No matter how young or new your small business is, it's important to understand and follow the rules of separation of business and personal expenses. Why? How can failure to separate hurt you and your enterprise? And where can you get help improving in this area? Here's what every entrepreneur and business owner needs to know to avoid problems. Why Separate Business and Personal? Small business owners routinely find their personal and business life overlapping.

Between the Great Recession in 2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic in the past couple of years, taxpayers have really been put through the financial wringer. And that financial pain has spread to the IRS as people find they are unable to pay the taxes they owe. Maybe they miscalculated what they owed, or maybe they had a real drop in income that made them choose between food and estimated taxes. Whatever the cause, now they owe money to the IRS.