Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at cjwtaxpro@gmail.com with the subject line “Ask an Accountant”.  See previous questions and answers HERE. Question: I am a blogger and frequently attend conferences.  I accept sponsorship from companies for these conferences.  How would these sponsorships be taxed? Answer: … Read entire article »

  Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at cjwtaxpro@gmail.com with the subject line “Ask an Accountant”.  See previous questions and answers HERE. Question: I have just started selling Thirty One purses and I am curious to know if I can deduct any of my spending on my taxes. I make commission on sales and I do not anticipate making more than $3k … Read entire article »

Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at cjwtaxpro@gmail.com with the subject line “Ask an Accountant”. Question: I am in the process of registering the blog as a business and wanted to know if I am going to be able to claim all of the stuff I have already purchased for it from the time I started or if I … Read entire article »

  Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at cjwtaxpro@gmail.com with the subject line “Ask an accountant”. Question: I donate from my stockplile quite frequently.  When claiming these deductions, do I deduct what I paid out of pocket or what the items would normally cost without coupons/sales? Answer: There are 2 schools of thinking for this question.  One side says you do not … Read entire article »

  Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at cjwtaxpro@gmail.com with the subject line “Ask an accountant”. Question: In 2010 I won an all expense paid trip as a prize for winning a contest. The company immediately asked for my social security number for the purposes of taxes. I expected I would be responsible for taxes on the value of the trip (I think … Read entire article »

  Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at momondeals@yahoo.com Question: I have been audited for medical expenses for 2008 (my husband became very ill) and have close to 300 individual expenses. If I copy every bill, check, explanation of benefits from the insurance company, flexible spending account reimbursement, credit card bill, prescription receipt, etc., I will be paying for and … Read entire article »

  Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at momondeals@yahoo.com Question: What type of accounting software is the best when setting up my small business? Answer: The most widespread software for accounting is Quickbooks.  I personally recommend the online version.  There are several different options for the online version, so what version you need will vary depending on the business and it’s structure.  It … Read entire article »

  Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at momondeals@yahoo.com Question: If you’re late filing your taxes and the government owes you a refund, are you penalized? Answer: You will not be charged if the IRS owes you a refund.  They can assess a failure to file, or assess tax based on the information they receive (which is all income from reportable sources … Read entire article »

Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at momondeals@yahoo.com Question: Do I have to pay taxes on an item sent by a company to review? Answer: As far as products for review, the IRS requires you report the fair market value of the item.    That being said, I would take one of the 2 aggressive positions: 1.  A “de minimis” fringe benefit of the … Read entire article »

  Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at momondeals@yahoo.com Question: What expenses can you not claim on your taxes? Answer: The items not deductible are expenses that would not be used to generate a profit.  One example would be groceries.  You could not deduct groceries from a shopping trip that you used to post on your website.  The groceries are a necessary item needed to … Read entire article »

  Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at momondeals@yahoo.com I have received A LOT of questions lately about setting up a business.  I wrote a post HERE about deciding on what entity to be.  My husband (the accountant) has created a graph below that may make things more understandable. There are several choices for set up…however, depending on the structure … Read entire article »

Although tax season is over, tax questions arise year round.  My husband is an experienced accountant and will be answering questions sent to me at momondeals@yahoo.com Question: I read on Yahoo today that Social Security Tax is being raised. The article said that in 2012 the rate will go up to 12.4%, meaning 12.4% of a self employeed person’s income goes straight to Social Security Tax.  Is this true? Answer: Social Security tax has always been 12.4% except this past year … Read entire article »

Recently, I have received numerous requests for assistance in “setting up” blogs from a tax perspective, so I figured I would address this to give a basic understanding of the options that are out there & compare them.  Let’s start with the need behind organizing the entity.  1.  Taxes – a necessary part of our economy…nobody likes to pay them, but without a tax structure,  we would not be where we are today as a country.  2.  Liability protection … Read entire article »

As we all know, it’s that dreaded time of the year-Tax time!  In honor of tax season, I have a new series called “Ask An Accountant”.  Send in your tax questions each week to momondeals@yahoo.com and I will post the question and give an answer from an experienced accountant Question: How do I determine the amount of office space to use for a write off? Answer: A home office is defined by IRS guidelines as “any area of your … Read entire article »