HomeBizNotes.comDepending on the products you sell or the services you provide, you may find an additional tax on these items if you live in New Mexico (USA).  According to an article at Levine Breaking News, US State Wants to Tax TVs, Video Games to Fight Fat, Fund Education, a Democratic lawmaker, along with the Sierra Club, proposes that a tax be levied on the sale of televisions and video games. Their reasoning is that use of these items result in lack of exercise which, in turn, leads to obesity in children and poor performance at school.
If this law passes in New …read more

HomeBizNotes.com
With this talk about tax rebates to stimulate the economy in the United States, do you wonder how it will affect your home business?
If the rebates do go through, who will pay for them? There’s no free lunch, much as some people think there is. Someone has to pay.
So will our taxes eventually go up to do it, both business and personal?
Is this handout being considered because it’s Presidential Election Year? Is this just another way for candidates to “buy” the votes? Will those who advocate the largest handout/rebate get the most votes? Then who will figure out whom to …read more

HomeBizNotes.com 
Tax time is approaching so you’ll want to get all your facts and figures together.  Kelly Erb at Taxgirl is sponsoring a contest, Win Free Tax Software on Taxgirl, with the prize being software from TaxAct for five lucky winners.
All you need to do is post your tax horror story in the comments section of Kelly’s blog.
So what are you waiting for? Tell us your story – what’s the worst thing that ever happened to you while filing – or the thing you hate most about filing taxes?
What’s your story?
(c)2008 Mary Emma Allen

HomeBizNotes.com 
With the end of the year in sight, our minds will be turning to taxes…at least for individuals and business owners in the United States.  What can we still deduct, purchase, invest?
Kelly Phillips Erb at Taxgirl has some answers to tax questions in Ask the Taxgirl: Blogging Reviews .  As blogging reviewers, product testers, book reviewers, and such…what are one’s tax obligations and deductions?  What do you have to claim as income and what is a business expense?  What if you purchase something to review?  Can you deduct it if you do use it?
These and other similar questions may come to mind as …read more

The end of 2007 is approaching faster than most of us would like to think about…and that means we must consider wrapping things up taxwise.
Kelly, at Taxgirl, will be answering year end tax questions about charitable donations, individual tax planning or reporting.  For submitting your question, Ask the Taxgirl.

Kelly, at Taxgirl, gives us something to think about today on her Fix the Tax Code Friday question.  She extends the discussion about deductions that she initiated on her Problogger guest post.
Should there be a separate Standard Deduction alternative for self-employed persons?
She also has another very good post on deductions for home businesses here….  Some of this deals with the home office, a facet of taxes that home business owners definitely encounter.

“What can businesses deduct?” Kelly Phillips Erb, from Taxgirl, says is one of the most frequent inquiries she receives.
Kelly has answered this in a guest post at Problogger, 46 Tax Deductions that Bloggers Often Overlook.  Even though this post is directed at bloggers (one type of home business), most of the deductions are applicable for any home business…whether you’re operating solely on the Internet, utilizing a walk-in shop, or combining the two.
Your business may have added deductions…or may not be able to use all of these.  However, take a look and begin thinking about those that could apply to you.  Kelly also offers …read more

Whether one collects sales tax for mail order and Internet sales often presents a quandry for the home business owner. 
*What if you live in a no tax state but sell to customers in a state where there is a sales tax?
*What if you have a sales tax in your state and sell to someone in another sales tax state?
*What happens when you and your customer both live in the same state that has a sales tax?
*Do you collect sales tax if you visit another state to teach a workshop or give presentations and sell items while there?
These and other scenarios …read more

Kelly, at Taxgirl, brought up an interesting point in her post, iPhone,uTax, concerning gifts from businesses to employees.  She connected this information with Apple giving it’s employees free iPhones.  However, those phones aren’t completely free come tax time.  They’re considered compensation, and as such, should show up on the employees’ W-2’s.
If you have employees in your home business, and you give them gifts, you’ll want to read Kelly’s post, and if necessary, get additional information to see the specific details.

Tammy Powley, who writes b5media’s Jewelry & Beading blog, has written at least two posts recently about getting the information ready for her taxes. It’s sometimes interesting and informative to learn what someone else is doing.
“This [taxes] is one of the things a lot of jewelry makers [and other home business people] don’t think about when they want to start doing jewelry and beading as a business,” mentioned Tammy
Her post, Tax Bead-Time Cometh, gives you her insight into what works for her. Tammy also mentions why she has begun having an accountant prepare her taxes.
Tammy posted …read more