{"id":35,"date":"2011-02-20T22:02:24","date_gmt":"2011-02-20T22:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/?p=35"},"modified":"2011-02-20T22:02:24","modified_gmt":"2011-02-20T22:02:24","slug":"arts-and-crafts-and-income-tax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/arts-and-crafts-and-income-tax\/","title":{"rendered":"Arts and crafts and income tax"},"content":{"rendered":"

We are knee deep in February and that means we are in the midst of the federal tax season.<\/p>\n

Regardless if a profit is made, artists and crafters who take in money are obligated to file federal income tax and in some cases there is a state income tax to deal with as well.<\/p>\n

Hopefully the records have been kept and there is a nice money trail to follow when doing the taxes.\u00a0 This is where accounting programs like quick books shine.\u00a0 If you have been diligent in recording transactions you will be rewarded with accurate reports that are generated in seconds.<\/p>\n

Even if you used a long hand system you will probably have all the data necessary to file.<\/p>\n

If you did not you have a lot of work to do!\u00a0 If it looks like you will run out of time before the April 15th date you can file for an extension.\u00a0 This will give you an extra 6 months to get your books in order.\u00a0\u00a0 The form is available on the federal publications page.\u00a0 (The link is further down.)<\/p>\n

Once you have the figures you probably will have questions on the best way to file depending on your business structure and how much money you pull in.<\/p>\n

A good place to start would be the federal government forms and publications<\/a> site .\u00a0\u00a0 Take a look around and read up on the forms offered.<\/p>\n

If you are still confused you may want to confide in a professional such as a tax preparer or accountant.\u00a0 A good bet would be a full time, year round company as opposed to one of the many companies that spring up like weeds every January.\u00a0 If you don’t mind dealing with a preparer who just finished a 2 week crash course then be my guest but you will probably not pay any more if you use a qualified professional.<\/p>\n

If you made a bunch of money a CPA is the best bet.\u00a0 Yes they have an hourly wage that can sometimes be quite steep but they can save you a ton of money.\u00a0\u00a0 For example the first year we used a CPA we ended up saving well over $10,000.00.\u00a0 Well worth the $300.00 it cost us.<\/p>\n

Beware of taking advice from people who are not income tax professionals.\u00a0 Even if the rule your brother in law is citing was applicable last year it may not be this year.<\/p>\n

What ever you do make sure you file.\u00a0 The income tax people are relentless and they will stop at nothing to get what they are owed, even small amounts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We are knee deep in February and that means we are in the midst of the federal tax season. Regardless if a profit is made, artists and crafters who take in money are obligated to file federal income tax and in some cases there is a state income tax to deal with as well. Hopefully […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-and-crafts-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":122,"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35\/revisions\/122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.artsandcraftsnetwork.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}