I want to mitigate as much tax liability as I can. However, reading our tax code is not very easy/helpful.
Any advice?
The single best thing a consultancy can do to decrease tax burden is keep really good books on expenses. Don't drop $14k worth of CC receipts on the floor prior to entry; that costs you $5k+.
Also as a software engineer you get far, far, far more economic advantage from working on your business than from tax optimization. Get people to do that for you; spend as little time and brain sweat on it as possible.
I use bench.co for bookkeeping. Best money I every spent.
Talk to your accountant about retirement funding options; they're the modestly-more-brainsweat required option for decreasing present-year tax burden.
I just had my first 5-figure month. Early on, I'd set up a separate bank account its own card attached.
I've been using Freshbooks, so far. I'll check out bench.co
What matters more are things like cash flow, liquidity, and diversity of customers. Most of what a small consultancy needs to know about taxes is to pay them on time and to separate business expenses from personal with separate accounts.
My last piece of advice is to not spend money on the business. A new $2000 computer isn't necessary to get the work done. Use what's already available and gets the job done.
Good luck.
Meals furnished on an employer's premises for their own convenience are not considered income to the people receiving them. Why? Tax code says so. The business can typically deduct whatever it costs to provide them, either materials and chef salaries (etc etc) or whatever they pay to the meal provider. Why? Tax code says so.
Why the disparity in treatment? "Overwhelming potential for abuse" covers most of it.
Fun fact: in Japan, while it is theoretically not allowed by the tax law, actual practice among many small businessmen (encouraged on not just a wink-and-a-nod level by the National Tax Agency) is that all or almost all personal food expenditures are business expenses. It's widely considered "one of the perks" you get for paying e.g. self-employment taxes. (In the vanishingly rare event that the NTA audits a small businessmen the discussion goes like "Why did the business pay for this meal?" "To soothe my body from the rigors of work and maintain productivity." "Approved.")