If you did file an extension, and if you haven't already been working on getting your taxes prepared, you better get busy because your extension lasts only until October 15th.  Oh, I scared myself just for a minute there, I was hoping it was October, and not September. Whew.

Anyway, I have worked on getting all of Mr. A's information from 2008 into Quickbooks in the past few weeks. Curse the day I chose to use Simple Start; I'm sure it made my life much harder than it would have been had I used Quickbooks Pro from the beginning.

But that is in the past now, thank goodness.

While we talking about taxes, I was just wondering how you handle your blogging income. You do know you are supposed to claim your blogging income, right?  I guess the rule of thumb for having self-employed income is to consider that 30% of it will go to income taxes.  Of course you can deduct any direct expenses associated with your blog, like your domain registration, hosting fees, and maybe even a portion of your internet connection.  You could also deduct the portion of your home that you use for blogging.  But be aware that you can ONLY do business related work in that area of your home you are claiming for taxes. You should not be checking personal email there, or paying your bills, even though it is a personal finance related activity.

I am unable to claim any part of our home for Mr. A's business, although I hope one day to be able to, as I do need an office area. It would sure make my life a lot easier if I had a real desk to work on, and plenty of room, and places to store all the paperwork.

I guess after reading this article, I was a bit relieved that we're not deducting any portion of our home, as I would have to fill out one more schedule in order to take the deduction (Form 8829 in case you're wondering).

On Saturday I did all the double checking for Mr. A's businesses, to make sure I hadn't forgotten anything. I kept records in Quicken and Quickbooks for 2008, so I have two ways to verify, which is kind of nice. Although since I'm using Quickbooks more fully this year, I anticipate taxes will be much easier next year.  On Sunday I went through all the schedules I have to fill out, and penciled in the numbers.  Hopefully I calculated properly, if so, we may actually have overpaid (just barely).

It is finally beginning to cool down a little bit in the Arizona desert… well, that's in the early morning. Sunday morning it was 58°F out. I hear tell it's supposed to get back up to 105°F during the week.

Have a lovely day – I'll try to announce the winners soon!

Yours Truly,