"Over what period of time are we taxing your operating profits, Mr. Corporation?" That's the tax year. And in almost everywhereland, a tax year runs from January 1 to December 31. That's the year in which profits are assessed for tax purposes. They are then paid n months later. And yes, many or most corporations and individuals pay taxes quarterly, and then "true up" the amount they owe at the end of the year.
Some companies, though, run from Valentine's Day to February 13. Why? A romantic view of...taxes? Others run from July 1 to June 30. Why? Eh, maybe because they're in industries which are just very quiet that time of the year (winter coat sales?) and they like making life difficult for everyone else.
And it's not a bad idea to have an off-calendar-year tax year. Think about the poor accountants who have everyone yelling at them the same week to finish their taxes. Were things staggered, it'd be way better throughout for those people leading lives a lot like James Bond's. Or actually, just the opposite.
Related or Semi-related Video
Finance: What is Tax Basis?8 Views
Finance allah shmoop What is tax basis Well your basis
is your cost Your costs for assessing how much you
owe when the tax man coming you bought a thousand
shares of whatever dot com at twelve bucks a share
in its eye po and huzzah Three years later the
stock is at thirty You decide whatever dot com is
now passe because a kardashians said so it'll be over
taken by whenever dot com and you want to sell
So you dio and you live in a thirty percent
marginal tax blue state And that is your federal tax
rates in twenty percent But then you add in ten
percent for state taxes and whatever's left for obamacare and
you pay about thirty percent tax on your gains Well
you paid twelve grand to buy the stock and after
the sale you took in thirty grand when you sold
it for a gain of eighteen thousand dollars Your tax
basis on those shares is twelve grand so you pay
thirty percent tax on the eighteen grand of gain or
fifty four hundred dollars to net from the sale of
thirty thousand dollars worth of stock How much Yeah twenty
Four thousand six hundred dollars He fancy math Had you
just gotten those shares free I'ii they were gifted to
you and you had no tax basis or a tax
basis of zero dollars a share Well then your gain
would have been from zero to thirty grand or a
gain of thirty thousand dollars to then be taxed at
thirty percent or nine grand in taxes to net just
twenty one thousand dollars after the sale So having ah
high tax basis or at least being able teo point
toe one saves you money when the tax man coming
and well that's pretty much it alright he's gone Now
you can all come out Come on it's Okay it's 00:01:53.698 --> [endTime] safe
Up Next
What is a tax deduction? Tax deductions decrease the amount of taxable income reported so that less tax is owed. For everyday civilians, these dedu...
What is tax loss carry-forward? We promise it's a real thing, not just a bunch of words strung together.