Rating: 
Summary: don't try this at home
Review: TAX law is extremely difficult. I am a tax attorney and I am often bewildered by the complexity of the tax law. I have learned one clear lesson, if you think you found a loophole, you are probably WRONG. Do not rely on this book to convert yourself into a seasoned tax professional who can readily maneuver through the tax code. For basic principles such as documentation, this book is fine. However, areas such as claiming a home expense deduction are not as easy as many think. If you blunder, not only are you liable for the tax, but also for penalties and interest. Do not take aggressive tax positions based on reading this book. Please use professionals who know the ins and outs of the law. For example, I can read one million books on how to perform brain surgery, but would you want me to perform brain surgery on you!
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing!
Review: Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!! This book has saved my business thousands of dollars! Amazingly it is both comprehensive and accessible. Daily is hugely knowlegable and a great writer. He lays out strategy after strategy to minimize wasted time and maximize profit. I thought I knew what I was doing before but this book has opened up whole new worlds of opportunity for me. I better learned what I can and can't deduct, how to take advantage of fringe benefits, how to reduce IRS penalties and much more. Tax Savvy for Small Business is literally worth its weight in gold.
Rating:
Summary: Fred Daily's Book Saved Me [money]
Review: The material contained in Daily's "Stand Up to the IRS" helped to save me [money] this past year! Now, I just got my copy of "Tax Savvy For Small Business" and here's what I like about it: I'm not a tax professional. I am a small businessman. I can't always call my CPA with every little question. That would cost a fortune. But for instance, this morning I'm looking at Daily's treatment of "independent contractor" status, a problem that keeps coming back to me time and time again. Is this temp secretary an employee or can I save a few bucks and call her an independent contractor? How about the guy I hire to wash the windows out front every week? The cybergeek kid next door who earns a few extra bucks working on my computers for me? I do not want to bother my CPA with those questions. But I see here in Chapter 5 an easy to read list of factors I should consider in risking it. I like that. It's easy and I need easy. And there's a hundred other subjects simply covered as well. I don't want to be a tax pro, that's what my CPA is for. I just want to know enough to talk to my CPA and, at the same time, not always need to call him. One thing that bugs me about a lot of self-help financial books is you can't find what you're looking for. This book has a good index. That's important to save me time and help me find what I'm looking for. Good index. Good book.
Rating:
Summary: Fred Daily's Book Saved Me [money]
Review: The material contained in Daily's "Stand Up to the IRS" helped to save me [money] this past year! Now, I just got my copy of "Tax Savvy For Small Business" and here's what I like about it: I'm not a tax professional. I am a small businessman. I can't always call my CPA with every little question. That would cost a fortune. But for instance, this morning I'm looking at Daily's treatment of "independent contractor" status, a problem that keeps coming back to me time and time again. Is this temp secretary an employee or can I save a few bucks and call her an independent contractor? How about the guy I hire to wash the windows out front every week? The cybergeek kid next door who earns a few extra bucks working on my computers for me? I do not want to bother my CPA with those questions. But I see here in Chapter 5 an easy to read list of factors I should consider in risking it. I like that. It's easy and I need easy. And there's a hundred other subjects simply covered as well. I don't want to be a tax pro, that's what my CPA is for. I just want to know enough to talk to my CPA and, at the same time, not always need to call him. One thing that bugs me about a lot of self-help financial books is you can't find what you're looking for. This book has a good index. That's important to save me time and help me find what I'm looking for. Good index. Good book.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Place to start concerning small biz taxation issues
Review: This book is a good source to start with, if your thinking of going into business for yourself. I agree with some on the comments made about it's generalities, but if your looking for specific situations, you should be consulting with an experienced accountant and or a tax attorney....
For starters, Mr. Daily not only tells you what you need to do to keep you out of trouble from the IRS, but he also give you specific codes in taxation law that you could use to your benefit. Let's face it. Dealing with taxes and legal issues is something everybody hates to talk about when thinking of opening a business. But the fact of the matter is, more small business shutdown prematurely because these two aspects are not taken seriously or into consideration when visions of dollars signs are dancing in their heads.
Rating: 
Summary: A good book if you know what you're doing
Review: This book is really complete and will be useful to professional tax preparers and those who already know about tax law. It is definitely not for the beginner (which I am) who wants some basic information. I found two other books that were much more applicable for me -- Minding Her Own Business and Small Time Operator. They talk about taxes in a language I can understand.
Rating:
Summary: Good ways to save tax dollars
Review: This book not only explains deductions but offers good ideas for saving tax dollars. Highly recommended for folks that have some accounting or tax knowledge. Excellent reference if you're thinking of starting a business, or you already have.
Rating:
Summary: Good ways to save tax dollars
Review: This book not only explains deductions but offers good ideas for saving tax dollars. Highly recommended for folks that have some accounting or tax knowledge. Excellent reference if you're thinking of starting a business, or you already have.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview - concise and to the point.
Review: This guide is different from the many tax guides out there from big names like Ernst & Young, etc. because it is more focussed on small businesses and you get the most relevant information in the most concise fashion. There in lies the limitation of this great book. You may have to refer to the other tax guides if your particular situation is too unique. But the conciseness and focussed approach was extremely helpful in clarifying a lot of points for me. I had tried reading several of the bigger guides (with three times as many pages as this book) and gotten confused because it was too much information. So when I saw the Nolo guide, I was pleasantly surprised that every topic in the book was relevant to me as a small business owner! It was perfect for my needs. I now started understanding the very same topics I had so much difficulty following in the other books. For example - I was trying to research the differences between S Corporations and LLCs. When I opened this Nolo guide, I went straight to the chapter on LLCs and read the section - Comparing LLCs with Other Entities. In one sentence I knew the difference between these two entities! According to the book, the basic difference being that you can allocate income and expenses disproportionately (to share ownership) in an LLC but not in a S Corporation! Wow! I liked the speed with which I could find this critical piece of information I was researching. The book is divided into 6 parts - The Basics (Business Income and Tax Deductible Expenses, Recordkeeping and Accounting, etc.), The Form of Your Business (Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, S Corporations, etc.), Thinking Small (Family Businesses, Microbusinesses and Home-Based Businesses), Fringe Benefits (Retirement Plans etc.), Buying or Selling a Business, and Dealing with the IRS. There isn't a single page that is irrelevant. If you have very advanced questions, you are better off looking through a bigger book but you would benefit tremendously by reading this book first. It will give you a firm grounding in the basics across the board. Good luck!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview - concise and to the point.
Review: This guide is different from the many tax guides out there from big names like Ernst & Young, etc. because it is more focussed on small businesses and you get the most relevant information in the most concise fashion. There in lies the limitation of this great book. You may have to refer to the other tax guides if your particular situation is too unique. But the conciseness and focussed approach was extremely helpful in clarifying a lot of points for me. I had tried reading several of the bigger guides (with three times as many pages as this book) and gotten confused because it was too much information. So when I saw the Nolo guide, I was pleasantly surprised that every topic in the book was relevant to me as a small business owner! It was perfect for my needs. I now started understanding the very same topics I had so much difficulty following in the other books. For example - I was trying to research the differences between S Corporations and LLCs. When I opened this Nolo guide, I went straight to the chapter on LLCs and read the section - Comparing LLCs with Other Entities. In one sentence I knew the difference between these two entities! According to the book, the basic difference being that you can allocate income and expenses disproportionately (to share ownership) in an LLC but not in a S Corporation! Wow! I liked the speed with which I could find this critical piece of information I was researching. The book is divided into 6 parts - The Basics (Business Income and Tax Deductible Expenses, Recordkeeping and Accounting, etc.), The Form of Your Business (Sole Proprietorships, Partnerships, S Corporations, etc.), Thinking Small (Family Businesses, Microbusinesses and Home-Based Businesses), Fringe Benefits (Retirement Plans etc.), Buying or Selling a Business, and Dealing with the IRS. There isn't a single page that is irrelevant. If you have very advanced questions, you are better off looking through a bigger book but you would benefit tremendously by reading this book first. It will give you a firm grounding in the basics across the board. Good luck!
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