Taxes And Penalties

Writers like to write.  But if you’re an indie author, you have to worry about that boring business stuff to…or else you will pay the price.

I recently had to pay a mild tax penalty because I misinterpreted the tax year.  I was under the impression that since I arrived in my new home in Tennessee at the beginning of December last year that I my fiscal year could run from December to December, with taxes due on the 15^th of the 4^th month following the end of the tax year(March 15^th, in my case).  Well, that wasn’t quite true.

Turns out that the state of Tennessee said that my taxes began fresh every January…meaning that I owed them for 2019.  It wasn’t all that much since I haven’t sold very many, but I had to pay a $27.50 tax penalty for late filing.  I jumped on it quick because I’m pretty paranoid over government taxation bureaus(lots of horror stories on that front).

So pay attention to your business.  Writing is great, and if you never want to sell a thing, then don’t worry about it.  However, for those of us with the dream to one day do this for a living, there are governmental rules and regulations that, like it or not, we have to pay attention to.  Otherwise, our next memoirs will be of prison time.