Tax Time Again

Every year I get a little better, that’s what I keep telling myself. Just a little better.

Last year I didn’t account for having a home office set up because I barely understood what I was doing, the local tax specialists were going to charge me an exorbitant sum to do my taxes because I count as an indie business.

This year I sat for well over an hour, mulling over my taxes because something didn’t seem right. Still don’t have it right, but at least, I got the whole thing working and I’m on the right track.

I will not hire this out, I will not hire this out, I will not…

In order to claim a home based office you need to know how many hours your “business” is open for, how many days, how large the office is compared to your home, and what you use in your business.

Authors and artists don’t exactly have set hours… well, not really.

Even when not on social media, I work for an hour before I leave for the day job, on the commute to the day job (more often than not) and before I clock in for my day job, then when I clock out for my lunch. Then of course, the commute home, and when I get home, I begin working while preparing dinner and doing chores around that.

I should seriously look into whether or not that would mean the meals could be counted in some fashion. If you work a day job (in Canada at least) and you work during a meal period, you have to be paid for that period. So… same thought applies.

It was as I sat down to do all my math that I realized just how many hours I devote to this ‘hobby’ of mine. I don’t have a proper office set up, but I do use quite a bit of space. I should bring in an actual desk and an actual computer and then keep the laptop, or get a new one, and start setting up actual hours.

I haven’t had a day off in forever and since January 19th. I was only off then because Buster passed away and that day was taking care of him.

Today I took a partial day off. Taxes counts under accounting which counts as doing the work. My own taxes would be done in half an hour, it’s just been the accounting for the writing that’s had me near tears.

For my partial day off, I prodded a friend of mine off my couch and we took a walk to downtown.

While he complained about his boyfriend, but I got him off the topic. Except, all I had to talk about was the writing. Didn’t want to talk about the day job.

Because I’m not worried about it burning down if I take a day off.

Once downtown we went to the grocery store, picked out a few items, then walked to the bayfront. Living right on a Great Lake is fabulous. Living in a city with actual clean, safe parks makes me all atwitter.

So we had a nice lunch, except the goose that came upon me and was begging for my sandwich. It was cold, it’s always colder down by the bayfront, so we ended up leaving before I wanted to leave simply because I was cold.

Then we walked back downtown, picked up a few more items from a store and came back to my place.

Where I immediately began looking at my taxes again.

I need to set time aside to do things. even while sick I market or do social media. It’s time to set boundaries, to start drawing up actual hours.

You know, take a day off once a week to play a video game or go on a date. Or anything besides writing. So that I have something to talk about besides writing.

So. I need a planner, but can’t afford to buy one. Or more of, it’s not an absolute necessity, I can get free planner apps or even do it in excel or some sort of spreadsheet. With the planner, I’m going to record my hours for both the day job and the writing along with what those hours for the writing were devoted to.

By doing that I’m hoping to isolate any problem areas to make some things more efficient. Maybe even figure out any habits and use that to my advantage.

Oh, and, of course, take time off. At least one day a month, preferably once a week, where I do nothing writing oriented.