[Jewelry making - Article 00308] - Re: [Orchid] [Biztalk] Taxes - First Sch C

[James Binnion]

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>     I respectfully disagree - IF - the business is small. My small
>     business accountant took the information I gave him, plugged it into
>     a worksheet, and handed me an income tax return to sign. I was the
>     one who supplied all the records for expenses, I was the one who
>     counted and valued the inventory, etc. 

    As it should be, If you don't know and don't have this info you are
    not going to be able to file your taxes yourself or run your
    business for that matter. An accountant is not supposed to go through
    your shoe box or paper bag of invoices and sort it out at the end of
    the year (if you do store things like this get a book keeper to sort
    it out once a month or at least once a quarter). They are there to
    fill out your taxes, advise you of your available deductions and
    cross all the t's and dot all the i's. And if the audit does happen
    then they are there to stand behind their work and advise you as to
    how to deal with the IRS. I started about as small as you can get and
    I did my own taxes for years using Intuit software and got a lot of
    things wrong. Luckily after I got an accountant he helped me fix it
    without too much trouble. It is not that the filling out of the form
    is that difficult,it is the specialized knowledge that you don't need
    to learn to take advantage of. You can learn how to hand engrave but
    if you don't need to do it all the time you send the work out to a
    specialist, it is the same thing. 

    Your experience with the IRS was a good one, ask someone who has
    been audited what their impression of the IRS is. 

    It is absolutely important to a small business for you to be doing
    what brings in money. Learning accounting software and dealing with
    the IRS are not money makers neither is doing your books. If you are
    trying to make a living at selling your work the very most important
    thing is to be making work and selling it. There are independent
    book keepers every where that are looking for work, it is what makes
    them money, hire one. At the end of the year you can then hand your
    accountant a file that is ready for them to put into your tax form. 

    Your advise about the Small Business Administration is good and I
    bet if you ask them they will tell you the same thing about focusing
    on you core money making work. Also many community colleges have
    business courses in their continuing education offerings. Take all
    you can get. 

James Binnion
jbin AT mokume-gane.com
James Binnion Metal Arts
http://www.mokume-gane.com
360-756-6550

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