Once in a while, I read a business article that I nod my head in agreement to every sentence. Joyce Rosenberg is spot on in her piece, For Small Biz, Income Tax Season is Right Now.

clipped from www.businessweek.com

For the many owners who file their business tax returns using a Schedule C attached to their 1040 forms, not knowing where they stand in terms of company finances also means they don’t have a complete handle on their personal finances as well, Chazen said. And that can have long-term ramifications, for example, on savings for retirement or children’s college tuition — if a business isn’t turning a profit now, then an owner can be hard pressed to put money aside for the future.

But let’s say you don’t heed the advice, and there you are in early April, ledgers or shoebox in hand. Be prepared to hear your accountant say that he or she won’t be compiling your return, but will instead be filing for an extension of the filing deadline.

“You can’t do it that quickly without making any mistakes,” Chazen said, warning also that presenting a tax preparer with a chaotic set of records is going to be more expensive: “When someone else is cleaning up your mess, it costs more.”