🦍 How to Avoid the 5 Most Common SMB Tax Mistakes (And Why Even Gorillas Mess These Up)

July 2025

Running a business is wild. Between payroll, clients, and trying to find time for lunch, even the smartest entrepreneurs and the sharpest accountants can trip over basic tax rules.

Here are the five classic mistakes that trip up small business owners (and yes, even a few gorillas), plus how to avoid them with a little help from Hedgi.

🍌 1. Missing Out on Deductions

The Mistake:
Forgetting to claim everything you’re legally allowed—meals, mileage, subscriptions, home office, Section 179, OBBB’s new goodies, and more.

Why It Happens:
You’re busy, receipts go missing, or you didn’t know that podcast mic actually counts.

How to Fix It:

• Review last year’s bank statements and Hedgi’s categorized ledger.

• Ask your accountant, “What’s the weirdest deduction your smartest client ever claimed?”

• Use Hedgi’s deduction finder to catch what you missed.

📦 2. Messy (or Missing) Records

The Mistake:
You’ve got receipts in your glovebox, invoices in your inbox, and no idea where last quarter’s statements went.

Why It Happens:
Bookkeeping is nobody’s favorite part of business—except maybe gorillas who like rolling in paperwork.

How to Fix It:

• Sync your accounts to Hedgi so transactions auto-import and categorize.

• Snap photos of receipts and store them digitally.

• Set aside a “bookkeeping hour” each week—or let Hedgi’s automations do it for you.

🙈 3. Mixing Business and Personal Expenses

The Mistake:
Paying for groceries with your business card, or buying supplies with your personal Venmo.

Why It Happens:
It’s quick, convenient, and “you’ll sort it out later.” (Spoiler: You won’t.)

How to Fix It:

• Get separate accounts and cards for business.

• Use Hedgi’s flagged transactions to spot and split mixed expenses fast.

• Train yourself to ask: “Would I explain this to the IRS… or my mother?”

📅 4. Forgetting Estimated Taxes

The Mistake:
Skipping quarterly estimated payments—then getting walloped with a big tax bill and penalties in April.

Why It Happens:
No payroll withholding, too much optimism, and not enough calendar reminders.

How to Fix It:

• Mark all four estimated tax deadlines in your calendar (or let Hedgi nudge you).

• Set aside a set percentage of every payment into a tax savings account.

• Use Hedgi’s reports to see your taxable income in real-time—no surprises.

📜 5. Ignoring New Tax Law Changes

The Mistake:
Still using last year’s rules when the OBBB, Section 179, or “no tax on overtime” just rewrote the playbook.

Why It Happens:
Who reads tax law for fun? (Other than the team at Hedgi.)

How to Fix It:

• Subscribe to the Hedgi blog or newsletter for fresh, plain-English updates.

• Ask your accountant what’s new before tax time, not after.

• Don’t assume your software knows it all—check for alerts in your app.

🦔 Bottom Line: Don’t Let the IRS Catch You Monkeying Around

Even the biggest, smartest business owners make these mistakes—so if a gorilla can trip up, don’t beat yourself up.

Want to avoid the top five? Try Hedgi for automated tracking, deduction-finding, and IRS-proof record keeping—so you can focus on building your business, not dodging banana peels.