Death & Taxes

Well, yea, death and taxes… they are inevitable. We all will die (morbid, I know) but hopefully later than sooner. Regardless of how well you prepare and how well you take care of yourself, there are never any guarantees in life – you WILL DIE.

Similarly, if you are an entrepreneur or heck, a member of the working class, there is little to any way out of taxes. You will work your butt off every day, 40 hours + a week and will be lucky to see 80% of that since the government has their hand out for social security, federal and state income taxes, Medicare and depending on where you work, your HR may have your benefits taken out (but this is a good thing when it comes to total tax).  In the end, there are loopholes, but you will still have to deal with it – taxes.

Bottom line – It is how you prepare that can make the difference.

If you live your life to the fullest, love those that are around you every day, prepare a will and have life insurance (essentially) to help take care of those that are left behind, it can make a difference. It won’t make your passing any better for them, but can help. If you are waiting to live your life after “this” happens and “this” never happens and you pass, you may be missing out on many things.

Whether you are an employee or an entrepreneur, live your life to the fullest, live like you have no tomorrows because you never know if this is your last today. As morbid as it is, speak with your insurance agent about a living will, especially if you will be leaving someone behind and be prepared for those “what-ifs”.  Working 80 hours a week for your business won’t get you to a special gate in the heavens, or whatever you believe, it will put you one step closer to more money, maybe, but also higher stress, less enjoyment out of life (likely) and less time with those you love.

Be sure you take time out for yourself and spend time with those you love. Life has no guarantees

Taxes are inevitable

How you prepare every day or month of the year can determine how you can manage during the beginning of tax season. If you do nothing, sure you could still manage, but you will be spending more time trying to find all of those darned receipts and write-offs.

Wouldn’t you rather be prepared? Here are some thoughts to help

• Take daily/weekly/monthly steps to prepare your books or records for tax time.
  • Ask a bookkeeper or virtual assistant for other tips
• You can file away receipts that are noted in a spreadsheet for later reference
• Write on receipts as you get them to help you remember who that lunch was with, and why
• Save other write-offs in other folders for easy organizing – medical expenses, insurance, credit cards, bank statements, home office bills for easy reference
• Note monthly or annual expenses in a column of your spreadsheet so you can recollect if you had noted it every month (use the folders to find the exact amount)
• Don’t forget your business formation fees, chamber or organization fees, meals to attend these events

Sure, there are plenty of other business expenses you will want to write off and it will depend on your business, your role and etc, but the point is to plan ahead and prepare throughout the year as “extra time” just doesn’t exist when it comes to working parents and entrepreneurs.

Don’t forget to outsource

You can always outsource your tax preparation or organizing to a virtual assistant, tax professional, bookkeeper and the like and write those expenses off.

Small business owners are my passion

So, this one was a little off my normal blog but thought it was appropriate for small business owners, such as you, and I want to help you with your business. We need to stick together and help each other out however we can. It’s tough being a single working parent or entrepreneur.

Lastly, I want to help your business grow! If you need help with putting your business in front of more virtual eyes, I can help you with search engine optimization, paid ads on Google and social media marketing whether I do it for you or I teach you how you can do it that is up to you.  Don’t forget, those services are tax write-offs! 😉

Hope this was helpful. Your time is valuable and should be spent wisely. I don’t know about you, but working on my taxes as part of my daily routine is definitely more ideal than working on it for 40 + hours a week until it’s done come tax season.

Hope you are blessed this year with a prosperous business, healthy life and are surrounded and loved by many!  Please feel free to share your tax organizing or death preparation tips below. 😉

~Kristen

Kristen Day

CEO/Founder of A Visual Business

Kristen is a small business owner and thus dedicated to other small business owners by helping them improve their online presence with search engine optimization, social media marketing, email marketing and pay per click advertising all of which are necessary 'evils' in the digital marketing sphere but enables small business owners the opportunity to compete with larger companies. When not in the digital arena, you can find her riding her Honda VTX1300 or drinking a margarita.