*This chart is made to give you an idea of what your deductions should be, and provide a simpler way to think about them in general. If you are unsure about ANY DEDUCTION, please check with a tax professional.
There are a lot of things to know when it comes to taxes. So it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
But don’t be!! On the surface, taxes seem weird and boring.. but I promise, knowing the basics about how they work can be really useful!
Also. Taxes are kind of fun… not like "sit-down-in-front-of-the-fire-with-a-drink-and-a-copy-of-the-tax-code" fun, but like “I-find-that-interesting-and-see-how-it-applies-to-my-life” kind of fun…
Okay. So just because I think they’re fun doesn’t mean you will, but we’re all going to be paying taxes for the rest of our lives. And for the artist/freelancer types, understanding how taxes work is really important to your business.
Most importantly, knowing how much tax the government wants from you, and ways that you can lower that amount... will save you sweet sweet dollars.
And honestly, it’s pretty easy…. Not the crazy parts (that’s why you find an accountant who just loves the stuff… like my accountant (who is awesome))…. But the basics.
Seriously. When I say it’s easy, I am speaking to the lowest bar possible. Me. I knew nothing. I mean … nothing. It’s amazing to me how much education I managed to pick up and still completely avoid any real knowledge about taxes. I honestly don’t know if that was because no one ever talked about it, or whether it was due to my amazing skills of avoidance and denial.
But now I know a little more, and it really helps.
Mainly I think it’s cool to know how it all works. You want to be cool… don’t you?
Of course you do.
So take a deep breath, and get just a little bit excited.
I promise… it’s going to be fun! (more…)
So it’s tax season.
Well. Kind of. For us self-employed folk (at least in Canada), we technically have until the middle of June to file (although if you owe tax it’s due on April 30th… and I definitely owe tax).
But this is the season when everyone begins to talk about taxes.
And so, inevitably, I start thinking about maybe getting started…
Every year I aim to be done earlier… and well, every year it ends up being the same story; I sneak in just before the deadline.
It’s amazing how, with the sorting of the very first receipt, I’m right back in the pattern I left a year ago, the whole ‘tax ritual’ comes back to me…
So in honour of kicking off tax season, I present to you, my 5 stages of dealing with Tax Grief: (more…)
One of the many things they don’t tell you in music school is what you’re really signing up for. I knew the job would take talent, and hard work, and a whole lot of luck. But what I didn’t realize was that I was on the path to becoming an entrepreneur, and I would spend every day from here on out running my own business.
I read something the other day that made the very astute point that "being a freelancer is basically like owning your own business."
No. Incorrect. Being a freelancer is not “like” having your own business. It IS having your own business.
It’s not semantics, it’s how the government sees you, and it’s about time you started seeing yourself in the same way.
So today, a few of the questions you might have (I sure had them) about being a newly minted (even if you’ve been at it for awhile now) business owner. (more…)
My resume is terrible. I have only had one real job in my life, for one summer, and that was almost ten years ago. There are times when I am proud of this fact, and other times when it’s more on the “extreme shame” side of things. I’ve spent most of my life working as either a farmer or an artist; two jobs that can fill the day with work, but are difficult to translate in to “resume” type experience.
But I did have that one summer, in which I experienced the sinking feeling of opening your first paycheque and realizing how much smaller it is than you were expecting.
You know it well… there must be something wrong! Where has all my money gone?
Well, I hate to break it to you: It wasn’t your money. (more…)
So I’d finally made it.
I’d moved out to Toronto a few years previously, survived Opera School, and was heading to a real job! Well… as real as a job wearing a costume and shouting Italian across a room will ever be.
Not only was I going to be performing in a world class hall, and working with world class performers and teachers, I was going to get PAID!
For being an artist.
Living. The. Dream. (more…)
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