I'm heading over to my tax accountant this evening, with my 1099(s), writer royalties and so on; fairly meager on paper but it still feeds my ego (eggo, whatever). On the expenses side: two internet domains, cell service, two web hosting agreements (one with GoDaddy), MVP chauffeuring service expenses, various office supplies. Again, it's a meager "begging bowl + mattress" level of a living (I exaggerate, I own a home).
Getting my taxes done costs more than I owe the two governments, both the federation (nominally run from DC) and the local state (Oregon, run from Salem). We say Cascadia is the bioregion, which is weight-bearing, psychologically speaking, but nothing the UN needs to worry its little head about.
Because I need this yearly statement of income and expenses to come together, I'm busy going online and consulting all of my various services. The MVP thing has to do with M4W and took place in August of last year. For the most part, I was working for Clarusway as a much-needed swap in. I lucked out.
Just today I modified my LinkedIn banner page to say I was available for a 2-3 session workshop (actually I didn't specify the number) likely over Zoom, and hosted by the institution I'm visiting (so B2B). That hasn't been the basis of my business so far, so who knows how it'll go. I'm still "the Python guy" to people around me. My multi-part class for Wanderers, Allen Taylor present, was prototypical, if in person.
My orbit gets projected ahead in science fiction using "business mobile" terminology, as if I'm already enjoying this futuristic lifestyle, versus being more sedentary. In reality, I'm pretty sedentary although I did get up Mt. Tabor yesterday and to Laurelhurst Park the day before that. I'm an armchair bizmo pilot doing Truckers for Peace between my ears. Look ma, no goggles.
Back to 4D Solutions: I pinned a tiny org chart of my business on Medium, for those caring to dig down. The reason I file over such meager amounts is I want to stay in the game as an independent, one of those entrepreneurs everyone talks about. But as a Quaker, I'm not expected to grow uncontrollably or "go viral". Our business models do not assume open-ended growth is a good thing. Maybe it is. Just sayin'. Case by case, know what I mean?
4D Solutions got started (and remains) as a DBA (business alias) of Dawn Wicca and Associates, but that was a partnership, so when Dawn died I had to start filing as a sole proprietorship. So we're talking a 1040, but with a track record. Dawn and I were both active players in Greater Portland's nonprofit community, she as a bookkeeper, me as a consultant-programmer. Yesterday was an anniversary of Dawn's death, March 17, 2007. We became a business partnership well before we got married.
Addendum: since I didn't drive to work sites so much in 2023, I swapped out claiming mileage in favor of filling out the home office form. My home office could declare a percentage of home expenses as business expenses, thereby lowering my taxable income by a tad.
Getting that info together required quick footwork, as my appointment had already started yet I wasn't thinking to go the home office route. My preparer gave me some time to dash home, export bank statements as csv files, read them in with pandas in Jupyter, and search on strings in the name column to isolate utility payments (water, heat, electricity). I dashed to her office in the car, numbers in hand, plus my home's square footage which I remembered I could get from Zillow (the app).
I wound up with self-employment payments only, which I'll hope to get back out in the form of Social Security income, once I sign up for it eventually, plus a kicker from the state (Oregon has that). I also pay TriMet and the Arts Tax. Federal and state taxes were electronically filed, I just need to follow up with my payments. I have until April 15 to do that (Rosalie's birthday), but won't wait until then.
