CraftyPod #107: Taxes for Your Crafty Business, with Hunter Coleman

 

 CraftyPod #107: Taxes for Your Crafty Business, with Hunter Coleman: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this show:

• Hunter Coleman (a good friend of mine and a true accounting geek) helps us understand the tax side of a crafty business.

• Learn about what kinds of records you need to be keeping, what forms you need to fill out, and what to do if record-keeping makes your brain sad.

• Do you need to hire a bookkeeper, or should you do it all yourself?

Links:

Hunter was kind enough to link us to the appropriate tax forms on IRS.gov:

• Form 8829, Home Office Expenses
• Form 8829’s instruction booklet

• Publication 535, General Business Expenses (That link goes to the 2008 edition, btw.)

• Schedule C: Business Profit or Loss
• Schedule C’s instruction booklet

For more detail on the differences between hobby and business income, Hunter recommends these links:

• IRS’s 8 Important Questions for Hobby Income.
• Hobby vs. Business Income, from Motley Fool.

If you have royalty income to report on your taxes, Hunter recommends this article from eHow.

If you’re looking for accounting software, try these links:

• Here’s a nice, simple roundup of options from Mashable.

• This comparison of ten major accounting packages offers an in-depth look at what they can do.

• For a craft-focused take on this question, try this Etsy forum thread.

…And if you’re looking for tax preparation software, TurboTax and TaxCut are major brands.