at the calendar and think, “I don’t need to start on my small business tax return yet.  I have more than two months to do it.”

Tax returns are due April 17 this year.  The usual deadline, April 15, falls on a Sunday.  And the 16^th is Emancipation Day, a holiday in Washington, D.C.  So you get two extra days to get your return filed.

Here’s how to avoid problems when April arrives:

If you’re planning to have your return done by a certified public accountant or other tax professional, you need to make an appointment now to get the process started.  If you don’t have a preparer yet, don’t hire a friend of a friend or someone’s brother.  Start looking now for someone who understands your kind of business.

Two reasons for this suggestion: First, federal state tax laws govern certain kinds of businesses, so you want a preparer who’s familiar with what you need to pay.  Second, hire someone like a CPA, who can advise you on running your business year-round.

ANALYSIS

Sign on early with a tax professional.  Their schedules fill up fast, and the closer to April 17, the less time they’ll have to get to know you and your business.

Anyone who shows up at a CPA or attorney in early April and expects to start the process then is likely to hear: “We’re going to get you an extension” of the filing deadline.

If this is the first time you’re doing your own business tax return, start learning how to use tax prep software now.  Rushing at the last minute means you can make a mistake.  You need time to understand what you’re doing and to get some help if you can’t figure out the software of tax laws.

If you don’t take the time to learn, you can miss out on tax breaks, and mistakes can cost you more than you know.

A return that has a lot of problems is likely to be singled out for closer review by the Internal Revenue Service or state tax authorities.  And if you haven’t paid enough taxes, you’ll be facing interest and late penalty payments.  They add up.

No matter who’s doing your return, you need to have your invoices, receipts, check book and ledger in good shape.  Ideally, if you’ve been using accounting software to keep your books, you can import your data into a tax prep program, or just hand over files to your accountant.

But if you have a pile of unsorted papers, you’re a recipe for disaster unless you get everything straightened out now.  If you hand the pile over to your preparer to figure it out, remember that you’re paying by the hour to do something you could do.

If you don’t have time to do the sorting, hire an accounting student as an intern.  You’ll pay less than if your CPA does.  (And, by the way, some accountants will refuse to do it for you.)

Trying to do your own taxes with that pile in front of you is an invitation to leave something out.  Another expensive mistake.

And realize you’re overwhelmed and can’t get your taxes done on time or right, file for an extension of the time to file.  There’s no harm in it.

Tax professionals agree, filing for an extension is highly unlikely to make the IRS want to audit you.

A tax preparer can easily file an extension for you.  Tax prep software is another easy way.  Or go to the IRS website, www.irs.gov, and download Form 4868.  Owners with corporations need to file Form 7004.  You can e-file them through the IRS site.

Fida Mourtada and his wife Zainab have been married almost as long as they have been in the transportation business together. Today, Mourtada and his wife run Seastar, a freight forwarding company that specializes in ocean, inland & air transportation. While the couple has been able to successfully manage their own business, the road to this point in their success was a long one.

Mourtada, who was born in Africa, had moved with his parents to Montreal, Canada in 1990. While he spent the majority of the 90s living there, Mourtada would occasionally visit his brother who was living in the U.S. It was there he met his wife Zainab. Mourtada eventually relocated to the U.S after the two wed in 2001. He wanted to try his hand at the transportation business.

"I have always been intrigued by and interested in supply and demand," stated Mourtada. "I looked for a job that had this involvement, and freight forwarding was the closest I could get to that," he added.

Around 2003, Mourtada and his wife became employed by a freight forwarder company. It was then they developed and sharpened their skills in the transportation business, even though they had seen many flaws in their employer.

"When we were employed by someone else, we saw a lot of things that could be improved," stated Mourtada. "We did not like the way our employer handled his business…we felt saturated and restricted, unable to do what we thought was right," he added.

In January 2009, Mourtada and his wife opened Seastar, an FMC licensed freight forwarder company located in Dearborn that transports with carriers across the globe. The company has dozens of agents all over the world, including Nigeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and several locations in the US, from New Jersey to Los Angeles.

"We employ the top of the line companies, trusted name brand companies," Mourtada stated. "We truly maintain close to zero packages getting lost or shipped to the wrong destination."

The company deals with all sorts of shipments, whether boxed, containerized, or even vehicles that need to be shipped overseas. It's one of just a few companies in the area that is a licensed broker by the FMC.

Getting licensed is a process in itself. The Federal Maritime Commission is an independent regulatory agency responsible for the regulation of ocean borne transportation in the foreign commerce of the U.S. The FMC requires that an individual have over three years of experience before receiving their ocean transportation license. In addition, they do a tremendous amount of background checks to make sure the individual is not a threat or has a criminal history.

Another feature the company offers is through its website, where a client has the ability to log in with a unique name and password to check on the tracking and status of their shipment and estimated delivery date. They are also able to pull up documents such as their history of orders and receipts.

Sometimes packages can get delayed, but that is out of Seastar's control. Obstacles such as port congestion and mechanical problems on an airplane can delay a package's estimated delivery date. With the online tracking services the company provides however, the client can keep tabs on when exactly their shipment is expected to arrive.

"One of the biggest challenges in this field is providing your client with innovative solutions," said Mourtada. "My wife sometimes has to tell me to take it easy and go one step at a time," he added. "I want to sometimes grasp more than I can handle."

On a day to day basis, Zainab is responsible for dealing with vehicle shipments as well as handling the accounting aspect of the business. Mourtada is responsible for containerized shipments, airfreights and dealing with customer service. Both of them are usually in the office from 9 to 5 and are grateful that they are able to manage the business together.

"I really like that we have a history of working together," stated Zainab. "With this business, we both knew what we wanted and we got to implement our own rules," she added. "It's very convenient because we understand each other."

Seastar is not the only job the couple has to manage. They also have two boys at home, Mohammad, 8, and Ali, 6. And according to Mourtada, there always needs to be a time where the line is drawn between work and family time.

"We try our best to provide some quality family time for the boys," Mourtada stated. "A lot of the times we bring work home and my kids will put me on the spot and tell me 'Baba it's family time.'"

Brokers and carriers said that the federal Safety Management System, or SMS, that is used to score carrier performance is causing them to lose business by unfairly tainting fleet safety records.

Thomas Sanderson, CEO of broker Transplace, Frisco, Texas, said his firm “has lost brokerage business because of shippers that were unhappy with the SMS data for carriers that we were utilizing. Each of those carriers had satisfactory safety ratings and adequate insurance.”

Sanderson, whose company ranks No. 16 on the Transport Topics list of the top 25 freight brokerage firms, wouldn’t say how much freight, or revenue, was lost for that reason.

Another Top 25 broker told TT the company has lost thousands of loads because shippers impose unrealistic contract requirements based on the SMS scores that bar using a carrier that has even a single infraction.

Sanderson added that brokers are being forced to evaluate safety based on flawed information. Safety determinations should be the federal government’s responsibility, he said, because it gathers information on drivers, companies, tractors and trailers.

Two carriers, which also agreed to speak with Transport Topics as long as they weren’t identified by name, confirmed that they had lost business because of the safety rating process.

One operations official at a truckload carrier in the Southeast said the carrier was losing loads from a major customer because a clerical worker was making carrier selection decisions based on SMS scores. That approach is wrong, he said, because safety should be judged by FMCSA’s professionals rather than a clerical worker.

A top executive at a Midwest-based drayage carrier said he lost business because of SMS scores based on roadside inspections that were targeting his firm and erroneous violations that couldn’t be corrected.

Fatalities in US highway accidents involving large trucks increased 8.7% in 2010, the first increase in four years, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said last week.

NHTSA said in its annual report that 3,675 people died in truck-related accidents in 2010, an increase of 295 from the 2009 total of 3,380.

In addition, the number of people injured in truck-related accidents rose to 19,000 in 2010, from 17,000 in 2009, a 12% increase.

At the same time, truck occupant fatalities increased by 6%, to 529 in 2010 from 499 in 2009.

“We’re still trying to figure out clearly what [caused] this uptick,” NHTSA Administrator David Strickland said at the Dec. 8 press conference where the report was unveiled.

Increased truck traffic because of the economic recovery could be a factor, he said.  The Federal Highway Administration track truck miles traveled each year but is not expected to complete its 2010 mileage analysis until next month.

Until the mileage figures are released, it is impossible to determine if trucking’s fatality rate went up or down in 2010, because the rate is determined by measuring the fatalities and the number of miles driven.

American Trucking Associates President Bill Graves cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the new fatality numbers.

“Every fatality on our highways is a tragedy, and the uptick in the 2010 preliminary report concerns us deeply,” Graves said.  “Without more information and analysis, though, it is difficult to draw conclusions about what this preliminary data means.”

Graves said he hoped policymakers “will avoid the error” of overemphasizing the recent data “at the expense of the overall, long-term trend, which has been overwhelmingly positive.”

Truck-related accident fatalities have declined in six of the past 10 years.

Although truck-related fatalities went up this year, they still represent a 30% decline from 2000 when 5,282 people died in truck-related fatalities, according to the NHTSA data.

Despite the rise in fatalities in truck accidents, NHTSA said that overall traffic fatalities declined in 2010 to the lowest number – 32,885 since 1949, when 30,246 people died in traffic accidents.

Truck-related fatality numbers are a central issue in the legal battle over the driver hours-of-service rule, with truckers arguing that the exisiting 11-hour rule is safe and critics saying the hours a driver can stay behind the wheel should be reduced to 10 to minimize fatigue.

The  Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration is expected to announce a final HOS rule by the end of the year.

ATA, shippers and manufactures have said a reduction in hours would be costly for a recovering economy and is unnecessary, given the trucking industry’s steadily improving safety record.

Safety advocates and Teamsters union officials argue that more lives could be saved if driver hours were reduced.

“If fatalities are going up, it only re-emphasizes the need for hours-of-service regulation,” said Gregory Beck, the Washinton attorney representing the Teamsters in an HOS case currently before a federal appeals court.

Beck took issue with ATA’s contention that the current 11-hour rule, in force since 2004, does not need to be changed because fatalities have declined in most years since then, despite the longer driving hours allowed.

In 2004, there were 5,245 fatalities in crashes involving large trucks.  From 2004 to 2010, fatalities increased in only two years.  The declining fatalities numbers “indicated general improvements in other kinds of safety,” not the driving hours, he said.

Other critics of the current 11-hour rule said they were not surprised that truck fatalities jumped as the economy improved.

Henry Jasny, general counsel for the Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, said his group has “been warning that this would occur because it is a historic pattern that has held true during and after past recessions.”

When FHWA releases its truck mileage figures for 2010, they are expected to show a significant increase over 2009 and 2008, the deep recession years when much less freight moved.

Tonnage figures published by ATA reflect the recession’s effect.  In 2008, the year the economy began its downturn, carriers hauled 10.2 billion tons of freight.  The number of truck-related fatalities that year was 4,245.

In 2009, ATA said carriers hauled only 8.5 billion tons of freight.  As of October this year, as fatalities have risen, tonnage was up 5.7% over the previous 12 months.

“Clearly, with the uptick in the economy, there could be more truck trips, therefore that could be part of ... why we’re seeing this particular [fatality] uptick,” said NHTSA’s Strickland.

However, Strickland said, the trucking industry has made long term safety gains, and “we usually hold these gains for the long term.

“So, while we are going to take a look, long-term, at some of the factors… we do think the uptick in more truck travel might have been part of it,” he said.

Every small business owner should have this entry on their December calendars: Meet with my CPA.

A sit-down with your certified public accountant or other tax adviser needs to be a priority, no matter how busy you are with parties and shopping for gifts.  You need to talk about how your company is doing, what your plans are for the next year and what you need to be doing now t prepare.

Some of the things you need to think about, and then discuss with your CPA:

What does 2012 look like – and what does that mean for 2011?

The economy has been looking a little better the last few months.  But the Federal Reserve has lowered its forecast for economic growth in 2012.  The National Federation of Independent Busin3ess said recently that uncertainty about business and weak sales are stopping many small companies from expanding.

So, many owners, when they meet with their accountants, are likely to be thinking conservatively about the coming year.

“Most of them are happy with breaking even or revenues flat” in 2012, says Jeffrey Berdaul, a CPA with RLB Accountants in Allentown, PA.

Part of the problem is that the economy isn’t the only source of uncertainty for small business owners.  Political issues that affect the economy are unresolved as well.  Businesses are waiting to see if Congress will extend unemployment benefits and the 2% Social Security tax cut that are due to expire at the end of the year.  If they’re not extended, that’ll mean less money for consumers to spend.  And that could affect economic growth.

Buy equipment now? Or later?

One thing that is quite certain about 2012 is that small businesses won’t have the huge tax deductions for buying equipment that they’re have this year.  The Section 179 deduction, which allowed small businesses to deduct up-front rather than depreciate $500,000 worth of equipment purchases, is expected to shrink to $125,000.  It’s expected to fall further in 2013, to $25,000.

Bonus depreciation, which increased the amount othat small businesses could deduct on purchases above the $500,000 threshold for Section 179, is expected to fall to 50% from 100% in 2011.

That doesn’t mean you should rush out and buy new trucks, computers or machines simply to lower  your taxes.  Your accountant will ask you to consider several factors.  Do you genuinely need the equipment or just want it?  Is the price tag large enough you should take advantage of the higher deduction?  Do you think you’ll be making more money next year?  If so, it might make more sense to buy it next year and lower your taxes then.

But be aware that if you want to use the Section 179 deduction, the equipment must be delivered and up and running by Dec. 31, even if you haven’t paid for it yet.  For more information, visit the IRS website at www.irs.gov and download Publication 946, How to Depreciate Property.

Start a retirement plan?  Contribute to your current plan?

When small business owners ask their accountant “What can I do to lower my taxes?” the first suggestion from CPAs is usually to set up or contribute more to an retirement plan.  But an accountant isn’t thinking only in terms of taxes.  A retirement plan makes an employer more competitive and able to get the top talent.  And it helps a company retain its best workers.

And sole proprietors and partners without employees should be saving for their future.  Many owners think that the stake they own in their companies is their retirement nest egg.  But that could be putting your retirement in jeopardy; what if the economy worsens and your company runs into trouble?

If you’re thinking of starting a plan or contributing to one you already have, here’s some good news: The tax law is very flexible about when an owner has to fund many types of retirement plans.  For example, the simplest of retirement plans, the Simplified Employee Pension, or SEP, doesn’t have to be set up until the due date of the owner’s return.  And that includes extensions of the filing date.  So if you want to buy time to get the money together to start a SEP, you can get an extension of the deadline until next October, and you’ll have until then to come up with the money.  That means you’ll be able to deduct the money on your 2011 return.  The same goes for employers’  2011 contributions to many existing plans.

Talk with your accountant about whether it makes sense to start a plan now and discuss how much you should be contributing to a plan.  You might want to also talk to an employee benefits consultant, especially if you’re thinking about starting a plan that’s more complex than a SEP.  The SEP requires very little paperwork to create.

For more information about retirement plans, download IRS Publication 560, Retirement Plans for Small Business, from the IRS website.