Adventures in Tax Land
Man, you'd think the Small Business Association or the SBCO (forget what that stands for, but it's like the SBA) would be the place to go with questions about starting your own business. Nope.
I called today with a couple of questions. Being - Can I claim business expenses which are incurred BEFORE I file my assumed business name? After I file, do I have to file quarterly sales tax reports, even if I I'm not selling anything yet? Likewise, do I have to file quarterly tax reports even before I actually have a product?
Nope. No help. They offered to send me a really informative book, but I already have it (and it was damn informative). First, she suggested I set up a meeting with a professional counselor to help me with my finances, but since my start-up cost is less than $200 until I actually need a website, that seemed dumb. So, no help at all.
Fortunately, after about 20 minutes of digging around on the state tax website, I found a phone number for questions not answered in the sites FAQ. THAT DUDE was a lot of help.
Turns out a) yes, because filing an assumed name doesn't mean you're starting that business, just that you're starting to do business under that name. I knew that, but wanted to make sure I was right. B) I don't have to get a tax ID number til I actually start selling crap, so good to go there. C)The quarterly tax report is not a quarterly tax report in the sense that you're filing an income tax. It's a tax ESTIMATE, and of course, it's easy as pie to estimate taxes on no earnings. Good to go, there.
So, for now, I'm set. $25 to file an assumed name. Bummer is though, I gotta spend another $80 to have a notice printed in legal newspapers for a couple a months after that. That'll have to wait, cause Wendy's birthday is Wednesday, and I gotsa get her some loot.
I called today with a couple of questions. Being - Can I claim business expenses which are incurred BEFORE I file my assumed business name? After I file, do I have to file quarterly sales tax reports, even if I I'm not selling anything yet? Likewise, do I have to file quarterly tax reports even before I actually have a product?
Nope. No help. They offered to send me a really informative book, but I already have it (and it was damn informative). First, she suggested I set up a meeting with a professional counselor to help me with my finances, but since my start-up cost is less than $200 until I actually need a website, that seemed dumb. So, no help at all.
Fortunately, after about 20 minutes of digging around on the state tax website, I found a phone number for questions not answered in the sites FAQ. THAT DUDE was a lot of help.
Turns out a) yes, because filing an assumed name doesn't mean you're starting that business, just that you're starting to do business under that name. I knew that, but wanted to make sure I was right. B) I don't have to get a tax ID number til I actually start selling crap, so good to go there. C)The quarterly tax report is not a quarterly tax report in the sense that you're filing an income tax. It's a tax ESTIMATE, and of course, it's easy as pie to estimate taxes on no earnings. Good to go, there.
So, for now, I'm set. $25 to file an assumed name. Bummer is though, I gotta spend another $80 to have a notice printed in legal newspapers for a couple a months after that. That'll have to wait, cause Wendy's birthday is Wednesday, and I gotsa get her some loot.
posted by Amazing Shafeman at 1:55 PM
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