Work your way up

One way to figure your tax obligations is to start at the local level and work your way up. Check with your local city or county to determine what licenses and fees you must pay, plus what property taxes you may owe on your business. Then work your way up to state and federal taxes.

I recommend: For an overview of business taxes, see the section on Controlling Your Taxes at the Business Owners Toolkit site. For links to additional tax resources, visit Yahoo! Small Business and the Business Tax Center at MyOwnBusiness.com.

Understand your federal tax obligations

As a business owner, you'll need to report business income, take business deductions, claim tax credits, collect payroll taxes if you have employees and file at the right times. A good accountant is invaluable in helping you deal with your federal tax obligations. But it's important that you understand the basics to help guide the tax preparation process so you don't miss tax breaks or deductions.

I recommend: The IRS has an overview and links for business taxes, including links to tax forms.

Understand your state tax obligations

Dealing with state taxes can be a major chore, especially if you have retail sales and must collect sales taxes. Sales taxes vary not only by state but by county and city, so it's important to collect and file the correct amounts. In addition you may owe state income taxes and have state payroll deduction obligations.

I recommend: The Tax and Accounting Sites Directory offers a page of links to states where you can read discussions of tax obligations for your particular state. The U.S. Small Business Administration offers links to taxing authorities by state.

Understand your payroll tax obligations

You'll need to determine which of your workers are considered employees subject to withholding and what compensation is taxable.

I recommend: The U.S. Small Business Administration's Payroll Taxes page has overviews and links to federal and state taxing agencies. Figure out what compensation is taxable at ItsSimple.biz.

Keep track of taxes

It helps to keep up-to-date files and records throughout the year to make sure you don't wind up frantically hunting on deadline. Accounting and tax software can help keep you on track. A good software package should also include the forms you'll need to file.

I recommend: Among the more popular tax software titles are those from TurboTax, TaxCut or TaxAct. Popular accounting software systems are NetSuite, QuickBooks and Microsoft Small Business Accounting.