by Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
Clearly, I’m no accountant or tax lawyer. In fact, I encourage anyone with a large-ish writing business to use a CPA, as I do. I had one terrifying moment in 2013 where I realized that my tax return was a disaster. Fortunately, I found a well-recommended CPA to help me out before the tax deadline.
My accountant had me do two things right away: start pre-paying the state and federal estimated taxes, and set up a separate bank account for my book earnings and book-related expenses.
In 2013 I was still trying to wrap my head around the fact that this was so much of a business. I’d always tried to treat my writing as a business, but on the dollars and cents side I sometimes failed to handle it that way. Now writing income is direct-deposited into my account and whenever I need to buy printer ink (or a laptop), I make sure I take the money out of that writing account.
I’ve also gotten good about keeping track of possible write-offs. Here are the types of expenses that I track and give to my CPA:Continue reading
