Taxing Times

Of course as a professional writer you are tracking all your writing expenses and income. You are not? Well shame on you and you really deserve the tax man, or the IRS, to keep these chunks of your money, which could be claimed back as rebates, when you are starting out, or they will take much when your income takes off.

This post shows you a simplistic way of managing your expenses and income.  This approach will enable you to deal professionally with Income Tax or Inland Revenue, which should help you get rebates or reduce your payment of tax. It could also save you a fortune when dealing with accountants.

In Britain that really friendly organisation, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Custom, is responsible for holding British business and British individuals to ransom and taking as much cash as they can for the government. However, if you convince them that you are a serious, business orientated writer, they can be persuaded to give tax rebates or reduce the tax charge on your income.

Organisation

As I am a fairly disorganised person I have a folder marked, ‘Writing – Income/ Expenses’,  and inside I have two plastic sleeves, one red labelled, ‘Writing – Expenses’, and a practically empty, at present, green folder, which is labelled, ‘Writing – Income’.  As I also earn income for running a number of internet sites I keep a separate Income/Expenses folder for each site.

Separating your business projects is good business practice.  In big business it is called having separate ‘profit centres’.  It means that if you have a number of a projects, say journalism and writing a book, you can separate out the costs, which could be useful to you in deciding where you want to go as a writer.

So you have the folder and two plastic sleeves – now what?

I simply print out all expenses paid and place them in ‘Writing – Expenses’ sleeve and all income actually received and place them in the ‘Writing – Income’.  I always place new items at the back so that everything is in chronological order. I make sure that everything is dated.

In journalism it is often the case that you produce the work, and at the same time invoice the magazine, website or newspaper.  You often have to wait a few weeks, which can sometimes go into months, before you receive payment.

To deal with this situation I would suggest a third plastic sleeve labelled, ‘Income – Outstanding’.  Into this I would put all my invoices.  When they are paid I mark them with paid and the date.  I then move it into my ‘Writing – Income’ sleeve.

I find that at present it is sufficient to have one set of sleeves for each of my projects a year.  I then have a complete summary of all my business activities in one year, which makes you look professional, and enables you to compare one year with the next.

So what expenses can I claim?

Anything directly connected with your writing.  This includes:

• notepads
• pens
• postage and package
• reasonable travel expenses
• training, eg business start up course

A share of your personal:

• the cost of your printer
• your computing system
• car
• mobile phone

You should also charge an allowance for the use of part of your house to be used as an office.  But please note, if the room is used exclusively for your business, it could be treated as business premises and you could get charged capital gains tax, when you sell the house.

George Orwell’s Six Writing Tips

George Orwell has a lot to teach us budding writers. He was one of the greatest writers of the last century. He is probably best known for his novels, ‘Animal Farm’, and the very bleak story, ‘1984′, both of which give insights into his concerns on the political processes of the time.

He was also a very observant writer. In his book, ‘Down and Out in Paris and London’, he describes his personal experiences of living on the margins in the two cities of the title. In Homage to Catalonia, he describes his time as a volunteer in the disasterous Spanish Civil War. He was also a great essay writer. Two of my favourites are The Decline of the English Murder and Shooting an Elephant.

 

In his essay Politics and the English Language he analyses a number of writing styles and suggests the following six rules of good writing:

1. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print.
2. Never use a long word where a short one will do.
3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.
4. Never use the passive where you can use the active.
5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous.

The first five are sensible suggestions which writers of all genres and media should consider if they want to go beyond that of a hack writer.

However, the last rule is really saying if you know and understand the rules, then with some thought,  the writer can, and sometimes should, break them.

Good reference to Orwell’s Work