Posted on September 23, 2011May 31, 2016 by Jan Roberg

Paying Someone “Under the Table”

Photo by Quazie on Flickr.com

I was talking with a small business owner the other day and she told me this story:

I have a friend who’s really hurting. She lost her job about six months ago and she just can’t make ends meet. She’s having a hard time even putting food on the table. I wanted to help her out so I had her come help me with a project at my business and I paid her under the table. The thing is, she really did a good job and I could really use some more help but I can’t afford to pay her under the table any more.

Let me make one thing perfectly clear: Never pay anybody under the table!

First, it will come back to bite you in the behind one way or another. Trust me, I do a lot of audit work. “Under the table” doesn’t help anybody. You don’t get a deduction for paying “under the table” and the person you paid can wind up getting audited and get stuck paying tax on that money anyway. It’s a lose/lose situation.

If you really want to help someone out, but you can’t officially give them a payroll job, hire them as a contractor. Do the whole thing, have them fill out a W-9 form, and explain that you’re hiring them as contract labor. Tell them they’ll have to pay taxes on the money: 13.3% for self employment tax plus any additional income tax for their tax bracket.

Hiring someone as a contractor gives you a “triple good” effect. First, by making your friend contract labor, you can write off the money you give her as a tax deductible expense. If you’re paying 40% on your self-employment income, that $100 you pay is really only costing you $60. Plus, you’re getting a benefit out of it too because you’re getting the benefit of her labor. And third, your friend has a job. It might not be a full time job, it might not pay all the bills, but it’s something to put on the resume to show that she’s working. News reports are saying that employers won’t hire someone who has been out of work for over six months. That contract labor job gives her a better chance at finding real work. Plus, it allows her to use you as a reference. (Okay, I guess that makes it four benefits, not three. That sort of makes me the accountant who can’t count. Maybe I should hire someone to help me with that.)

But what about all the reporting requirements? With contract labor, all you have to do is prepare a 1099, which is due in January. You can get the forms free from the IRS. It’s easy. You only have to submit 1099s if you pay someone over $600 so if you’re just helping someone a little, you don’t even have to worry about that. I’ll make a how-to post in late December, so you can do it yourself. (My fiendish plan to get people to come back to my blog.)

What about all the new tax incentives for hiring that the president has proposed? So what about them? Right now, that’s all they are—proposals. Congress may or may not pass some or all of them. We have to run our businesses and our lives in the present tense. I’ve tried waiting for Congress to pass bills before—it’s bad business. Hiring someone as contract labor is a good quick fix for your staffing problems and it’s a good quick fix for someone who may need to eat.

Who knows? Maybe that contract laborer you hire will be the key to you making big profits.

Posted on September 6, 2011May 31, 2016 by Jan Roberg

Estimated Taxes for Small Businesses

Photo by Shayne Kaye on Flickr.com

I’ve gotten this question twice in the past week so I thought I’d post it on my blog:

I pay my estimated taxes out of my personal account, but really I’m paying estimated taxes for my small business, shouldn’t I take the money out of my business account?

That’s a really good question, and the answer is “It depends.” If you own a C corporation, then the answer is yes. But most of the small businesses I deal with are Sole Proprietors and Sub S Corporations; if you have one of those, the answer is NO!

Here’s why Sole Proprietors and Sub S Corporation Owners should not pay their estimated taxes out of their business accounts: All of the profits from these kinds of companies are taxable to the individual that owns them. The companies themselves pay no tax, the individual owner does. Because the owner, not the company, owes the tax, the owner must pay from his personal account.

Let’s do an example: Daisy Duke owns Daisy’s Delightful Doggie Daycare (D4). It’s basically a pet-sitting business she runs out of her home. Daisy’s pretty savvy about accounting, so she maintains a separate bank account for her business and she claims every legal deduction she’s entitled to. She runs all of her business expenses through her business account.

For the quarter, Daisy has $10,000 of income and $6,000 of business expenses. She wants to make an estimated payment on the remaining $4,000 of income. Daisy determined that she spends 40% of her net income on federal taxes so she’s going to send $1600 to the IRS. This check is not written on the D4 checking account, but instead on Daisy’s personal account.

Note that Daisy runs all of the business expenses through the business account, but because the taxes are not considered to be a business expense, they can’t go in there. If Daisy were to take her kids to Chuck E. Cheese’s for pizza, she would not pay for that out of her D4 account either. Now it’s sounds crazy equating estimated tax payments with Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza but to the IRS’s eyes, they’re the same thing—a personal expense.

So here’s the next question that people always ask: What if Daisy doesn’t have enough money in her personal checking account to pay the taxes? That’s another good question. Remember, though, that the reason Daisy has to pay estimated taxes is because she’s making a profit. She’s got that $4,000 of profit sitting in her business bank account. She can make a payment to herself because she owns the company. She’s paying herself a draw (or maybe with an S Corp a salary), but when you own the business and you have a separate business account, you are allowed to pay yourself from the account.

Next question: But isn’t it a waste of time? Aren’t you writing two checks-one to Daisy and then one to the IRS, when writing one check directly to the IRS would solve the problem? No, it’s not a waste of time because it’s worth the extra five minutes to keep your books straight.

If you keep your business books strictly for business, with no personal expenses running through there at all, the IRS is going to think you’re pretty boring and not worth wasting much time on trying to audit you. This is one of those times where boring is good! Remember, paying your estimated taxes out of your business account is seen to be the same as taking your kids to Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza. It’s a cheesy expense! (Sorry, that pun flew out of the keyboard, I couldn’t stop it.)

Many small business owners get into tax trouble because they wind up using their business accounts for personal spending. While your estimated tax payment seems like it would be a business expense, it’s not and you have to keep it separate.

Posted on September 2, 2011May 31, 2016 by Jan Roberg

ATMs and the IRS: Why Your Business Shouldn’t Take Cash Out of the ATM

Photo by Jenny Brown on Flickr.com

You should never take cash out of the ATM using your business bank account. Never.

If you never have and never will take ATM cash out of your business account, you’re done here. Go read a different post, I’m not worried about you. If you still think it’s okay to make a cash ATM withdrawal from your business account, keep reading. Imagine you’re routinely getting whacked upside the head with a rolled up newspaper about every two minutes until you learn this lesson.

Why not use the business account for the ATM?

1. It’s a blazing red flag to the IRS that you’re doing something naughty. Even if everything you do related to your ATM withdrawals is 100% legitimate, to the IRS it says, “I’ve been a scumbag! Make me pay more taxes!” It’s really not a message you want to convey.

2. It’s bad bookkeeping practice. You have income and expenses. You take money in and you spend it. You need to account for how you spend it. An ATM cash withdrawal doesn’t give you the paper trail you need for your expenses. Even if you’re good about keeping those receipts (and believe me, you’d be the exception) you’re still stuck with issue number 1 – blazing red flag to the IRS.

But I own the business and it’s my money, why can’t I just make a withdrawal? Good question. Let’s say you’re just a plain sole proprietor, nothing fancy. You’re absolutely right; that’s your money and you’re entitled to use it as you see fit. If you’re keeping a separate bank account for your business, then you should write a check from your business to you for your “draw”. That’s legit and it gives you a paper trail. Whenever you take money from your ATM, it is considered as going to you and you’ll be taxed as that being your profit.

Here’s an example: Fred takes $200 a month out of his business account to pay some contract laborers. He occasionally hires some kids from the local football team to help him with his moving company. He pays the boys in cash and has never paid any one boy more than $600 so he hasn’t had to issue a 1099 (1099s must be issued if you pay $600 or more.) Fred gets audited by the IRS. He’s claimed $2400 in expenses for contract labor. That’s the $200 a month cash he’s paid to the boys on the football team to help him with some moving projects. What the IRS sees is $2400 in ATM cash paid directly to Fred and they charge him $1200 in taxes and penalties for under-reported income. Fred will have a very difficult time fighting this. It’s possible that he can fight and win, but why be in that position in the first place?

Let’s move it up a notch, what if Fred has an LLC-a limited liability company? Let’s say Fred takes an ATM withdrawal from his business account so he can take his wife out to dinner. Once again, its Fred’s money and he has that right. But now Fred is treating his business account as a personal account. This messes up his “limited liability” status. If you don’t keep a strict line between your business account and your personal account, you risk losing your limited liability protection. This makes it even more important for Fred not to use his business ATM card for cash if he has an LLC.

How’s your head? Been smacked enough times? Bottom line: never make an ATM cash withdrawal from your business bank account. If you want to pay yourself, write yourself a check. If your business needs to use cash, set up a petty cash account and fund it by writing a check for petty cash. A clean paper trail will keep the IRS off your back and that means money in your pocket.

Posted on August 23, 2011May 31, 2016 by Jan Roberg

Filing a Tax Return For Your LLC

Rosebud business solutions is a boost for businesses

Photo by Lancashire County Council on Flickr.com

If you’ve started a new business and you filed the Articles of Organization in your state to become an LLC, then here are some things you need to know about filing taxes for your new company.

First, there is no such thing as an LLC tax return. I know that sounds crazy, but it’s true. Every year, thousands of people walk into their accountants’ offices and say, “I want to file an LLC tax return!” This is what accountants joke about at their conventions and at the water cooler. We even post silly You Tube videos about it. This post is to help you not be the butt of some dumb accounting joke.

An LLC is a Limited Liability Company. One of the most common mistakes people make is that they think LLC means “Corporation”, it doesn’t. If you have an LLC, you probably are not going to file a corporation return (although you might, I’ll discuss that later).

The IRS considers an LLC to be something they call a “disregarded entity.” That means that it doesn’t have a specific tax document that goes with it. If your LLC only has one “member” (member is LLC-speak for owner) then the default tax return for your LLC is a Schedule C which is part of your 1040 income tax return. It’s due on April 15^th just like any other individual tax return.

If your LLC has two or more members, then by default you are considered to be a partnership and you must file a partnership return, form 1065. Form 1065 is due on April 15^th also, but it’s a good idea to get it done sooner because the information on the 1065 needs to go onto your personal tax return before you file it. When your accountant prepares the 1065, she’ll also prepare a K-1 form that will be used to prepare your personal income tax return.

So, if you have an LLC, the default tax return you might file would be a Schedule C as part of your individual income tax return, or a 1065 partnership return (and you’d receive a K1 form so you could put your partnership income on your personal tax return).

Instead of using the default filing options, you can choose to have your LLC treated as an S corporation or a C corporation for income tax purposes. It’s very rare to choose to have your LLC treated as a C corporation. Usually, if a person wanted to pay corporation tax rates, she would file articles of incorporation to begin with. But one advantage to filing as an LLC and then electing to be taxed as a C corporation would be to avoid some of the stringent reporting and meeting requirements that C corporations have. Usually, it’s not advantageous tax-wise to be treated as a C-Corporation, but there are always some exceptions. If you do go this route, you will need to file an election to be taxed as a corporation: form 8832. The tax return for a C-Corporation is called an 1120. You must file the 1120 or the extension by March 15^th or you will be assessed a late filing penalty even if you owe no tax. A C-Corporation pays taxes on its income and pays wages and/or dividends to the owner.

The more common corporate tax treatment for LLCs is to be taxed as an S Corporation. A Sub-chapter S corporation passes its profits through to the owner. If you elect to be a Sub S Corporation, you must pay yourself a wage. For most businesses, the purpose behind a Sub-chapter S corporation is to avoid paying self-employment taxes. There are two things you must know:

1. A Sub S Corporation isn’t always the best way to avoid paying self-employment taxes and,

2. You’re not allowed to say that you’re trying to avoid paying self-employment taxes, even though that’s pretty much the reason anybody ever makes the Sub S election.

To make the election to be taxed as a Sub S Corporation, you will need to file form 2553. A Sub S Corporation tax return is called an 1120S form and it is due by March 15^th. The S corp does not pay income tax; the income from the S corp will be reported on a K1 and will flow through to your personal tax return.

If you make an election to be taxed as a C or an S Corp, you will have to keep that designation for at least five years unless you get special permission from the IRS to change. You want to make sure you really want to make the election for corporate tax treatment before filing those forms.

Here’s my really important tax advice: Assume that you’re filing your LLC return either as a Schedule C (sole proprietor) if you’re a solo owner, or a 1065 partnership return if you have more than one owner, at least for the first year. But then, sit down with your preparer and run the numbers all three ways, (Schedule C, S-Corp, C-Corp) to see what makes the most sense for your business. Make some projections about your future income and expenses and take into account the deductions that you may have missed last year but won’t miss again. Smart planning can save you thousands of dollars in taxes over the years to come. Saving on taxes helps your business grow and puts money in your pocket.

Posted on August 2, 2011May 31, 2016 by Jan Roberg

Five Things You Can Do to Reduce Your Self-Employment Taxes

Author’s note: Yes, this is a stock photo that I bought online. My home office has never been this neat and tidy. But that green accountant’s lamp? I’ve got that on my desk too!

A fellow business owner told me that he was really surprised last year at tax time. His business had done well and he didn’t have many expenses to offset his income. You want to have income—it’s sort of necessary if you like to do things like eat, wear clothes, and have a roof over your head, but the more income you have, the more you pay in taxes. These tips are things that you might be spending money on anyway that can help reduce your “business income” and reduce your self-employment tax.

Claim a home office. If you are working for yourself, you should have a home office. I actually have two offices: one in an office building where I meet clients, and my home office where I perform administrative duties like paying my company’s bills. If you have more than one office, your home office should be your administrative office—doing so makes your commute to the other office a deductible expense (normally, commuting is not deductible).

If you’re already claiming a home office, make sure that you’re maximizing your deduction. Did you know that hallways, stairways, crawl spaces, and bathrooms don’t count towards your total square footage? And don’t forget to claim the depreciation on your home. I’m always amazed at the number of folks who don’t claim it. If your business has a loss, the deduction carries forward to next year.

Hire your kids. If you have children under the age of 18, you can pay them to work for you and you aren’t required to pay FICA, and you don’t have to pay Federal Unemployment tax on them either. The work has to be real and the wages have to be commensurate to what you’d pay someone who is not your child. They also have to do work for the company, not things like clean up the kitchen for this to count. Have them keep a time sheet so that you have documentation of the work in case the IRS checks on it. For this you must be a sole proprietor, you can’t be a Sub S corporation.

Hire your spouse and set up a Section 105 Health Plan. Sure you can deduct your health insurance on the front of your tax return, but it doesn’t affect what you pay in self-employment taxes and it only covers your health insurance. With a Section 105 Health Plan, you hire your spouse as an employee and the compensation package includes 100% health coverage for him (or her) and his family (which includes you). This has the effect of putting all of your family’s health care expenses as a deductible business expense. Just like with hiring your kids, your spouse will have to perform a real job for the company, keeping a time sheet, etc. (You must be a sole proprietor, LLC is okay. You cannot be Sub S Corporation.)

Maximize your auto deduction. The majority of people claim auto mileage for their business because it’s easier (I’m talking about claiming real mileage and not the folks who go around claiming 40,000 business miles a year on a car that’s only been driven 12,000. I like to stick with honest deductions). For a lot of folks, it’s worth it to claim your actual expenses, especially now with the price of gas so high. Take the time to really keep track of your actual auto expenses for one year. This will vary a lot depending upon your auto usage, but for some people it’s a big savings. Compare your actual expenses to the standard mileage rate and claim whatever gives you the larger deduction. Remember, you still have to keep track of your business versus personal miles to claim your actual expenses as a deduction.

Posted on July 29, 2011May 31, 2016 by Jan Roberg

Small Business Taxes for Beginners: How Much to Set Aside

When you start a new business, one of the hardest things to figure out is how much money you need to set aside to pay your taxes.

One question I hear all the time is: How much should I put away to pay my business taxes? If you’ve been in business for a few years, you probably have a good feel for how much you take in versus how much your expenses are and what your overall tax bracket is. After a while, you’ll be able to make estimated tax payments with fairly good accuracy. But if you’re just starting out and you don’t have a lot of experience, it’s really hard to guess. This post is for you.

Starting with the very first payment you receive, put away 10% of your revenue. Ideally, you will set up a special savings account at a bank to escrow your taxes, but you can use a piggy bank at home for all I care. Set aside 10% of your revenue.

But I thought my self-employment taxes were more than that? They are. Generally, self employment taxes are 15% of your income, and then you pay your regular tax rate on top of that. If you’re in the 25% tax bracket, the taxes on your business are 40%. This puts people into a panic—most people don’t pay 40% of their revenues, you have to back out your expenses first.

So shouldn’t I put away 40% of my profit? Yes, after you’ve got your business settled in and running smoothly. In the beginning, most start ups lose money, so your business taxes might be zero. You could even reduce your other taxes by reporting a business loss. Setting aside the 10% is your safety net. 10% is easy. 10% is a number you can live with. Most importantly, 10% might save your life.

You were right, I had a loss my first year. Can I spend the tax money that I had set aside? No. You’re going to add to it the next year so that you’ll have enough money to pay taxes then.
What if I have a loss for my second year of business? Keep setting aside 10%. There are basically three things that could happen:

Eventually your business will start making a profit and you’ll be glad that you set aside some money to pay your taxes.

Your business will never make money, so the IRS will decide to call your business a hobby and you’ll have to pay back the taxes you avoided by claiming business losses. We don’t want that to happen! But again, you’ll be glad you have that money set aside.

Your business doesn’t make any money and you’re smart enough to get out before the IRS declares you to have a hobby. Now you’ve got a nice little savings account started.

The 10% rule is a win/win situation for you no matter what.

I make really good income as a contract laborer and I don’t have any expenses. What if I expect to definitely make a profit my first year? A good example of this situation would be an independent IT contractor; a lot of these folks are profitable from day one. If you’ve got a similar situation, I’d hold back 25% at a minimum, 30% is better. If you’re married and you’re adding your income onto a spouse’s earnings, I’d put away 40% right from the start. If you anticipate over $100,000 of income your first year, you should sit down with a professional and do some strategy planning. Your self-employment taxes will actually go down after $106,800 but you could be in a higher overall tax bracket.

Face it, if you’re making over $100,000 a year, you can afford to pay the consulting fee to an accountant. By the way, you’ll write that off as a business deduction.

Okay, so I set aside 10% of my revenue for my business taxes the first year but it wasn’t enough. Now what do I do? First, be glad that at least you had the 10% set aside. Now you’ve got some figures to work with for next year. Based upon your tax return, you can now compute a percentage for you to set aside. Maybe it’s 20%, maybe 30%. Once again, you’ll set aside a percentage of your revenues. You’ll make estimated tax payments every quarter based on what you owed last year. Let’s say you had a balance due of $4,000 last year, then you’ll make quarterly estimated tax payments of $1,000 each this year. You’re still putting money in the bank for your taxes and you’ll pay the estimated taxes from your set-aside fund.

I see a lot of people with small businesses get into tax trouble. They scrape to get ahead and then when success finally comes, the tax bill is a big slap in the face. Success is sweet, but there’s a price. If you start from day one setting aside a portion of your revenue for taxes, you’ll be prepared.

Posted on July 5, 2011June 4, 2017 by Jan Roberg

How to Boost Your Home Office Deduction

Photo by Biking Nikon of Flickr.com

If you’ve claimed a home office deduction on your tax return, you’re familiar with the form—they ask you for the square footage of your home office and then they ask for the square footage of your home. Let’s say that your home is 2,000 square feet and your home office is 100 square feet, then your home office percentage is 5%. If your home operating expenses were $10,000 then you’d get to claim $500 for your home office deduction before claiming depreciation (because $500 is 5% of$10,000).
But did you know that if the rooms in your home are roughly the same size that you can figure the percentage based upon the number of rooms in your house? Say you had 8 rooms in your house, a kitchen, living room, dining room, family room, three bedrooms and your office. That would change your percentage to 12.5%, and now your deduction would be $1250—that’s more than double the difference.
Now if your home is like mine, your rooms aren’t all the same size and you can’t use the ‘number of rooms’ formula. But—the ‘number of rooms’ formula does help those of us who must use the regular square footage formula. You see, when you use the ‘number of rooms’ formula, you’re leaving out things like hallways, staircases, and bathrooms. When you’re determining the square footage for your whole home, you are allowed to deduct the following items from your total square footage:
o Hallways
o Staircases
o Bathrooms
o Crawlspaces
o Space occupied by heating and air conditioning units, and water heaters
o Foyers
o Outside walls
By reducing your overall square footage, you increase the percentage that you can use for your home office expense. Using the office mentioned above, let’s say the taxpayer measures out his stairs, foyer, hallways, etc. and finds that it reduces his overall square footage by 500 feet. Now his percentage would be 6.67% raising his deduction to by $167 to $667.
This might not seem like a huge savings, and certainly it will vary depending upon the size of your home and your expenses. The important thing here is that its extra tax savings to you without spending any additional cash. You’ve done nothing extra except re-measure your house.
Let’s add depreciation into the mix. Let’s say, for this same house, the owner’s purchased it for $250,000. $50,000 of that was attributed to the cost of the land so we’re depreciating $200,000. If 5% of the home were depreciated, the deduction would be $256 (200,000 x 5% x 2.54% depreciation rate). By increasing the percentage used to 6.67%, then the depreciation would be $342, an increase of $86.
So now, by doing nothing more than re-measuring your house, you’ve increased your home office deduction by $253 and, if you’re self employed and in the 25% tax bracket, you’ve just saved yourself $101 in taxes.
This is one of those cases where everyone’s results will be different, but the example that I used was pretty conservative. It’s highly likely that you can save even more than this example does, especially if your expenses are higher or your home office is larger to begin with.
You always want to take advantage of any tax issue that puts money in your pocket without you putting money out. Re-measuring your home for the home office deduction is like a little gift from the IRS to help you save money on your taxes.

Posted on June 24, 2011May 31, 2016 by Jan Roberg

Tax Tips for Artists: Things You Need to Know!

Photo by Preston Kemp on Flickr.com

It’s audit season and I just got back from meeting with the IRS. So far this season, I’ve worked with two different artists and they both were contacted about the same thing: Cost of Goods Sold.

If you go to the IRS website and research what they’re looking for, you’re not going to find much information. I did find an old IRS audit guideline for artists from back in the 90’s, but that didn’t address Cost of Goods Sold for artists either.

In a normal business, Cost of Goods Sold would be what you pay for the stuff you sell. For example: say you own a teddy bear store. You pay $5 for each bear and then you turn around and sell the bear for $10. You start the year with 100 bears in your inventory, you buy 500 more bears to sell, and you end the year with 50 bears in your inventory. Let’s do the math:

Beginning inventory: $500 (100 bears times $5 each)

Purchases: $2,500 (500 bears times $5 that you paid for each new bear)

Ending inventory: $ 250 (because you have 50 bears left times the $5)

Cost of Goods sold: $2,250 (this is the confusing one: you take the 500 and add the 2500—that’s all the bears that you’ve purchased to sell, right? That equals $3000. Then you subtract the ending inventory 250 (because you didn’t sell those) and you’re left with $2,250—that’s your Cost of Goods Sold.)

But if you’re an artist, you don’t have a bunch of identical $5 bears. How do you even begin to value your artwork? Here’s the thing—most artists should not be doing a Cost of Goods Sold report on their taxes. Let me repeat that: Most artists should NOT be doing a Cost of Goods Sold report on their taxes.

Think about your art. If each piece is a unique work, where the value of the piece is mostly due to your labor as opposed to the materials that you put into the work, then generally you’re fine just writing off your expenses as “expenses” rather than listing your materials as a Cost of Goods Sold.

So at what point do you “cross over” from just recording your expenses to actually keeping inventory? I asked that at the IRS the other day. “It’s really hard to say,” was the answer I got. Even for an IRS agent with years of experience, this was a tough question. If you’re mass producing works-for example you’ve produced a limited edition of numbered prints, well then that’s a case where you should be taking inventory. Still—your purchases are only the products that you sell. For example: you pay $2,000 to have 100 prints produced which you then hand number and sign. You sell 70 of the prints for $100 each.

Your Beginning inventory: $0 (up until now, all of your art was unique. You never did COGS before)

Purchases: $2000 (because that’s what you paid for them)

Ending inventory: $600 (You have 30 prints left and they cost you $20 each because 2000 divided by 100 equals 20.)

Cost of Goods Sold: $1400 (You started with $0, you added $2000 in purchases. To get the Cost of Goods Sold you subtract the ending inventory of $600 and you get $1400.)

Is this making sense? Art and Accounting don’t go together well, but you need to know this stuff. (And I’ve worked with enough artists by now to know that you’re way better at math than you let on.)

But what about the 70 prints I sold for $100 each? That goes in the front of your schedule C, $7000 under gross receipts on line 1.

Cost of Goods Sold will go on line 4.

You’ll take your Gross Receipts minus your Cost of Goods Sold to get your Gross Income. In this example, you’d take the $7,000 – $1,400 to get $5,600.

But once again, let me make this clear—as a professional artist, you shouldn’t be using Cost of Goods Sold unless you are producing a significant amount of work and you have a way of determining the cost and a way of counting the work. For example: A painter could count canvasses, but it would be almost impossible to count paint. Canvas could be a COGS but paint would be a regular expense. A potter might be able to count pounds of clay, but the tools and glazes might need to be a regular expense.

If you choose to count your inventory, it’s important to value items at what they cost and not what you are selling them for. Let’s go back to our example about the prints. You paid $20 apiece for them so your ending inventory of 30 prints is worth $600. If you value your inventory at what you want to sell the prints for ($100 apiece) then your ending inventory will be $3000—that’s more than you spent on the prints to begin with. If you did that on your tax return, your COGS would come out as negative $1000 and your income would go up to $8,000 instead of the $7000 that you actually made. Valuing your inventory at the “retail” price will really mess you up, so don’t do that.

Remember, as an artist your business situation is as unique as your art. Don’t let your packaged software intimidate you into using Cost of Goods Sold when you shouldn’t. If you’re thinking that you produce enough that you should be taking inventory, spend the money to get help from a professional so that you get started on the right track. It’s much cheaper than an audit.

Posted on June 22, 2011May 31, 2016 by Jan Roberg

Tax Tips for Artists: Why You Might Not Want to Donate Your Art

Photo by John Morgan on Flickr.com

If you’re an artist, you may have been asked to donate a piece of your artwork for a good cause. You might have also been told that it’s good PR for you, because people at the event will get a chance to see your work and bid on it. And of course you’ve been told that your donation is tax deductible.

While it’s true that your donation is deductible, it’s not nearly as deductible for you as it is for me. Come again? You heard me right—your art donation is not as deductible for you as it is for me. Let me give you an example: Let’s say you donate a painting that would normally sell for $500. If I bought that painting and donated it to a charity, I’d get to write off the full $500 on my tax return as a charitable deduction. If you donate that painting instead, you can only write off the cost of the materials that you used to create that painting—depending upon what materials you’re using, that’s maybe $50 to $100.

Additionally most artists are sole proprietors, their art income goes on a Schedule C on their regular 1040 tax return. Your charitable donation can’t be counted as a business expense, it must go on your Schedule A with your other personal itemized deductions. If you don’t already itemize your deductions on a Schedule A, that donated painting gives you no tax benefit whatsoever.

I’m not saying that you can never donate to charity, I like charities and I think they deserve donations. It’s just that when you donate your art, you’re not getting much bang for your buck. So what are your alternatives?

One thing is to pay to “advertise.” For example: I support a small, local ballet company. I used to just donate money to them, but now instead I purchase an ad in their performance program. They get the money they need and I get a business deduction for advertising. This is especially good for me. Before, being in the 25% tax bracket, my $100 donation was worth $25 off my taxes. Now, as a business expense, my $100 advertisement reduces my taxes by $40 ($25 from my regular tax plus an additional 15% for my self-employment taxes.) The advertising option gives you the best tax value on your donation because you can use it to offset your self-employment taxes.

Do be careful about the charity advertising though. I once did an ad thinking I was supporting a local organization, when really the money was going to an advertising agency. The organization got some money, but most of it went to the promotional company. I won’t make that mistake again.

Another option for you is to donate the profits from one of your art pieces. For example, let’s take that $500 painting; assume you paid $100 for your materials,that’s a $400 donation to the charity. Most likely, that’s a better donation than what the charity would gain if they auctioned one of your pieces off. If you’re in the 25% tax bracket, you still get a $100 reduction in your taxes. It won’t help with your self-employment tax, but you do get the good feeling of making a donation and your art work sells for its actual retail value instead of some discounted auction price (another disadvantage of donating your art for charity.)

There are many worthwhile causes out there that need and deserve your help. If providing a piece of your art work is how you want to help, by all means do it. Just remember, it’s not your best tax strategy.

Posted on June 14, 2011August 10, 2017 by Jan Roberg

When Being Too Clever is Not So Smart: Register Your Business at Home

This is me, Jan Roberg from Roberg Tax Solutions. I live in Missouri, I work in Missouri, my business is registered in the state of Missouri and I pay Missouri income tax. I’d still have to pay Missouri income tax even if I registered in Nevada or some other state.

Rule Number 1: If you learn nothing else from this post, learn this: don’t believe everything you read on the internet. Even if you read it in this article, you should always get some sort of definite confirmation of what I am telling you. There’s a lot of misinformation out there and some of the stuff can get you into big trouble with the IRS.

There’s a lot of hype these days about incorporating or setting up your LLC in Delaware or Nevada because these states have favorable business climates. But, unless your business is located in Delaware of Nevada, it doesn’t make sense to file your organization documents in these states. For one thing, tax law and business law don’t always go hand in hand. Here in Missouri, as with most states, if you’re earning the money here, you’re paying the taxes here—no matter where you incorporated.

Bottom line, if you own a small business, your business organization documents should be filed in the state that you live in, your employees live in, your customers live in, your shareholders live in, and where your offices are located.

Hiding or disguising your identity is another thing that doesn’t make sense for the legitimate small business owner. When you own a small business, you want people to know who you are and what kind of business you’re in. By the way, let me introduce myself. I’m Jan Roberg, I do taxes. I also write these blog posts myself. I want you to know who I am because I want you to remember me when you need tax help. That’s my picture up in the corner.

This is supposed to be tax blog, not a marketing blog, but seriously, if you own a small business—you want your clients and customers to know who you are, what you do, and how to find you. (By the way, my office is in Creve Coeur, MO and my phone number is (314) 872-2111—just sayin’.) See what I mean? The more people know you, the more likely they are to use your products or services or refer a friend who needs you.

But let’s talk about the tax implications with hiding your identity. You might even be thinking, gosh, how would a person even do that in the first place? This is where you hire a third party in another state to file your EIN for you– this keeps your personal identification off of your federal corporate registration. It doesn’t really sound like such a bad thing, really. You might even be thinking that sounds like a good idea, but it’s not if you’re running a legitimate business!
If you try to hide your identity, the IRS sees it as a red flag for things like: underreporting, not filing returns, money laundering, financial crimes, and my personal favorite: financing terrorists. How’d you like to be delayed at the airport because you wound up on a terrorist watch list because you incorporated in another state? Okay, I’m pretty sure that you’d have to do more than just incorporate in Nevada to wind up on a terrorist watch list. But the point is, why flag your business that way?

I know I post a lot of ideas on saving money on taxes. I preach the “don’t pay more than you have to” sermon all the time. But you should never do something as a tax strategy that isn’t also good for your business too. You remember the old acronym KISS? (Keep it Simple, Stupid!) If you have a small, one owner (or husband and wife) business working in a local market, you really have no need to be filing tax documents out of state.