Dear TaxGuru,

I am self-employed and my CPA says I owe a lot of taxes on my Dry cleaning business. Is there a way to avoid paying these SE Taxes, and can you suggest some ideas I can save some taxes.

Tks...

Dear Majid,

Unfortunately, the IRS has no way to withhold your taxes when you are self-employed, so the IRS attempts to collect the Social Security taxes through self employment or SE taxes.

Majid, the way to save money in taxes, is to keep accurate records of your busines expenses. Hire a CPA or accountant to maintain excellant financial statements so at tax time, you will have accurate expenses to claim against the income earned from your Dry Cleaning business. Remember you can capitalize and depreciate the start up expenses and you can claim Section 179 deduction on all new equipment that you bought.

Hopefully, you avoid paying substantial taxes after taking these deductions.

The second biggest expense for homeowners, after the mortgage, is usually property taxes.