How to make taxes less taxing: with a little knowledge, some advanced planning and a good filing...

As a small business probably wear a number of hats throughout the year. Now it's time to brush the sawdust off one of your seldom-worn accessories--your tax hat.

Even if you outsource your tax preparation, you'll save time and money if you run your business with an eye for taxes. But where to begin? If it were printed in its entirety, the Internal Revenue Code would take up more than 10,000 pages.

From that haystack, it is possible to pluck a number of needles that will help you deflate your tax bill and simplify your life.

First Things First