Sometimes the answer is yes, but you have to be very careful, because the IRS doesn’t look kindly on schemes to make up business expenses.  So determining what you can or can’t claim can be kind of like walking a fence line.

For example, as a freelance writer I might take a vacation and write a few travel articles on my destinations.  But if all I do is write a restaurant review, I’ll be hard pressed to justify the plane tickets back and forth, unless going to that restaurant truly was the only reason I went.

As another example, say I have a friend in Canada and I’d like to go visit and see some of the sights.  Well, just visiting the friend might not be a good enough reason to stand up under an audit, even if the friend is a colleague.  If the friend is a potential client, it might work, but again that would depend on what I do while I’m there.  The IRS might believe that a golf game is a valid business expense, or even a trip to attend a professional conference, but a one-week holiday in Lake Louise, Canada?  Probably not.

Basically, business entertainment expenses must be valid costs of doing business.  They don’t have to be indispensible, but they should be reasonable and not a stretch of the imagination.  So think twice before you go claiming your Banff ski vacation as a business expense, and be sure to consult your tax attorney or accountant before doing anything too drastic!

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I think once I have managed to do that, which I think should be able to happen within this next upcoming year or maybe depending on how it all goes and what kind of additional jobs I can find, hopefully no longer than the year after that, I think then I would like to either go back to school or maybe spend a stint abroad and go traveling for awhile. I do know though that no matter what I do I am not going to get in debt again.

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It all could have been prevented too, at least the financial ruin of it all if not his disability and the accident, if he had just taken the time to look into disability insurance. I feel so incredibly bad for the guy because he realizes this now but of course now it is way too late. He really beats himself up for what he has done to himself and his family with his ignorance. Like life is not hard enough for him now. I just hope that his pain can be a lesson for other people.

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Many people today are taking an interest in the growing opportunity to sell gold for cash. This allows people to get rid of the gold jewelry or scrap gold that they don’t want anymore and to earn a little bit of spending money for their efforts.

The three most common ways that people sell gold today are as follows:

1. Online pawn shops. The best method of selling gold right now is to use online pawn shops that specialize in the purchase of gold jewelry. These are often the most efficient places for selling gold.
2. Local jewelers. Your local jeweler may buy gold from you. You will likely get the most money from the sale this way but these people are picky so the sale may not happen at all.
3. Television buyers. TV ads offer ways of selling gold through different businesses. This is an option but it’s typically not recommended because these ones often pay the least for your gold.

Of course, there are other ways to sell your gold like going to a local pawn shop or having a yard sale but the three aforementioned methods are the most common ones used for selling gold today.

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For the longest time, premium finance theft has been something that people have had to avoid. This often happens when they think they have cheap life insurance on the line, only to realize that the company they are dealing with is not on the up and up. The issue here is that individuals get hoodwinked as a financing company falsifies information, rendering their life insurance coverage basically useless. What good is your insurance if you can’t collect on it?

It seems as if this type of stuff is going away now, though. The recent crackdowns have made it so that companies have a much harder time getting away with this sort of misdealing. In general, if you will look for and find an honest company, you won’t have to worry about the hassles associated with this occasional occurrence.

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In addition, there are many people who strongly dislike PayPal for their policies and the way they behave toward the “little man.”  eBay has practically made PayPal into a monopoly on the auction site by mandating that all payments be made online now — and of course, PayPal is the primary service provider for online payments for small-time sellers like those on eBay.  This has therefore angered many sellers (and buyers!) on eBay.

PayPal leaves a lot to be desired, so you may want to try to find another way to accept payments online.  Here are a few options for all you rebels:

1. Google Checkout.  Google’s answer to PayPal is a similar system called Google Checkout.  Initially they offered a lot of cut-rate fees that made this alternative much less expensive or even free.  Even recently, their fees were considerably lower than PayPal’s.  Now, however, Google Checkout will be raising their fees to match PayPal’s.  Still, if you simply want to avoid supporting a big-business type of company like PayPal, you might choose Checkout just on principle.
2. Paymate.  This appears to be an option primarily for Australian sellers, as it deposits the funds directly into your Australian bank account, but it is an alternative that is accepted on eBay as well as elsewhere.  Additionally, people without accounts can use Paymate to pay, by entering their credit card numbers on a secure payment page just as they would on, say, Amazon.com.
3. MOTO processing.  There are still many services to choose from for MOTO (mail order/telephone order) and online payment processing.  If you process a large volume of transactions, most likely this will be your most cost effective option.  Do a search online and make sure you get a deal that will benefit your business!

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Here are some basic tips for keeping costs down when building an outdoor kitchen:

• Make sure that you shop around. Different brands for each outdoor kitchen item can vary widely in price and between retailers so take the time to make sure you get the best price.
• Try to buy items in bulk. For example, if you’re buying a fire magic bbq island, see if you can get one that includes additional fire magic outdoor kitchen accessories such as timers and utensils.
• Try to go DIY with as much of the work as you can. Build your own outdoor kitchen cabinets instead of buying them, for example. This can significantly reduce costs of both products and labor.
• Don’t rush to get it all done today. If you get the basics of your outdoor kitchen complete, the rest can be bought piece-by-piece over time. This allows you to budget money and spend only when you have the extra cash.

An outdoor kitchen is a great addition to a home and a great home project for spring. Just make sure that you do what you can to keep costs down so that you stay glad that you embarked on this project!

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Tax Day is April 15, 2009, which means it’s coming up quickly — exactly 2 months away now!

I don’t know about you, but I’m a little alarmed at how quickly Tax Day is approaching this year.  I don’t feel like I’m organized enough for this yet.  The last couple of years, I’ve had everything practically done by this point, but this year it is going to be much, much harder to get to that point.

As a small business owner, filing taxes isn’t quite as easy as if you just have a job, a W-2, and a bunch of money owed back to you.  A small business owner needs to keep records of everything, for one thing.  You also have to add up all of your income separately, all of your expenses separately, and subtrack your expenses from your income in order to arrive at a net income.

Is your head spinning with all of that yet?  Mine is.  But wait — it gets worse.  You also have to worry about major operations such as cost segmentation.  Cost seg helps you to determine whether you have classified business property to your best advantage.  If you haven’t, you may have amortized your expenses over too long of a period, causing you to pay too much in taxes.  Reclassifying the property can help you to reclaim lost expenses, and reduce your tax liability from now on as well.  A net present value calculator will help you to determine whether you can benefit from cost seg.

There’s obviously a lot to do before Tax Day arrives, so if you haven’t already gotten started, you should.  I need to, too!

Tax Day, small business owner, cost segmentation, cost seg, net present value calculator

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Disability insurance, especially long term disability insurance, is a must regardless of your profession.  If you are unable to work, how are you going to pay your bills?  Those that have a family are in an even bigger bind.  You do not want to put yourself into debt with credit cards, or risk losing your home or you way of life.  That is why I told him that he should purchase a physician disability insurance policy right away. 

There are many disability insurance companies out there that can give him a quote on a policy, and they can customize a policy to suit him.  He told me that he would look into purchasing a policy right away.  I’m glad we had that chat.  I would have hated to see him get hurt and have to depend on social security disability.

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I just wanted this to be the travel adventure I never had, unsullied by anything and anyone.  It turns out it’s not that easy-the whole world is worried about this financial crisis.  I can’t get away from it.  People are jacking up prices and the exchange rates are going crazy (apparently it’s a good time to be an American in the UK; in a historically comparative way, at least).  The downside to the “local world” is it’s pretty hard to get away.

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