Self-employed Tax Solutions: Quick, Simple, Money-Saving, Audit-Proof Tax and Recordkeeping Basics for the Independent Professional (Paperback)

by June Walker (Author) "You say you're self-employed..." (more)
Key Phrases: business telephone expense, inflow log, excess casualty losses, Most Simple System, New York, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
June Walker tackles the most vexing problems facing the self-employed: bad recordkeeping and tax ignorance. Her solutions are simple, quick and audit proof: a recordkeeping method that works and a guide through the tax maze that ends with more money in the indie's pocket and less money going to Uncle Sam.

The self-employed operate under various names -- sole proprietors, freelancers, subcontractors, free agents, independent professionals - but the IRS and other taxing authorities require all of them to follow the same rules. If self-employed people don't understand tax and recordkeeping fundamentals, they will eventually gum up the works, and the remedy will be expensive, time-consuming, worrisome, and possibly fatal to their businesses - no matter how talented, motivated and entrepreneurial they are.

The author creates characters such as wedding photographer Billy Bridesnapper and the clueless CPA Sammy Segar to illustrate situations based on the real experiences of her clients. Through these examples told in clear, crisp and simple prose she explains the complete range of tax and recordkeeping basics - like how to prove to the IRS that the endeavor is a business not a hobby, how start-up costs differ from other deductions, how to go snorkeling and still deduct travel expenses, why a gift to mom can be a legitimate business deduction, why solos needn't worry about the difference between income and a reimbursement, how to make estimated tax payments, the structure and advantages of sole proprietorship, and hundreds of vital details about taxes, finances, and recordkeeping.

Armed with June's unique copyrighted worksheets designed just for the indie, her system takes only a few hours a year to implement, and saves time, anxiety and stress. Even the beginner who has never kept business records can easily learn it. Self Employed Tax Solutions explains how not to miss one single business deduction, how to pay the least tax legitimately possible and how to keep records so that accounting and tax preparer fees are reduced.

Self-Employed Tax Solutions is not written for dummies but for bright, intelligent people who don't understand the business side of their solo ventures. It's the one indispensable book that self-employed people need to survive and to succeed in a business environment where the tax laws and regulations are structured not for them but for corporations and employees.



From the Back Cover

Save Time, Anxiety, Stress-and Money!

Whether you call yourself a sole proprietor, freelancer, subcontractor, or free agent, if you're self-employed or planning to start your own business, you need this book. With straightforward language, concrete examples, and easy-to-use worksheets, author and accountant June Walker tackles the most vexing problems facing the self-employed: inadequate recordkeeping and tax ignorance. Her Most Simple System has been designed for you, the indie. It is simple, quick, and audit proof-a recordkeeping method that works, and a guide through the tax maze that ends with more money in your pocket, and less money going to the government.
Armed with the author's unique copyrighted worksheets, you'll capture every single business deduction, keep concise records so that accounting and tax preparer fees are reduced, and-best of all-do it quickly and easily.
Self-employed Tax Solutions is written for bright, intelligent people who don't understand the tax implications of their solo ventures. This indispensable book will help you survive and succeed in a business environment where the tax laws and regulations are structured not for indies but for corporations and employees.

You'll learn . . .
how to prove to the IRS that your endeavor is a business, not a hobby
how start-up costs differ from other deductions
how to deduct travel expenses
when a gift to Mom can be a legitimate business deduction

how to make estimated tax payments
the advantages of sole proprietorship
why you should not incorporate
hundreds of vital details about taxes, finances, and recordkeeping

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Globe Pequot; 1st edition (January 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0762730714
• ISBN-13: 978-0762730711
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #313,872 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

47 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book for a new Sole Proprietor!, January 9, 2005

By	Paul D. Gregg "pixphys" (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is a fun and great read!

I met June Walker via Google. I had a tax question about reimbursements from a client and went searching online. I found a great article on June Walker's website explaining the solution to the exact tax sitiuation I was in! I also found out that she had a book coming out soon, and after reading the tax explanation for my problem on her website, I knew I had to have her book.

After I recieved it, I couldn't put it down. All the tax myths I had heard about being an individual in business were suddenly cleared up by June Walker using lots of easy to understand, real life examples.

June Walker obviously has lots of experience with a diverse group of clients and is able to sum up the tax problem they were having and the solution she provided for them quickly and clearly.

If you are an individual and are ready to start your own business but fear the IRS and tax burden, get this book. It will rid you of the anxiety of keeping tax records for your own business and get you on the right track for providing clear simple tax records for your new business!

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Few Issues but Holding a Few Gems Too, December 23, 2006

By	Lisa Shea "LisaShea.com" - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

I pretty much never comment about the font a book is done in, but let me start out my review by saying that this book had the oddest font choice I've seen. The letters were very thin, squarish, and actually hard to read against the white. It made me realize just how important something like font can be in a book.

So, on to the content. This book is written by a self-employed person, for self-employed people, to help them manage their records for taxes. She doesn't want you to DO your taxes - she wants you to hire someone, like her, to do them for you :). She just wants you to be informed about what is going on, and to perhaps help prod your tax person along if they're not very good.

In case you were thinking this book was a mere "nice to have", she says in her introduction that "Such complications [of not handling this properly] could prove fatal to your enterprise." I love it how books say "you must buy me or you will DIE A HORRIBLE DEATH!!!" A page later, she promises "If you use this method, you will never miss a tax deduction" which I sort of doubt :) So this book has already hit a few of my buttons in book reading - threatening certain doom if I don't get the book, promising the moon, and being hard to read :)

Much of the first part of the book focusses on whether you should go into business for yourself, what it means to be self employed, and whether you should be a DBA, Sole Proprietor, LLC, etc. Hopefully anybody looking for tax solutions has already gone through those stages and isn't looking for all their information on these important decisions in a few pages of a tax book.

But on to the meat. When you get into the realm of *taxes*, the book really does well. It explains the difference between personal gifts (tax deductible up to $25 per person per year), entertainment expenses, free giveaway items (pens etc), charity donations, and more, in very clear language.

The book goes into travel deductions, home office deductions, leasing and buying equipment. It gives a ton of examples. Some people might find them annoying - I admit that many of them are quite silly. Still, it's easy enough to skip over them if you're not into cutesy examples, but if they help you absorb a concept, they are there for you to read.

Like with any business book, there are a lot of very common sense things in here - but a few very key tips. The interesting thing is of course that depending on who reads it, they might find different things to be fascinating vs well known. Something that one person says "of course" to, someone else might say "That'll save me thousands!" So it's good that all bases are covered in here.

Well recommended as a book to at least get out from your local library, or to get and share around your network of business-owning friends. It's not a book that I need to sit on my library shelf, but it was worthwhile to read and glean a few important tidbits from. I'll now pass it along to other business owners to let them pick out their own gems.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taxes Ain't Astrophysics; Both CAN be Readily Explained!, March 1, 2006

By	Sixtieschic (Santa Fe, NM) - See all my reviews

This book contains a plethora of legitimate, audit-proof suggestions, many of which are not on the radar of most CPAs, since they are accustomed to dealing with the W2 world.
The author has a very clear - without being condescending - way of delivering the advice. She's kind of the Carl Sagan of tax experts,using humor and common sense to give the reader a series of real-life suggestions to make major changes in both your record-keeping methods and your business attitude as an indie.
This is the very first book of its kind that I have encountered which is devoted solely to indies and our tax issues, and which honestly succeeds in addressing them in a straightforward, non-technical manner. Suggest it to every independent businessperson you know...and give it to the ones you really love.