Today I went to my tax accountant to discuss my \u201croyalties.\u201d\u00a0 I waited until now because tax season is much too hectic to talk about 2026 issues to people in that profession.\u00a0 I have had a few unhappy incidents with the tax man and I go way out of my way to make sure that doesn\u2019t happen again.<\/p>\n
Now this is my new accountant.\u00a0 In fact, he\u2019s the grandson of my old accountant.\u00a0 His grandfather is retiring soon so I\u2019m sort of an inheritance.\u00a0 When I arrived, I saw a kid walking in the front door and after waiting in the waiting room for a few minutes that same kid turned out to be my accountant.\u00a0 But despite his youthful appearance he proved up to the job of assuaging my fears about ending up in an IRS gulag for high crimes and misdemeanors against the tax code.\u00a0 Specifically, I was worried that maybe there was some kind of monthly reporting and payment I needed to perform for both the state and federal systems.\u00a0 I remember when I was dealing with a state agency that required businesses to collect and pay sales tax monthly.<\/p>\n
He explained to me that unless I was profiting to the tune of several thousand dollars a month, I wouldn\u2019t need to send any money to the feds but even if I did, I\u2019d be getting it back if I had enough \u201cexpenses\u201d (like Amazon Ads and marketing fees) to cover the royalties I received.<\/p>\n
At the mention of expenses, I barked a bitter laugh.\u00a0 I told him the idea that I was profiting from my sales was laughable in the extreme.\u00a0 Basically, a first book (barring some miraculous viral publicity) was a loss leader for the rest of the sequels.\u00a0 He agreed that his other author clients had told him about what it took to grow a book business but he also warned me that the feds only give you three years to turn a profit before they stop considering it a business and declare it a hobby for which expenses are not credited.\u00a0 Well, we\u2019ll have to see about that.<\/p>\n
So, we agreed I\u2019d check back with him in June to see if I was any closer to needing to send some cash to the feds.\u00a0 And he didn\u2019t want to take a fee for his services today but I insisted.\u00a0 The information I got had so eased my mind that I felt I would be robbing him of a well-earned reward if I didn\u2019t give him fifty bucks.\u00a0 I mean people who go to therapy to ease their minds pay their psychiatrists many hundreds of dollars and get less peace of mind than I did today.\u00a0 I would have felt like a thief if I walked out for nothing.<\/p>\n
And looking at my book\u2019s Amazon page, I had two new very complimentary reviews.\u00a0 One was from a friend of mine.\u00a0 He disclosed our relationship but it was still a very good review.\u00a0 And another one was from someone who was an Iraq War vet who enjoyed the scenes in the desert.\u00a0 That kind of made my day.\u00a0 So today is a good day to be a writer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I went to my tax accountant to discuss my \u201croyalties.\u201d\u00a0 I waited until now because tax season is much too hectic to talk about<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3366,1289,1263],"tags":[76,1290,265,1176],"class_list":["post-36825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life-in-dunwich","category-fiction-by-me","category-stuff-that-personally-interests-me-miscellaneous","tag-fiction-writing","tag-my-fiction","tag-science-fiction","tag-science-fiction-and-fantasy"],"yoast_head":"\n