It’s THAT Time of Year

I spent a solid eight hours the other day preparing my tax documents. I know that for many people, doing their taxes is a fairly simple matter of gathering T4s, charitable donation receipts, and investment documents.

Unless you work for yourself.

I work as a support teacher for an online school, but technically, I am a “contract” teacher, working from home. Like anyone working for themselves, I have to plan for tax time each year because no taxes are taken off the pay I receive from my employer. The first couple of years this was a real eye-opener, but now I put money aside each month and pay my taxes in quarterly installments.

I am also the sole proprietor of a small publishing business, Fictitious Ink. (You can read about that journey in a previous post.) Keeping track of income is straightforward enough: book sales, performance and other royalties, public lending rights income through libraries, access copyright income, commission on magazine articles, consignments, and the odd public appearance or workshop presented… (I have yet to charge fees for publishing other people’s work, preferring the old-fashioned model of footing that bill in the hopes of eventually recouping the costs.)

Then there are the expenses… Working from home means I can use a percentage of my utilities, fuel & travel, telephone & internet, etc – even the taxes on my home. Gathering all of these numbers is a TASK, believe me! Then there are the actual expenses like office supplies, software, subscriptions like Photoshop, Mailchimp, etc… By the time I subtract the expenses from the income, I’m not making much money as a publisher or an author. Not enough to live on, anyway. It’s one reason I’m grateful for my job as a contract teacher!

This year my husband and I had an added discussion point as I slogged away trying to get our tax info in order. He is nearing retirement age, having turned 64 in February. (Baby that I am, I won’t be hitting that number for another three and a half years.) We’ve begun looking long and hard at our spending habits, hoping he’ll be able to retire once reaching that golden number. One thing we realized was that we spend A LOT on random subscriptions, especially those geared toward entertainment. (Not naming any names, but how many TV subscriptions does one actually need?) I spent another entire day combing through our financial records ferreting out all those pesky recurring fees. It turns out we were paying for things we had long forgotten about or never used! A purge was in order!

I am not a numbers person, but to be honest, I felt a lot of satisfaction in doing both of these tasks. I guess there is something to be said for plain, non-glamorous work! I certainly breathed a sigh of relief once all was said and done. Until next tax season roles around…