This part of the series is probably the most important one.

For the love of everything holy- don’t try and skip paying taxes: Uncle Sam always comes for his share. You want to owe the state and federal government less money so it’s important to record any and all expenses made by your business for deductions. From packing tape to shipping labels and everything in between, keep the receipts.

I screwed this one up royally and am now having to pay a tax professional extra to amend a return I had screwed up a few years prior. Idiots will tell you that “just use your Venmo or Cash App account” but all payment apps produce 1099s that are sent to both you and the government. There was a change in policy over the last 6 years that made it so other states now have the same $600 threshold that Massachusetts has, they have automated all these 1099s to be sent out via email now.

I won’t use this platform to blast my financial errors, but I share this tidbit in hopes of others not making the same mistakes I did. They don’t catch you right away, or the year after but they DO inevitably end up coming for their money one way or another. Tax debt is an ugly one you don’t want to mess around with when it can be so easily prevented.

When running a business it’s safest to put aside 25% of all sales towards taxes. You’re not going to owe that much but it’s better to have a larger nest egg of savings for tax time than to be trying to scrap that up before the due date. Learn from my mistakes people as the interest on tax debt wracks up quite quickly and can be crippling. Writing down each purchase as it’s spent is a much better option than to wait until the next year’s tax time and try and sort through all your emails then. Thinking “I don’t make enough money for this to be an issue” is a rookie move and the furthest thing from the truth. The federal government is a bunch of greedy fucks, of course they aren’t going to allow the general public to start skipping out of their tax debts.