As artists and freelancers, “life (hopefully) isn’t all business; however, life is also far too complex to continually be seen as art.” (quoted from Fox Tax) Knowing even a small amount about taxes can help you balance the oft-conflicting necessities of Life, Business and Art. By understanding the foundations of taxes and what can and cannot be written off, you will be able to shop around for an appropriate professional tax planning and preparation service for individuals and small businesses.

Best tip? “Organize! Organize! Organize! Those are the best 3 tips for any artistic professional, especially those who are self-employed or are independent contractors. If you don’t organize your records, who will? And if you don’t, you’ll lose valuable deductions on your individual and business tax returns.

Keep careful records of your expenditures and the receipts that prove that you spent the money. Conduct yourself as a consummate business professional, so that your website, promotional efforts, business bank account and other indications of your standing in the community are unimpeachable.”

DISCLAIMER: I am not a tax professional, and I am merely providing guidelines, which my own tax professional, Fox Tax, has provided to me. We will use their tax organizers to check in on your financial tracking twice this semester.

STEP 1: Check out the Tax organizers

Every year, Fox Tax posts new organizers for their clients. You can use this free template to organize your finances before submitting your paperwork to a tax service or doing your taxes on your own.

http://www.foxtaxservice.com/tax-organizers/

STEP 2: Start collecting and organizing your receipts

Everyone approaches this process differently, and I encourage you to find a system that works best for you. However, for the purposes of this class, you will submit your receipts (scanned if you prefer not to submit the originals) labeled and paper-clipped together according to the categories indicated on the tax organizers.

STEP 3: Turn in

At mid-term and final, you will turn in your receipts and completed tax organizers (please do not fill in private info like social security number, etc). They will be physically due in class.

GRADING:

15 points – at Midterm = at least 5 receipts and the completed tax organizers

15 points – at Final = at least 10 receipts and the completed tax organizers