Don't Miss Out on Tax Credits for Small Business

Tax season is in full force, which means most small businesses are seeking tips and advice on eligible write-offs. According to new research from Intuit, "eligible small business" was the most searched term in the month of February by customers using Intuit's ProLine of tax products. Intuit reported that more than 59,000 unique searches at the end of February from its ProLine Tax Research product included the keywords "small business."

Two pieces of legislation that came out of the Obama administration last year -- the Small Business Health Care Tax Credit and the Small Business Jobs Act -- have implications for small business, and according to industry publication AccountingWEB, are responsible for the spike in small-business searches. AccountingWEB details the provisions for small businesses to be eligible for these new tax credits. For the Small Business Health Care tax credit, an eligible small business is defined as one that has 25 or fewer full-time employees receiving annual average wages of $55,000 or less. The employer must also have paid at least 50 percent of the premiums for those employees. If those provisions are met, business owners will receive a credit for 35 percent of the premiums it has paid to its employees.

For purposes of the Small Business Jobs Act, small businesses that qualify can be a partnership or a sole proprietorship and must not have stock that is publicly traded. Additionally, the taxpayer must have $50 million or less in average annual gross receipts over the three preceding tax years. There are several tax cuts built into the legislation. Some of these include an increase in the deduction amount for entrepreneurs' startup expenses, no tax on capital gains from key small-business investments, and a new deduction of health insurance costs for the self-employed.