'Tis the season...
Feb. 16th, 2015 11:08 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrI started my taxes this morning.
Oh, don't look at me that way.
I know, this is horribly, terribly early. But Saturday Market starts the beginning of April, Ceramic Showcase follows hard after in May. Looking at my production schedule, this is the last free time I'll have before April 15. And filing for an extension is no help; I still need to know how much we owe to pay with the form.
Besides, starting now gives me loads of time to procrastinate.
I've always done my own taxes, originally on paper, now with the computer. I've kept a ledger ever since I started Off Center Ceramics, once a green multi-column book, now an Excel file. I'm obsessive about recording income and expenses as they happen, so I have a minimum of digging for receipts when tax time comes around. (Except for one exception I'll get to in a minute) A number of years ago, I went from a simple two-column ledger (income and expenses) to an elaborate monster that separates out regular income from 1099 income, Cost of Goods Sold from other supplies, and has columns for pretty much every applicable expense category on a standard Schedule C, eighteen in all not counting date and description. When I went over to Excel, I added a macro that totals the columns at the bottom of each month, and at the end of the year I copy all the monthly totals onto a summary page that adds up the entire year.
I love tax software: it understands stuff I'm vague on, like how depreciation works. I follow the prompts, transfer numbers from the gallery 1099s and my ledger summary.
And then, just when I'm feeling smug and prepared, I realize I have to dig out all the utility bills, tax receipts, insurance and self-storage and everything that goes into the home office expenses schedule. It happens to me every year; fortunately, Denise saves all that stuff in the file cabinet. But I'm thinking for next year I might start a separate Excel ledger and track that stuff as we pay it. Yeah, that's the ticket...
Oh, don't look at me that way.
I know, this is horribly, terribly early. But Saturday Market starts the beginning of April, Ceramic Showcase follows hard after in May. Looking at my production schedule, this is the last free time I'll have before April 15. And filing for an extension is no help; I still need to know how much we owe to pay with the form.
Besides, starting now gives me loads of time to procrastinate.
I've always done my own taxes, originally on paper, now with the computer. I've kept a ledger ever since I started Off Center Ceramics, once a green multi-column book, now an Excel file. I'm obsessive about recording income and expenses as they happen, so I have a minimum of digging for receipts when tax time comes around. (Except for one exception I'll get to in a minute) A number of years ago, I went from a simple two-column ledger (income and expenses) to an elaborate monster that separates out regular income from 1099 income, Cost of Goods Sold from other supplies, and has columns for pretty much every applicable expense category on a standard Schedule C, eighteen in all not counting date and description. When I went over to Excel, I added a macro that totals the columns at the bottom of each month, and at the end of the year I copy all the monthly totals onto a summary page that adds up the entire year.
I love tax software: it understands stuff I'm vague on, like how depreciation works. I follow the prompts, transfer numbers from the gallery 1099s and my ledger summary.
And then, just when I'm feeling smug and prepared, I realize I have to dig out all the utility bills, tax receipts, insurance and self-storage and everything that goes into the home office expenses schedule. It happens to me every year; fortunately, Denise saves all that stuff in the file cabinet. But I'm thinking for next year I might start a separate Excel ledger and track that stuff as we pay it. Yeah, that's the ticket...
Excel Geek
Date: 2015-02-16 08:34 pm (UTC)Re: Excel Geek
Date: 2015-02-16 10:10 pm (UTC)Hmm, should flag this "favorite tools"...