Closing in on Gathering all the Info Needed for My 2013 Taxes

It was really hard to stay focused and inside today when the day turned out to be sunny and very warm.

But I behaved myself with the promise of when this is finished, I will be more free to enjoy my hikes without the worry of unfinished business hanging over my head.

Basically I spent the afternoon gathering more of the information and papers needed to get my taxes to my accountant.

Luckily I was smart last year and didn’t do too many cash sales. That is always a fun piece to put together from tiny receipts. Since most places are glad to take a credit or debit card, I can keep my records in my Quicken program and pull the information from there..

The most complicated part is gathering mileage information and putting each trip I took into the proper business.

With Commonwheel’s Art Festival having come so close to being in the red this year, I didn’t take any compensation from my trips relating to it. Instead, I will just use the mileage as a deduction this year. May actually work to my favor. Will be interesting to see how that does work.

And since the flooding caused us to hold meetings where I couldn’t walk to them, I had to drive to them. Plus I had to relocate the festival which meant I had to measure the park and meet with city officials more times and places that caused me to drive much more than normal. More deductions.

Then there are my books . . . CreateSpace . . . Kindle . . . and ones I sell in person. Gathering that information isn’t as easy as I wish it could be. But I do believe I have it in a format that I can clearly show how many were sold and where.

My Young Living Oils “business” also is complicated to figure out. I use most of the oils I buy for my own health needs. But I do sell some, but don’t make much on each sale. Then I get some “rewards” and not  sure how to figure those into the mix. This is one of the reasons I am glad I do hire an accountant who has done my complicated taxes for many years and knows how to handle such tricky questions.

Then there is my home where I have two business offices and my personal office desk in one room, an art studio upstairs, a roommate and an upstairs tenant. Plus the cottage tenant. Figuring out the percentages of utilities and internet and repairs is just beyond what I want to learn how to do. She also keeps up with the latest changes in the tax laws, something I have no interest in learning about either.

My excel files where I break all this down are close to ready for me to do the written report for her to work from. But I did some things I have questions about how to handle. So I will make an appointment and chat with her to be a bit clearer about what I did right last year, and what I need to do differently this year to make it all clearer and fit in the proper business accounts better.

Would be nice to have fewer businesses for reporting, but they all are connected to my various passions, or affording my home.

I started my day out by taking photos of the masks I made yesterday to put on Etsy. It was cloudy when I got up, which is perfect photo light. But by the time I got dressed and got my outdoor photo studio set up, the sun came out. There was still a corner of my porch that worked, but I had to work quickly to get good shots.

FantaFaces Masked Talking HeadsFirst I take pictures of them laying flat, then play with them on a black head.

I take pictures from different angles to give them more character and help potential clients see how they will look when worn.

Next, I need to do some cleanup work in PhotoShop. I like a smoother background than the one I have in my studio, and fuzzy bits of feathers and dust need to be removed for a cleaner look. It is quicker to clean them up in PhotoShop than constantly do that in my outdoor studio. Plus when dealing with even a slight bit of wind, some feathers move into the eye area or around the nose in a way that just isn’t how I want them to look. I do trim some with a scissors before taking the pictures, but wind plays with them in ways I don’t want to spend hours rearranging them when it is easier and faster to unfuzz them on the computer.

Plus they are on a white stand that I like to remove and just have the neck showing without a strange collar below.

I am considering hiring a friend to clean up and paint an old door that is on the porch. He could do it faster than I could. Painting is just not one of my talents, even flat surfaces can challenge me in ways I don’t want to struggle with right now. I would have him paint one side an off white and not sure if I would do black or a different color on the other side. The flat mask photos are done on a black background, but using this black face, that doesn’t work for the head shots.

But other times when I am photographing items that will be used in a book, a black background might work best. I have used green, tan and grey backdrops, so need to think that through to have the best option for the most photos I will be taking in the future. And what color would be the easiest to remove so I can just have the item in the photo stand alone to be placed in front of a totally different background, like a mountain?

Ended the day before I started blogging with a call the the person I am working on to get an updated version of the Structured Water book. What a wonderfully upbeat gentleman. Once again had me feeling inspired and uplifted by the end of the conversation. I am so ready to get back to writing my own books, and working on his next project that sounds very interesting.

He is connected to many groups that are working towards ways to heal our planet and bring together like-hearted people to create abundance not just financially, but spiritually. Can hardly wait to meet him and his friend Genii in person in Sedona some day in the not too distant future.

 

 




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