Nothing is certain but death and taxes

[Brother_Bliss]

Well, the work has come to a halt, so now it is time to catch up on the books and begin to prepare taxes. I have been SO busy out on the jobs, that I have let bookkeeping slide for the last 9 months. I am going to be miserable for the next week as I spend all day entering receipts.

Anybody else have a business and make this mistake of not keeping the books current?

[Musky]

I feel for you brother!

I have been in this situation and vowed never to let it happen again. I was so busy with a business once that I actually got behind a few years in taxes. I filed the extensions and paid the penalties, but when the time finally came to playing "catch up" it was a nightmare!

Since then, I have bitten the bullet and filed as early as possible!

[LeslieDean]

I wish I could say no. I am purchasing a scanner/organizer todY to help with that very thing-entering receipts , etc . I will let you know how it goes. I can't wIt for our righteous goverent to take over---we mY be at the point that death is the only thing that is not certain ---but taxes. YES!

[ava]

Well, the work has come to a halt, so now it is time to catch up on the books and begin to prepare taxes. I have been SO busy out on the jobs, that I have let bookkeeping slide for the last 9 months. I am going to be miserable for the next week as I spend all day entering receipts.

Anybody else have a business and make this mistake of not keeping the books current?

So are you letting us know in advance that you may not be in a very good mood this week, lol.

Just messing with you.

Sounds awful what you have to do, hope you get through it with your sanity!

[steeringwheel]

Yes, I have had several businesses over the years in Ohio & Texas. I just have rental property now. Yes, you have to be half-bookeeper to have any legal business. I hated doing the payroll with its taxes especially. Wish I would have had computer then. A few years ago, I had over 1/2 yr. books on computer, when it crashed & lost them. And I had a few checks go out that didn't have enough 'magnetic' ink on them. So now I do Everything by 'hand' again. I have my spreadsheets totaled already. Just hate 1st of year, as property taxes are due; and I Never have enough saved ( since they doubled 2 yrs. ago). Then IRS? .........Have Fun........

[Brother_Bliss]

I wish I could say no. I am purchasing a scanner/organizer todY to help with that very thing-entering receipts , etc . I will let you know how it goes. I can't wIt for our righteous goverent to take over---we mY be at the point that death is the only thing that is not certain ---but taxes. YES!

All my receipts are in a box where I kept tossing them when my wallet became to thick and fat in my back pocket. I have to enter each one in Quickbooks, separate them into monthly folders, and look at my purchases to decide how I want to categorize them - for example, how much of this receipt was "supplies" vs "job materials" verses "office items" etc.

Though I suppose that latter part is really just for me. I could always just say 'these are my total expenses' and the IRS can just eat it - but I figure if I have always categorized every item purchased in the past, and then suddenly stop, it will raise a red flag and I will get audited.

I have no fear of being audited - as I am an honest man (Romans 13) - but I have heard it is a pain in the neck thing to have to go through.

[Brother_Bliss]

And I had a few checks go out that didn't have enough 'magnetic' ink on them.

I print checks all the time on an ordinary ink jet printer and have never bothered with getting a laser printer with magnetic ink that is supposedly required.

I have NEVER had one of my subs bring a check back claiming that the bank would not accept it.

Today, some banks have mobile phone apps and you can make a deposit from your own kitchen table. Photograph the front and signed back of the check, type the amount into your phone, and click Send. Hold onto the check just long enough to make sure the money was deposited and cleared and then you can toss it away.

[steeringwheel]

I think my main problem with checks was in the 'routing' # not being read to go to my bank. Example was check for vehicle insurance, got kicked back by routing company to them. They just called me & I replaced check. But I quit doing banking/checking online; ( although I do for cong. to society, that's easy).

[sianrose]

I had to look up IRS...http://www.irs.gov/ my daughter works for the HM Revenue & Customs..at the main Tax Office in Cardiff... http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/ she deals with tax credits... the other week they all went on strike...its a long running dispute with the government...she did go on the picket line... ( but she no longer comes to meetings) so it was because she not that part of the union... I want to start a thread about " Strikes...and Jehovahs Witnesses ..." which forum...do you think would be best?

Tax Office, Llanishen, Cardiff

[sianrose]

.she did go on the picket line...

that should be... she did... not...go on the picket line( because her part of the union did not)

[Brother_Bliss]

I want to start a thread about " Strikes...and Jehovahs Witnesses ..." which forum...do you think would be best?

Here are the posting guidelines...

http://www.jwtalk.net/forum/read.php?19,69699,69699#msg-69699

It would be an Interchange topic - "Should Jehovah's Witnesses Stop Work When Their Union Goes on Strike?"

Of course, it would be just another discussion about conscience matters, regulated by the degree of politics involved.

[retroHelen]

'm the one who has to do our accounts and spreadsheets for our little self-employed business. We have to employ an accountant, which is quite expensive, as I do not understand the pages of paperwork from the Income Tax office and scared I make a big mistake. One year the Tax Office sent us a tax bill for the equivalent of $17 000. My husband was 250 miles away trying to sell something and I rang him and he felt he had to come home to help to sort it out. I rang the accountant's office and they went straight round to the Tax Office to find out what was wrong. It transpired they lost 3 years of our tax information and sent the bill to get us to come up with the evidence that we did not owe it!! We and the accountant were 'not amused' - in fact I was terrified as we hadn't a bean in the bank. Visions of us' languishing at her Majesty's pleasure' (euphemism here for going to jail- 'Her Majesty's Prisons') before we found out what was wrong.

This is how the government deals with it's citizens here - guilty until you prove otherwise. It's the same with Local Council tax we pay at £100 per month. Until we could set up a Direct Debit with them, we used to have to queue at their office, pay with a card they issue and they would not give a receipt, so you only had proof if you paid by cheque or debit/credit card.About twice a year, we could guarantee the clerk would forget to enter our payment to our account and rather than sending a reminder, we would get a Court Summons to the Courtrooms 15 miles away and my husband would have to go and show his bank statements and they decide if he or the Council paid the court costs. Sometimes they claimed we paid late and we had to pay court costs, when actually others discovered that the Council clerk had tallied all the payments piled up in her in tray at the end of the week, rather than when my husband went there.

[GrumpysWife]

That's crazy....and not a bean in the bank?

That's why we always had an accountant. I tried the 1 st year we were in business, but after that, no way.

[steeringwheel]

I've always liked regular math, & took about 3 months bookkeeping in school through Vocational Agriculture. I've done a lot of books operating several businesses. When I had a partner in operating 4 gas stations, I did all the books except we had a accountant that went over the quarterly reports. A few years ago, I found a mistake in my IRS taxes (myself) from the previous year. I sent in the correction & paid tax & penalty due. It took them 5 years to adjust their records & I am still waiting to go get them to update my social security records. It's funny to me that you can call these people on phone & 3 different people will give you 3 different answers. Big difference from Jehovah's organization.

[sianrose]

I sent in the correction & paid tax & penalty due. It took them 5 years to adjust their records & I am still waiting to go get them to update my social security records. It's funny to me that you can call these people on phone & 3 different people will give you 3 different answers.

It must be like the UK one...my daughter says morale is very low where she works...they are always implementing different procedures...which some know about and others do not...there is no cohesion...not only from the different departments...but in the same department...

a bit back there was a major computer problem...and people were having the wrong amounts of money paided in...and she had to deal with people who had not had there tax credits paid to them...and they were people in genuine hardship situations because they had no money...and as you can imagine getting very upset...