THE SUNLIGHT TAX BLOG:
Tax and Money Education for Creative People, Freelancers and Solopreneurs
What are your money concerns? Suggest a blog topic for Hannah here.
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interviews
- Oct 25, 2022 Vision: Running for Office
- Sep 27, 2022 Paddy Johnson: Real Talk on How to Succeed in the Arts
- May 24, 2021 Nicole Espaillat: A money story of debt, yoga, and buying a house.
- Apr 26, 2021 Why the PPP Loan is Good for Artists
- Apr 6, 2021 Money Management for Creative Professionals
- Mar 31, 2021 Startist Interview: Profit Motive, Marketing, and Tax Tips for Artists
- Mar 19, 2021 ArtWitch Podcast: Permission to Thrive + Money Mindsets
- Mar 2, 2021 Artist/Mother Podcast with Hannah Cole of Sunlight Tax
- Feb 25, 2021 How Can Freelancers Benefit from New Tax Laws?
- Feb 1, 2021 Radio Interview with Hannah
- Sep 30, 2019 The Insidious Role of Gender Bias in How Artists Grapple with Personal Finances
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personal finance
- Feb 17, 2023 These Are The Money Moves You Should Make Right Now, According to Finance Pros
- Sep 9, 2022 What I've Learned from Doing Artists' Taxes
- Aug 9, 2022 Summer Camp and the Child Tax Credit
- Apr 26, 2021 Why the PPP Loan is Good for Artists
- Mar 19, 2021 ArtWitch Podcast: Permission to Thrive + Money Mindsets
- Mar 2, 2021 Artist/Mother Podcast with Hannah Cole of Sunlight Tax
- Sep 30, 2019 The Insidious Role of Gender Bias in How Artists Grapple with Personal Finances
- Mar 11, 2018 Money and Happiness: Artists' Superpower
- Feb 22, 2018 What's the Deal with Receipts?
- Jun 16, 2017 Business and Personal Accounts: Keep ’em Separated
- Jun 2, 2017 The Personal Finance Attitude Adjustment
- May 19, 2017 A Personal Finance Cheat Sheet for the Overwhelmed
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podcast
- May 14, 2024 How to Deduct Business Meals When You're Self-Employed
- May 7, 2024 How to Deduct Business Travel
- Apr 30, 2024 Startup Expenses: A Perk for Your New Business
- Apr 23, 2024 Business vs. Hobby & the IRS 9 Point Test for Profit Motive
- Apr 16, 2024 New Rules for LLCs: Update
- Apr 9, 2024 Why It Matters Who You Listen To
- Apr 2, 2024 4 Cases Where Done Beats Perfect
- Mar 26, 2024 How Taxes Can Unlock Your Financial Health
- Mar 19, 2024 Thoughts I've Had About Money
- Mar 12, 2024 1099 vs W2 Income and Why it Matters
- Mar 5, 2024 Insider Deduction Tips
- Feb 27, 2024 How to Deduct Fees, Bandmate Payouts and Gallery Commissions
- Feb 20, 2024 Tips to Make Your Taxes Better Right Now
- Feb 13, 2024 Can a Massage Therapist Deduct Massages? Education Expenses Explained
- Feb 6, 2024 Discomfort Means You're Growing: Estimates and Investments
- Jan 30, 2024 1099s Deep Dive: Listener Questions
- Jan 23, 2024 What Are Receipts Actually For?
- Jan 16, 2024 Issuing 1099s
- Jan 9, 2024 Respect Your Work, Then Get Organized
- Jan 2, 2024 The De-Stress Your Taxes Checklist
- Dec 26, 2023 Tax Credits and Law Changes Not to Miss
- Dec 19, 2023 Lower Your Taxes at Year-End, Prevent a Cash Crunch
- Dec 12, 2023 New Rules for LLCs: How The Corporate Transparency Act Affects You
- Dec 5, 2023 Understand Your Tax Rate
- Nov 28, 2023 FU Money for the People
- Nov 21, 2023 Donating Your Work isn't a Charitable Deduction
- Nov 14, 2023 Set Up Your Calendar for Tax Success
- Nov 7, 2023 Your Personal Finance Attitude Adjustment
- Oct 31, 2023 Money Cheat Sheet for the Overwhelmed
- Oct 24, 2023 The Right Step at the Right Time
- Oct 17, 2023 Your Business Already Started
- Oct 10, 2023 How to Reduce Tax Overwhelm
- Oct 3, 2023 How I Got Here: Interview with Kelly Bennett, Brand Strategist
- Sep 26, 2023 Farnoosh Torabi: When Financial Fear is Good
- Sep 19, 2023 My top 4 ROIs (Returns on Investment)
- Sep 12, 2023 Mistakes People Make When Working with an Accountant
- Sep 7, 2023 Your Complete Guide to the New Student Loan Forgiveness
- Sep 5, 2023 3 Secrets to Extra Money in Your Tax Deductions
- Aug 29, 2023 LLCs & Why You Need to Separate Your Accounts
- Aug 22, 2023 The Child Care Tax Credit
- Aug 15, 2023 Taxes Should Be Part of Civic Education: A Story of Hope
- Aug 8, 2023 10 Minute Tax Fix: Do a Paycheck Checkup
- Aug 1, 2023 Oops! How to Fix a Tax Mistake
- Jul 25, 2023 What is a Schedule? Capital Gains, Self-Employment Tax and Itemized Deductions
- Jul 18, 2023 What I do With My Money
- Jul 11, 2023 How to Have it All
- Jul 4, 2023 Why I'm Patriotic (Proof of Real Progress)
- Jun 27, 2023 The One Thing You Must Do in Your Business
- Jun 20, 2023 Medical Expense Deductions: When it's Worth Tracking & How
- Jun 13, 2023 The Business Advantages of Creatives
- Jun 6, 2023 BTS: How I Structure My Day for Better Focus
- May 30, 2023 BTS: Creative Career Advice from Architect John Cole (aka My Dad)
- May 23, 2023 BTS: Tips for Your First Hire
- May 16, 2023 S Corp Mistakes That will Cost You Thousands
- May 9, 2023 Tips to Ensure You Pay Yourself
- May 2, 2023 Re-framing Finances for Creatives
- Apr 25, 2023 What Counts As Taxable Income?
- Apr 18, 2023 3 Tips for Easier Taxes
- Apr 11, 2023 Is it Ok to Get a Tax Extension?
- Apr 4, 2023 Aggressive Means "High Growth"
- Mar 28, 2023 How to Stash More FU Money: The SECURE 2.0 Act Expands Your Retirement-Funding Options
- Mar 21, 2023 The Mental Load of Financial Fear
- Mar 14, 2023 Do I Need an LLC?
- Mar 7, 2023 The Home Office Deduction
- Feb 28, 2023 How to Fund Your IRA: Pay Yourself First
- Feb 21, 2023 When Do You Actually Need an Accountant?
- Feb 14, 2023 Estimated Quarterly Taxes: How To Calculate Your Payments
- Feb 7, 2023 Estimated Quarterly Taxes: Breaking It Down
- Jan 31, 2023 1099s: Your Top Questions
- Jan 24, 2023 Tips to Set Up for Easy Taxes
- Jan 19, 2023 How to Issue 1099s
- Jan 17, 2023 10 Reasons Self-Employed People Get Stuck with Money, and How to Fix It
- Jan 10, 2023 What Small Business Bookkeeping is Actually For
- Jan 3, 2023 Taxes, Democracy, and the Largest Climate Bill in US History
- Dec 27, 2022 Taylor Smalls: Taking the Leap from Architecture to Full Time Art
- Dec 20, 2022 Phrases to use for Boundaries & Pricing with your Clients
- Dec 13, 2022 Tax and Year-End Planning
- Dec 6, 2022 Pricing and Business Lessons
- Nov 29, 2022 Imagine (Sneha Shrestha): Street Art, Authenticity, and Connecting Savings to Creative Freedom
- Nov 22, 2022 Gretchen Carder: Prestige is Not Payment: Textiles, Covid Pivots + Bookkeeping as Self-Care
- Nov 15, 2022 What it Costs You to Wait: Money School
- Nov 15, 2022 Don't Hustle, Don't compromise, Just Maximize: Money School Bonus Series
- Nov 10, 2022 Why Business Deductions Save More Than You Think: Self-Employment Tax: Money School
- Nov 8, 2022 Receipts & Bookkeeping Demystified: Money School bonus series
- Nov 3, 2022 Here's How to Cancel Your Student Debt: Money School Bonus episode
- Nov 1, 2022 What Accountants Get Wrong About Creative People: Money School
- Oct 25, 2022 Vision: Running for Office
- Oct 18, 2022 Itemized vs. Business Deductions: Ending the Confusion
- Oct 11, 2022 Perfectionism will Kill You
- Oct 4, 2022 Roth vs Traditional IRA: Does it Even Matter?
- Oct 4, 2022 What's Going on in the Economy Right Now?
- Sep 27, 2022 Paddy Johnson: Real Talk on How to Succeed in the Arts
- Sep 20, 2022 Proof You're Doing Fine: Break Even Point
- Sep 13, 2022 Mileage: The Best Tax Deduction You're Missing
- Sep 9, 2022 Erika Hess: Podcasting, Art, Motherhood and Widening the Circle
- Sep 9, 2022 Money is Gas in the Car
- Sep 9, 2022 What I've Learned from Doing Artists' Taxes
- Sep 1, 2022 Introducing the Sunlight Podcast
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retirement savings
- Sep 9, 2022 What I've Learned from Doing Artists' Taxes
- Jul 25, 2022 The Second Best Time is Now
- Mar 11, 2018 Money and Happiness: Artists' Superpower
- May 19, 2017 A Personal Finance Cheat Sheet for the Overwhelmed
- Mar 14, 2017 The SEP IRA: A Lovesong
- sales tax
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self-employment tax
- Feb 17, 2023 These Are The Money Moves You Should Make Right Now, According to Finance Pros
- Sep 9, 2022 What I've Learned from Doing Artists' Taxes
- Apr 6, 2021 Money Management for Creative Professionals
- Mar 31, 2021 Startist Interview: Profit Motive, Marketing, and Tax Tips for Artists
- Mar 2, 2021 Artist/Mother Podcast with Hannah Cole of Sunlight Tax
- Feb 25, 2021 How Can Freelancers Benefit from New Tax Laws?
- Dec 27, 2018 Translating the New Tax Bill for Small Businesses
- Oct 24, 2018 No, You Really Can't Get a Deduction for that Artwork You Donated to Charity
- Feb 22, 2018 What's the Deal with Receipts?
- Apr 18, 2017 Set up For Your Best Year Ever: A Tax Day How-To
- Mar 23, 2017 Some Real Numbers for Artists on the ACA Repeal
- Mar 14, 2017 The SEP IRA: A Lovesong
- Aug 4, 2016 Estimated Quarterly Taxes for the New Freelancer
- May 7, 2016 Self-Employment Tax for the New Freelancer
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tax credits
- Aug 9, 2022 Summer Camp and the Child Tax Credit
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tax policy
- Oct 25, 2022 Vision: Running for Office
- Sep 20, 2022 Proof You're Doing Fine: Break Even Point
- Apr 6, 2021 Money Management for Creative Professionals
- Mar 25, 2021 What’s in the $1.9 Trillion stimulus plan?
- Mar 19, 2021 ArtWitch Podcast: Permission to Thrive + Money Mindsets
- Mar 17, 2021 Unemployment Tax Savings from the 2021 Stimulus Bill
- Feb 23, 2021 What Do Arts Organizations Need to Know About the Federal Shuttered Venue Operators Grant?
- Jul 15, 2020 How Banks Artwash the Funds that Enable Police Brutality
- Mar 13, 2020 Some of the Art World’s Largest Donors Have Paid Millions to Squelch a Wealth Tax
- Mar 27, 2019 Tax Policy Should be Part of Our Basic Civic Education
- Dec 27, 2018 Translating the New Tax Bill for Small Businesses
- Sep 24, 2018 How the New Tax Cuts and Jobs Act Impacts the Art World
- Feb 22, 2018 What's the Deal with Receipts?
- Jan 30, 2018 How The New Tax Bill Affects Freelancers
- May 2, 2017 The Estate Tax: An Economic Justice No-Brainer
- Apr 4, 2017 Charitable Deductions for You, Me and Warren Buffet
- Mar 23, 2017 Some Real Numbers for Artists on the ACA Repeal
- Nov 15, 2016 How Donald Trump's Tax Plan Will Affect Arts Workers: There's Bad Stuff Coming
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tax savings
- Aug 9, 2022 Summer Camp and the Child Tax Credit
- Mar 31, 2021 Startist Interview: Profit Motive, Marketing, and Tax Tips for Artists
- Mar 25, 2021 What’s in the $1.9 Trillion stimulus plan?
- Mar 17, 2021 Unemployment Tax Savings from the 2021 Stimulus Bill
- Feb 25, 2021 How Can Freelancers Benefit from New Tax Laws?
- Feb 23, 2021 What Do Arts Organizations Need to Know About the Federal Shuttered Venue Operators Grant?
- Dec 27, 2018 Translating the New Tax Bill for Small Businesses
- Apr 18, 2017 Set up For Your Best Year Ever: A Tax Day How-To
- Mar 14, 2017 The SEP IRA: A Lovesong
- Feb 6, 2017 Rent Too Damn High? Deduct Your Home Studio.
- Nov 1, 2016 Tax Shelters for the Working Artist
These Are The Money Moves You Should Make Right Now, According to Finance Pros
2023 resolution: Get your finances right.
On the heels of the Great Resignation and the ongoing cost of living crisis, the current financial climate feels like a minefield. Predictions of slow economic growth in the U.S. and a looming global recession might, understandably, make you cautious to make big moves to fund your retirement, invest in the market, or even buy your forever home.
Because personal finance is never one-size-fits-all, we spoke to six experts to ask their must-do advice to start 2023 off with solid financial footing. Their perspectives range across savings, investing, retirement, and even tax planning, but each provides insight into the ways that keeping it simple in the short term can have long-term benefits.
2023 resolution: Get your finances right.
By Nafeesah Allen, Ph.D. | Updated on February 13, 2023
On the heels of the Great Resignation and the ongoing cost of living crisis, the current financial climate feels like a minefield. Predictions of slow economic growth in the U.S. and a looming global recession might, understandably, make you cautious to make big moves to fund your retirement, invest in the market, or even buy your forever home.
Because personal finance is never one-size-fits-all, we spoke to six experts to ask their must-do advice to start 2023 off with solid financial footing. Their perspectives range across savings, investing, retirement, and even tax planning, but each provides insight into the ways that keeping it simple in the short term can have long-term benefits.
Don’t wait until April 18 to start prepping your taxes.
“Mark April 18 on your calendar, because three different chunks of money all come due on the same day,” says Hannah Cole, a tax expert and agent at Sunlight Tax. “A little advanced warning helps you budget for it so that you don't end up messing up your personal finances.”
The first two months of the year are a good time to start reviewing your tax responsibilities and setting aside funds to make good on them by the April 18 due date. On that date, you’re on the hook to pay taxes on income earned for the prior calendar year, first quarter estimates for the current year (for self-employed people), and contributions to your individual retirement account. It's important to note that even if you get an extension to file your taxes, that only means you get extra time for your paperwork, Cole explains, but your bill is still due on April 18.
“Whether or not you actually owe quarterly taxes might depend on how much of your income is from your self-employment," Cole says. "So, if you're in the world of side hustlers, where you have a day job and most of your income is on a W2 as an employee, then you might not need to pay quarterly taxes.” However, April 18 should still be an important date to you, because it's the deadline to put money into your retirement account and reap associated tax advantages from a 401(k), IRA, or Roth IRA.
RELATED: How to Save for Retirement—No Matter Your Current Finances
Cole says she's seen plenty of people run into issues because they weren't aware, or didn't plan for, all of these deadlines converging on the same date. "They'll end up with good intentions to fully fund their retirement," she says, "But then they see that tax bill from the IRS and then they're like, ‘Oh, shoot the quarterly payment. I forgot about that too,’ which is additional.” Before you know it, your cash is gone.
So, start the planning process early (read: right now) and save up for the inevitable. April 18 isn’t the start of tax season—it should be close to the end.
RELATED: How Do My Investments Impact the Way I File My Taxes? Find Out on the Money Confidential Podcast
This article first appeared on Real Simple on February 13, 2023
What I've Learned from Doing Artists' Taxes
LISTEN & SUBSCRIBE HERE
What I've Learned from Doing Artists' Taxes
Money Management for Creative Professionals
Nerissa Street of Ten Thousand Women Ten Thousand Stages Podcast interviews art-centric tax expert Hannah Cole about her influences as an artist and as a tax expert for creative freelancers. This interview is available as both a podcast and a video, so you can choose the medium that you prefer.
Nerissa Street of Ten Thousand Women Ten Thousand Stages Podcast interviews art-centric tax expert Hannah Cole about her influences as an artist and as a tax expert for creative freelancers. This interview is available as both a podcast and a video, so you can choose the medium that you prefer.
What do creative people need to know about the differences in tax laws between gig workers and employees? How much should you be saving in self-employment tax? How has the landscape changed in the current economy?
Hannah had two messages growing up: "Do what makes you happy!" and "Art won't make any money." How did that and her other experiences as an artist help her translate design needs into practical commercial benefit? They also talk about the stimulus bills and payments, deductions, and what you can look forward to in July if you have children.
Who benefits from the latest tax legislation? What has changed with business meal deductions this year?
You can either listen to the hour-long podcast here, or view it below via YouTube:
Startist Interview: Profit Motive, Marketing, and Tax Tips for Artists
Hannah talks with Laura Griffin and Nikki May of Startist Society about her roots as an artist and about establishing a profit motive for your art business. She chats about empowerment for artists and how she got started in accounting after some bad experiences she had as an artist.
What should you use to track expenses? How and what expenses are deductible? Can donated artwork be deducted? Do I need to collect sales tax?
Is your art a business or a hobby?
Hannah talks with Laura Griffin and Nikki May of Startist Society about her roots as an artist and about establishing a profit motive for your art business. She chats about empowerment for artists and how she got started in accounting after some bad experiences she had as an artist.
What should you use to track expenses? How and what expenses are deductible? Can donated artwork be deducted? Do I need to collect sales tax? Find out the answers in this podcast interview relevant to creative freelancers in the US.
Hannah discusses what things in nature and the outside world inspire her as an artist and how to slow down to look at things that most people don’t notice. How does she choose what she paints in her art practice?
They talk about using your left brain vs. right brain and balancing art and your business practice. Hannah goes into depth about how to show the IRS that your art is a business and not a hobby. They discuss how to show a profit motive through your activities and record-keeping—even if your business is not yet generating a profit.
Hannah gives specific information about tracking business expenses and receipts with examples that pertain to creative people. She also discusses how LLCs are legal and not a tax entities. They explore how to prevent tax audits and common deductible expenses, including details about mileage, business meals, donations, etc.
Money Bootcamp is an annual membership for creators to get you set up right and tracking all the right things without wasting your time. You'll have more time for creative pursuits when you stop worrying about your finances and money.
Artist/Mother Podcast with Hannah Cole of Sunlight Tax
Hannah talks with Kaylan about when she started out as an artist, her life as an artist, and how her career progressed to a tax expert specializing in helping artists and other creative freelancers. She talks about her career in accounting and what experiences led to her decision to start her own company.
Other topics covered in this hour-long podcast are the factors involved in choosing a type of business and how getting your finances organized gives you more room for creative work.
Interview with Kaylan Buteyn about Hannah’s art journey and financial tips for creative people
Hannah talks with Kaylan about when she started out as an artist, her life as an artist, and how her career progressed to a tax expert specializing in helping artists and other creative freelancers. She talks about her career in accounting and what experiences led to her decision to start her own company.
Other topics covered in this hour-long podcast are the factors involved in choosing a type of business and how getting your finances organized gives you more room for creative work.
Understanding where your money is going and getting your finances organized give you more head space, more time to spend on other things, a clearer vision for your practice. They discuss how women are taught differently about money than men and money shame and breaking down stereotypes. Hannah shares some empowering advice for anyone feeling down. Her mission is to help artists feel more organized and in control of their own money.
Hannah also covers the basics in bookkeeping and profitability to get your business moving forward and how to get into the habit of tracking your finances.
Hannah will be available via zoom on the Artist/Mother network for a live Q&A to answer any lingering questions you have on March 16th, 3:00pm ET.
Click here to listen to the podcast.
The Artist/Mother podcast is created and hosted by Kaylan Buteyn. You can see more of Kaylan’s work on her website or connect with her on Instagram @kaylanbuteyn
How Can Freelancers Benefit from New Tax Laws?
Hannah Cole had an interview with Matt Peiken of Blue Ridge Public Radio in North Carolina last week. She discussed the new tax laws and some of the areas where artists and other freelancers can benefit from them, like sick and family leave credits.
Hannah’s short interview on BPR Radio
Hannah Cole had an interview with Matt Peiken of Blue Ridge Public Radio in North Carolina last week. She discussed the new tax laws and some of the areas where artists and other freelancers can benefit from them, like sick and family leave credits.
Although she talked to Matt for about an hour, the broadcast only contained a short clip. You can listen to Hannah and read about the tax law changes in her discussion with Matt in the article on the BPR website.
If you missed the live Shuttered Venue Operators Grants webinar mentioned in the article, click here to sign up to get the replay video.
Translating the New Tax Bill for Small Businesses
“Am I going to benefit from the new business deduction?”
“Do I need to incorporate to take advantage of it?”
These are questions I’m hearing a lot since the passage of the massive new tax bill. Much of the worry centers around some misconceptions. So, I’d like to outline what’s in the new provision, who it affects, and why you likely don’t need to change a thing to benefit.
The most important outcome of the new tax law (officially the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, or TCJA) was to give a large, permanent tax cut to corporations. The corporate tax rate went from 35% to 21%. Those numbers are a little deceptive, because most US corporations don’t pay nearly that rate once you factor in tax credits and loopholes. A 2016 U.S. Government Accountability Office study found that between 67% and 72% of all active US Corporations between 2006 and 2012 had no tax liability after credits. In fact, the effective corporate tax rate (a much more meaningful number) is closer to 15%. But despite the fact that most corporations don’t pay anything close to the corporate tax rate, the point of the TCJA was largely to cut that rate.
But most businesses in the US are small businesses, not large corporations. In fact, 30.2 million businesses (or 99.9% of US businesses) are small businesses, according to a government-sponsored 2018 US Small Business Administration report. About half the private workforce in the US is employed by small businesses, and more than a quarter of the small businesses are minority-owned. However, the big corporate tax cut rate did not help these businesses at all. So rightfully, Congress introduced a provision into the TCJA to create a little more parity, called the deduction for Qualified Business Income (QBI) (also known as Section 199A). This provision, unlike the corporate tax cuts, is strictly for businesses known as “pass-through entities.” (More on that in a moment.)
But first, here’s what it does: …read more…
No, You Really Can't Get a Deduction for that Artwork You Donated to Charity
Some arts organizations misleadingly suggests that artists can get tax deductions for works they donate to charity. Here’s why that’s unfortunately not the case.
Last month, I wrote about how the tax law passed in 2017 — officially the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) — will soon bring big changes to charitable giving.
Based on reader feedback, I now want to address a longstanding practice regarding charitable giving in the art world that needs to end. …read more…
What's the Deal with Receipts?
Here’s the confusion: You keep hearing that the IRS requires you to keep receipts and documentation for all of your business expenses. So why is your accountant annoyed when you try to hand her your receipts?
Here’s the story. Yes, you are required to keep receipts and documentation to prove each and every one of the business expenses that you deduct. That is the law. And here is the actual gospel, from the IRS itself. And here is a comprehensive list of what New York considers to be legal proof of your expenses. In case it’s not clear - and I get enough questions from people to know that it isn’t - the reason that you need this documentation, besides being a good practice for your actual business anyway, is that should the IRS or your state decide to examine your tax return, this is the proof of expenses they will require you to show them in order for them to allow you to keep those deductions. If you can’t, then you have just lost your audit, you may have a bad experience, and you will owe them money. You need to save these receipts and documentation for 7 years.
So why is your accountant irritable when you hand over receipts? That is another story. Tax season is super stressful. Most people, despite their intentions, don’t get their tax documents organized until a few weeks before the tax deadline, so your tax accountant has a drinking-out-of-a-firehose situation from about March 1-April 15. A lot of inexperienced taxpayers with freelance income don’t realize that they have a fairly big job to do before they can get their taxes done - that is, they need to do their bookkeeping. They need to tally up their receipts and income, and put it into some basic expense categories. Here’s a beautiful chart to help you with that. If that’s intimidating to you, hiring a bookkeeper is a great idea. Your bookkeeper can help you put things in the right categories, teach you how to maintain your own books, answer your questions and set you up with a system that works well for you. A good bookkeeper is worth the money.
So keeping your books is a requirement if you run a business. And if you’re a freelancer of any kind, though you might not have realized it, you are running a business. My course The Ultimate Honest Guide to Understanding Artists’ Taxes is a great primer on the need for good books and records and gives great insight into what happens in an artist/creative worker audit. It’s one hour, and very worth it.
So showing your accountant your receipts says that you haven’t done your bookkeeping, that you probably don’t realize that you have a sizeable job ahead of you, and that you probably need some coaching about the basic tax rules.
This is totally understandable. You’re just a bespoke latex dog-costume designer, not an accountant! This might even be your first year freelancing. But your accountant is facing an immovable deadline with an obscene flood of work. So if she’s not keeping up with her loving-kindness meditation, she might get grumpy with you. As a person who was new at my arts practice once, and as a tax accountant, I’m advocating for understanding in both directions here.
So with that, here are some basic guidelines for you:
Bookkeeping. If you have a system that isn’t working, pay a bookkeeper to look it over for you, or take a bookkeeping course yourself. Good bookkeeping is a question of habit. So schedule a regular time to do it.
Saving receipts. The law says that if you can’t produce the receipt to prove it, it never happened, and you can’t deduct the expense. Your bank and credit card statements aren’t enough. For meals and entertainment, the documentation requirement is even stricter: the receipt must be accompanied by the name of the business contact you are meeting with, plus the reason for the meeting. A receipt alone will not suffice. Personally, if I don’t grab a pen and jot these things down at the moment I am handed the receipt, I will never do it. So that has become my personal habit – I write directly on my receipts, and the save them in a file folder.
Some people are handy enough with their phones that they snap a picture of every receipt (many accounting softwares integrate a receipt-saving feature like this, and there are stand alone apps dedicated to it). I am not fast enough with my phone for this to work for me, but if you are, it is a great method for keeping your receipts.
Keeping a calendar. In the days of Google calendar, you probably have one that is pretty good already. But you might not realize that this can be an important document to show your business activity in the event of an audit. Your calendar can be used to show the amount of overall time you spend on your arts practice — and that means everything from making the actual work to networking, marketing, and bookkeeping. Your calendar can also show who you met with and for what purpose. This may corroborate other parts of your documentation, from travel expenses (your calendar shows the meetings you had set up in your travel location), to your meals expenses (meeting the strict substantiation requirement of who you met with and for what purpose).
Maintaining important correspondence that shows your effort to grow your career. You may still snail-mail out old-school introduction packets to museums (and be sure to save those receipts if you do!), but you almost certainly reach out to art world people over email. In the days of searchable email, this is a lifesaver. If you use an email folder system, consider saving this correspondence into one place (ie. “gallery + museum correspondence 2018”), so that in the event of an audit, you can produce this important evidence of your businesslike intentions quickly and without having to rely on your memory.
Maintaining your arts inventory. In Susan Crile’s drawn-out audit, her professional inventory system weighed heavily in her favor to prove that she was a professional artist and not a hobbyist. How do you track your art inventory? Having an up-to-date document that shows what you’ve produced and where everything is is an important tool in your arsenal.
Tracking mileage. I went over the details of mileage tracking in my Miami travel expense post. But here’s a tip: go out and record your car’s odometer reading right now. And while you’re at it, set an alarm on your calendar to do this the first day of every year. Because tracking your business mileage means not only tracking the number of business miles you drove this year, you also must record your total miles for the year. By recording your odometer on day one, you have both your ending mileage for last year, and your beginning mileage for this year. Two birds. One stone.
MileIQ is one of several mileage apps that use the location detection on your phone to automatically record your mileage. Similarly to Xero Taxtouch, you swipe left or right to categorize drives as business or personal. You can also track the things people often don’t – volunteer miles driven (deductible at 14 cents/mile, if you itemize) and medical miles driven (ditto, but 17 cents/mile, with a high threshold before it’s useful). The free version doesn’t capture everything, so it’s useful to get the full version. And it’s a deductible expense!
DISCLAIMER: True tax advice is a two-way conversation, and your accountant needs to hear your full situation to apply the rules correctly in your case. This post is meant for general information only. Please don’t act on this alone.
Here’s the confusion: You keep hearing that the IRS requires you to keep receipts and documentation for all of your business expenses. So why is your accountant annoyed when you try to hand her your receipts?
Here’s the story. Yes, you are required to keep receipts and documentation to prove each and every one of the business expenses that you deduct. That is the law. And here is the actual gospel, from the IRS itself. And here is a comprehensive list of what New York considers to be legal proof of your expenses. In case it’s not clear - and I get enough questions from people to know that it isn’t - the reason that you need this documentation, besides being a good practice for your actual business anyway, is that should the IRS or your state decide to examine your tax return, this is the proof of expenses they will require you to show them in order for them to allow you to keep those deductions. If you can’t, then you have just lost your audit, you may have a bad experience, and you will owe them money. You need to save these receipts and documentation for 7 years.
So why is your accountant irritable when you hand over receipts? That is another story. Tax season is super stressful. Most people, despite their intentions, don’t get their tax documents organized until a few weeks before the tax deadline, so your tax accountant has a drinking-out-of-a-firehose situation from about March 1-April 15. A lot of inexperienced taxpayers with freelance income don’t realize that they have a fairly big job to do before they can get their taxes done - that is, they need to do their bookkeeping. They need to tally up their receipts and income, and put it into some basic expense categories. Here’s a beautiful chart to help you with that. If that’s intimidating to you, hiring a bookkeeper is a great idea. Your bookkeeper can help you put things in the right categories, teach you how to maintain your own books, answer your questions and set you up with a system that works well for you. A good bookkeeper is worth the money.
So keeping your books is a requirement if you run a business. And if you’re a freelancer of any kind, though you might not have realized it, you are running a business. My course The Ultimate Honest Guide to Understanding Artists’ Taxes is a great primer on the need for good books and records and gives great insight into what happens in an artist/creative worker audit. It’s one hour, and very worth it.
So showing your accountant your receipts says that you haven’t done your bookkeeping, that you probably don’t realize that you have a sizeable job ahead of you, and that you probably need some coaching about the basic tax rules.
This is totally understandable. You’re just a bespoke latex dog-costume designer, not an accountant! This might even be your first year freelancing. But your accountant is facing an immovable deadline with an obscene flood of work. So if she’s not keeping up with her loving-kindness meditation, she might get grumpy with you. As a person who was new at my arts practice once, and as a tax accountant, I’m advocating for understanding in both directions here.
So with that, here are some basic guidelines for you:
Bookkeeping. If you have a system that isn’t working, pay a bookkeeper to look it over for you, or take a bookkeeping course yourself. Good bookkeeping is a question of habit. So schedule a regular time to do it.
Saving receipts. The law says that if you can’t produce the receipt to prove it, it never happened, and you can’t deduct the expense. Your bank and credit card statements aren’t enough. For meals and entertainment, the documentation requirement is even stricter: the receipt must be accompanied by the name of the business contact you are meeting with, plus the reason for the meeting. A receipt alone will not suffice. Personally, if I don’t grab a pen and jot these things down at the moment I am handed the receipt, I will never do it. So that has become my personal habit – I write directly on my receipts, and the save them in a file folder.
Some people are handy enough with their phones that they snap a picture of every receipt (many accounting softwares integrate a receipt-saving feature like this, and there are stand alone apps dedicated to it). I am not fast enough with my phone for this to work for me, but if you are, it is a great method for keeping your receipts.
Keeping a calendar. In the days of Google calendar, you probably have one that is pretty good already. But you might not realize that this can be an important document to show your business activity in the event of an audit. Your calendar can be used to show the amount of overall time you spend on your arts practice — and that means everything from making the actual work to networking, marketing, and bookkeeping. Your calendar can also show who you met with and for what purpose. This may corroborate other parts of your documentation, from travel expenses (your calendar shows the meetings you had set up in your travel location), to your meals expenses (meeting the strict substantiation requirement of who you met with and for what purpose).
Maintaining important correspondence that shows your effort to grow your career. You may still snail-mail out old-school introduction packets to museums (and be sure to save those receipts if you do!), but you almost certainly reach out to art world people over email. In the days of searchable email, this is a lifesaver. If you use an email folder system, consider saving this correspondence into one place (ie. “gallery + museum correspondence 2018”), so that in the event of an audit, you can produce this important evidence of your businesslike intentions quickly and without having to rely on your memory.
Maintaining your arts inventory. In Susan Crile’s drawn-out audit, her professional inventory system weighed heavily in her favor to prove that she was a professional artist and not a hobbyist. How do you track your art inventory? Having an up-to-date document that shows what you’ve produced and where everything is is an important tool in your arsenal.
Tracking mileage. I went over the details of mileage tracking in my Miami travel expense post. But here’s a tip: go out and record your car’s odometer reading right now. And while you’re at it, set an alarm on your calendar to do this the first day of every year. Because tracking your business mileage means not only tracking the number of business miles you drove this year, you also must record your total miles for the year. By recording your odometer on day one, you have both your ending mileage for last year, and your beginning mileage for this year. Two birds. One stone.
MileIQ is one of several mileage apps that use the location detection on your phone to automatically record your mileage. Similarly to Xero Taxtouch, you swipe left or right to categorize drives as business or personal. You can also track the things people often don’t – volunteer miles driven (deductible at 14 cents/mile, if you itemize) and medical miles driven (ditto, but 17 cents/mile, with a high threshold before it’s useful). The free version doesn’t capture everything, so it’s useful to get the full version. And it’s a deductible expense!
DISCLAIMER: True tax advice is a two-way conversation, and your accountant needs to hear your full situation to apply the rules correctly in your case. This post is meant for general information only. Please don’t act on this alone.
Bio: Hannah Cole is an artist and Enrolled Agent. She is the founder of Sunlight Tax.
Set up For Your Best Year Ever: A Tax Day How-To
Here we are at Tax Day. Your taxes are filed. (They aren’t? Here’s an IRS extension form – postmark it today. You’ll need one for your state, too.)
Last year you vowed to get your stuff in order. Then suddenly the tax deadline was upon you, and you scrambled through the process, and weren’t as careful as you intended to be. You suspected you should have been paying estimated quarterly taxes all year, but didn’t, and now your tax bill is surprisingly high.
You meant to set some money aside in a retirement account, but that shocking tax bill meant you didn’t have any cash to do it.
You suspect that there were deductions you missed.
If you’re being honest, your books were a mess (if you’re thinking “I need to keep books?” go back and read this.)
Now that the time pressure is off, let’s take a look at how you can make this year better. Plus some discounts on apps that can help you. Read more...
Some Real Numbers for Artists on the ACA Repeal
When I went back to school for accounting, I never thought I’d get an education in healthcare. But the Affordable Care Act (ACA, aka Obamacare) forced tax preparers like me into learning about our healthcare system, because most of the credits and penalties are reconciled on the tax return. As an accountant for artists, I see the direct benefits of the ACA on my clients. I am required, per the ACA, to find out if my clients were covered by health insurance all year, and if not, I calculate the penalty for each month they weren’t. I record the premiums my clients pay, which can be a big deduction for a freelance arts worker. And I see the monthly subsidies that they get, because I reconcile them on the annual tax return (the “Premium Tax Credit”). I also calculate the 3.8% Net Investment Income Tax and the additional .9% Medicare tax for my very highest-income clients – these are the additional taxes on the top income earners that effectively pay for the subsidies provided by the ACA. This amount is only calculated on the very top dollars of their income and it hits a proportionately tiny slice of my clients.
Given this background, I have some insights on what the new Republican proposal, the “American Health Care Act” (ACHA, aka Trumpcare) would do to you, me, and our federal budget. It’s not good. Read more...
The SEP IRA: A Lovesong
We freelancers pay a lot of tax. We don’t just pay an income tax rate of anywhere from 0 to 39% on our freelance income – we also pay a flat 15.3% self-employment tax, no matter what our income bracket. Without tax planning, this can be a huge bite.
As artists and cultural workers, our freelancer tax strategy is generally to reduce the amount of our taxable self-employment income as much as legally possible. Tax planning is hard, because it’s about saving small bits in many places. There are few silver bullets. But the closest thing there is to a silver bullet is tax-sheltered retirement savings. Read full article
Estimated Quarterly Taxes for the New Freelancer
In my last post, I addressed a common dilemma for the new freelancer - an unexpectedly large tax bill in April. I explained self-employment tax, and why it catches so many people off guard. In this post, I’ll explain estimated quarterly taxes, which are the solution to that huge April tax bill.
You’ve newly struck out on your own, and you had your first profitable year as a freelancer. Congratulations! But when you prepared your taxes, you were blindsided by the enormous tax bill. You got a crash course in self-employment tax, and now you’re ready to set yourself up better for next year. It’s time for estimated quarterly taxes.
ESTIMATED QUARTERLY TAXES – WHAT THEY ARE
Our tax system is called “pay as you go.” If you’re employed, your employer withholds taxes from your paycheck each pay period, so that at the end of the tax year, you should have already paid in approximately the amount of taxes that you owe. When you overpay, you get a refund, and when you underpay, you owe some more tax on top. But the idea is that you don’t pay all of your taxes for the year at one time - for almost everyone, setting aside that much money would be difficult.
When you freelance, there’s no employer to withhold tax for you, so it becomes your job. (Yes, another burden of the gig economy). Everyone knows, and that includes the IRS, that it’s much harder to pay one big bill than several small ones. So to approximate the withholding situation of an employer, the IRS requires freelancers who owe at least $1000 in tax to make estimated quarterly payments.
It may seem yucky to have to pay taxes four times a year instead of just once, but it’s a good thing. Breaking it up into quarters makes the payments much easier to handle. And you avoid an unpleasant surprise in April.
Self-Employment Tax for the New Freelancer
SELF EMPLOYMENT TAX IS TWO IDENTICAL PIECES, EACH 7.65%, TOTALING 15.3%
You’ve dreamed of quitting your job and striking out on your own. You’ve gathered some clients, or sold some artwork, and suddenly this year, you’re making some real money. But then you hit a speedbump. You file your taxes this year and discover that you owe money - a lot of money - that you didn’t expect to owe. Uh oh. This is a rude surprise that many freelancers encounter when starting out. The good news is, you’re making money. But the bad news is that anytime you make money, the government wants its share. And for a lot of freelancers, that share is a lot bigger than they realized.
Here’s why.
SELF EMPLOYMENT TAX, EXPLAINED
Our tax system is “pay as you go.” Everyone is supposed to pay taxes all year long, as they earn income. When you work as an employee, your employer takes care of the logistics for you - they withhold 7.65% from your paycheck for Social Security and Medicare (also known as FICA). In other words, you are paying the Federal government 7.65% of your paycheck towards Social Security and Medicare, but you don’t have to think about it. In addition, your employer pays, out of their own pocket, another 7.65% towards Social Security and Medicare, on your behalf. This is called “payroll tax.” If you’ve ever wondered why so many businesses try to pay people as contractors (reported on a 1099) and not as employees (reported on a W2) - this is the reason. It automatically costs them 7.65% extra to treat you as an employee. (And it is fair and contributes to a healthy society, if I may say so).