Taxes!

[renau1g]

Yes, buyer beware. I'm not a CPA (yet) and I'm not going to say everything I post is 100% accurate. But with luck I can point someone in the right direction and help them learn something as well as learn something myself.

Good luck with the CPA Crothian, from a fellow tax professional north of the border (and therefore wholly unqualified to answer any question relating to IRS matters). I am a corporate tax focused practitioner also, so my knowledge of personal taxes is limited. You lucky folks with your mortgage interest deductions...

Someone asked what tax people do during the year? Well, for me we're pretty busy with differing corporate year ends (some choose December, some choose July, and all are due 6 months after year end). The personal folks are pretty much feast or famine, but there's still a bunch of stuff between the core "tax season", including professional incorporation work (helping doctors, lawyers, etc.), dealing with CRA/IRS audits of people's taxes (it's amazing how many people decide to do things themselves and decide that they'll make giant deductions without back-up), etc.

Anyway, have fun Crothian

 

[TanisFrey]

This is the first year that I will consult with a tax professional. I am doing this to ask about the IRA to ROTH IRA conversion I just did. I tried to get it done before the 1st of the year but it occurred after. I know that there are ways of pulling and pushing income into a different tax year than the current one (at least in the US) but, I need to ask what the limits are and how it works. So, I will talk to a local tax expert.

 

[Umbran]

For years, I did my own taxes. When I married, I still did our taxes.

Then, my wife became self-employed, and we decided to have a professional do them to reduce our risks. I expect I could manage them myself, as the things she's deducting for business are well documented and clearly relevant to her work, but the cost to have a pro do them is worth the decreased worry.

Or, it was until last year - MA had some special circumstances (federal disaster area level flooding) in the spring that caused no end of havoc in the tax-preparation process. Our accountant is a fine fellow, but he was *bad* at communicating to us what was up, and why he was delayed in prepping our documents, and why this wasn't going to be an issue.

So, we are looking for another professional this year.

 

[Thunderfoot]

Yes, buyer beware. I'm not a CPA (yet) and I'm not going to say everything I post is 100% accurate. But with luck I can point someone in the right direction and help them learn something as well as learn something myself.

In home offices are tricky. There are certain items on a tax return that make an IRS audit a higher probability of happening and from what I'm told they are one of those. When I was taught about them I was informed to highly encourage clients that have them to keep very good records of them and to make sure they are 100% office and never used for anything else.

Great advice about the records - as a musician, you keep a yearly log that basically included everything but your daily bathroom schedule. :/
Any purchases you make might be business related, so keep the receipts and file them accordingly. Jobs performed, miles traveled to and from gigs, gas, vehicle maintenance, etc can all be deducted, IF you have proper records to verify. Otherwise, get ready for the audit and the penalties you'll face. I imagine that if a home-business owner took a cue from pro-musicians, they wouldn't be nearly as scared come tax time. I mean how many of you have ever had to file taxes in almost all 50 states in addition to your Fed taxes? It sucks... bad.

 

[Crothian]

One side effect of this job is really seeing how bad the economy has hit some people. It's only a small snap shot from the customers I've had but it is not a pretty picture.

 

[Thunderfoot]

You can say that again, there is a reason I moved back to the Midwest, not for job opportunities, but because the cost of living is lower and being poor is a whole lot easier to live through.