All posts by TL Wall

I'm the owner of TL Wall Accounting, located in North Syracuse, NY
Finances

Educational Debt Can Be Overwhelming

These days one has to ask themselves if the cost of getting a quality college education is worth it. A degree from a major university can end up costing more than 2 good homes, especially if the student decides to go for an advanced degree. One has to ask if it’s worth it and, if so, how they’ll be able to pay for it.

Joint Graduation Day

Sarah R via Compfight

Unfortunately, college debt is one of two debts that you can’t erase if you declare bankruptcy; the other is tax debt. College debt, though it can’t get anyone throw in jail or fined, will most often be higher and harder to deal with. This is because lenders don’t always work with families on how much needs to be paid monthly, though most will work with you as to when you have to start paying on it.

At some point one has to figure out what’s worth it and what’s not worth it when going to college. For instance, is a bachelor’s degree from Harvard really worth more than one from a 4-year state school?

In general no; if the student went to college for theater who’s going to care? If it’s for an accounting degree, probably not. Political science, with an intention on being a politician someday, sure. A law degree; absolutely.

Then there are the advanced degrees one has to think about. Is a master’s degree from Yale really all that much different than a master’s degree from UCLA? Aren’t both big name schools? And won’t the degree from UCLA not only cost thousands less, especially if you live in California, but you’ll also be in better weather?

In any case, if you or a family member is still looking to go to a big name college, you need to have a plan for attacking the debt once college is over and the student is ready to go into the workplace. You also need to figure out way in advance the potential income ratio matched against how much it costs to go to school.

In today’s economy, if the student is getting a master’s in education and want’s to be an elementary school teacher, it’s going to be hard come close to earning enough to pay off a college loan. If the student is going for a doctorate and hoping to land at a major university, there’s a possibility, but nothing’s guaranteed.

The same goes for the medical field. Specialists such as a heart surgeon will easily be able to pay back the loan in good time. If the hope is to be a general practitioner, it might take working 12 to 14 hours a day to have any chance of keeping up on the payments; so much for luxury living.

Parents and students need to be realistic in protecting the student from crushing debt after graduation. There are many good colleges that one can get a very credible 4-year degree from. Many of those same schools offer competitive pricing for masters degrees as well. It’s something to think about for the future.
 

Business

What Is Your Self Employment Worth?

This looks like a strange question being asked, especially if you’ve been thinking about going into business for yourself or you’ve been in business for a while, but it’s got a big meaning. Moreso for those new to business than those who’ve been in business for a long time, it seems most people have a problem in figuring out not only how much they should charge for services but how much their worth… aka, what their value is worth.

Premier Wynne announced the successful completion of Project Advantage; a program that enabled a group of four medium-sized, family-owned bakeries to collaborate to increase production and create new jobs.
Premier of Ontario Photography via Compfight

Even though every business is different, there needs to be a starting point one should look at when they first get into self employment, and then try to grow from there. We’re going to offer a few things to consider.

The first thing to consider is how much you’re making working for someone else. If you’re making at least 25,000 a year, your initial goal should be trying to earn at least 50% more than you’re making now, with your goal within a couple of years to be making at least 100% more.

Why? You have to consider what you’re losing by working for your present company. The cost of health insurance, even if you’re paying some amount for coverage at work, is going to go up drastically, at least 50% over what you’re presently paying. You’re also expected to pay it in a larger lump sum monthly as opposed to paying a little bit every week or two weeks. True, you’ll have options for coverage, and in most states there are multiple choices based on your state’s ACA (affordable care act) exchange, but it’s something to consider.

While we’re on insurance, if you had dental, vision, or any other type of insurance that’s now coming out of your pocket as well. These aren’t overly expensive to buy on your own unless you have a physician you already like, which can be problematic in some states or smaller communities; then you’ll likely have to pay more to keep that person.

The second thing to consider are office supplies and other equipment. You don’t have an employer to rely on for these items, and even though you get to write them off on your taxes, the amount up front doesn’t benefit you.

The third thing to consider is time off. Right now you probably get vacation and sick pay; that’s not happening when you work for yourself. This means you’re going to have to be disciplined enough to put some money aside for those rainy days unless you can work from home, possibly in bed via a laptop or tablet… although you might not feel like it.

All other bills aren’t mentioned because if you started off making the same amount of money you were making while working for someone else you’d probably already figured out how to pay those bills while still being able to eat and put gas in your vehicle.

Now, notice we started talking about making more than 25K. If you’re making less than that, or not even close to that amount, you’re going to want to think about making at least 75% to 100% more up front to cover those same items as above. The difference maker is that you’ll probably qualify for a bigger subsidy from the ACA, thus you won’t have to worry about paying for health care, and you might even get a reduction on dental coverage; vision care is still on you.

These aren’t set in stone, but it’s a pretty good guide to start with. What you have to do if you consider working for yourself is change your mindset from employee mode to professional mode. Professionals have the right to make more money because they have more expenses. As long as you have a place to start, you can determine what you want to make from there for your products or services.
 

Tax Preparation

Writing Off Home Office Expenses

Most small business owners working out of their home knows they can write off expenses for their home office. Still, not all that many of them do, and they might not know how it all works. We’re going to offer a few bits of information that might help you save money on your taxes.

The first thing you should know if that you have write offs based on the dimensions of your office. If your office is 10×10 as an example, you get to write of $5 per square foot, which in this case comes to $500. There’s a maximum level of 300 square feet, or $1,500. This is called the “simplified method”. A more technical method involved figuring out the percentage of your house you’re using for work, such as if you’re running a day care out of your home or you have a studio where you work on projects that you want to claim. If you have extra complications like that it’s easier to work with an accountant to help you figure it out properly.

The qualifications for doing this is that you do a substantial amount of work from your home office, but it’s rare that anyone will check to see how much work you’re doing from your home. It’s supposed to only be used for business, but the definitions would be hard to prove either way. For instance, if you allow your children to use your office to do their homework it’s technically not allowed. If you use the room for other purposes, such as a laundry room (although no one would do this; just an example) then technically you’re not allowed to claim the deduction unless you have some kind of defined border showing which part is office and which part is home use.

By the way, if you’re an employee who works from home, you get to use this deduction as well. The same space rules apple as above. Strangely enough, you also get to write off expenses as it applies to your mortgage or if you rent an apartment.

Did you know if you decided to paint your office or change the flooring exclusively in there, you get to write off some of the expenses for this (you get to write off painting in full). Also, if you have a dedicated phone line for your business that counts as a write off.

If you have to store any type of inventory in your home and that room is used exclusively for that purpose you get to write that off. However, you can also write off some expenses if you use a portion of a room like a basement, as long as your home is the only location of your business.

There are a lot more exemptions you might qualify for, but truthfully it’s probably best to talk to a tax professional or your accountant to help you calculate these things and keep yourself from going crazy trying to figure it all out.

Business

Spending Money To Make Money; How Much Should You Spend On Marketing And Education?

We often hear from some of our clients who are willing to spend inordinate amounts of money to try to make their businesses run better. We also hear from clients who are risk averse. Although there’s not really a wrong way or right way of doing things, we thought we could offer some advice on how to determine whether you should or shouldn’t spend the money, and why or why not.

business education

ElasticComputeFarm via Pixabay

Let’s talk about education. Training is something every business should spend money on. All sorts of training; sales, marketing, budgeting, education on what your business is geared towards… no matter what it is, education should always be a part of your business expenses.
Continue reading Spending Money To Make Money; How Much Should You Spend On Marketing And Education? →

Tax Preparation

Paying Estimated Tax When Your Income Is Low

Many small businesses ponder the question of whether they should, or are supposed to, pay estimated tax quarterly when their income is low. It’s an interesting question, so let’s take a look at it.

When you look at the tax code, there’s a line that states: “Those who have income from their own business will need to make estimated tax payments if their tax liability is expected to be more than $1,000 for the year.”

This highlighted part begins the whole show, along with this one: “If you owed taxes at the end of last year, it probably means that too little was withheld from your paychecks, or you had other income that increased your tax liability”.

Let’s take the first one. The reason tax liability is highlighted is because it indicates what you might have to pay, not how much you’ve earned. This is an interesting distinction because, although you have to file taxes if you make more than $400 in a calendar year, the odds are that if you didn’t make a lot of money for the year that your tax liability won’t come close to owing $1,000.

Many small businesses have seasons where they might make a lot more money as opposed to making it all year round. If that’s the case, then making estimated payments when that time period comes up can make a lot of sense. However, paying every single quarter might not be feasible for you if you have to stretch your money out, so it can be a tough decision.

The best thing in this case is to at least pay something, even if it’s only $50, because you not only have to deal with the federal government but in some states they’re going to want a piece of you as well.

A caveat to this is if your spouse is earning a full time income and has taxes being taken out by their employer. In this case, if you’re filing jointly, you can probably get away with not paying anything because the bulk of the tax liability will be coming from them. It doesn’t hurt to hedge your bet though; you could end up getting your entire payment back.

Now let’s look at the second one. This one is a bit different because when you owe money and they don’t see estimated payments, and you don’t have a spouses income to offset your own, the IRS starts expecting you to pay quarterly, especially if you go on a payment plan.

If you can pay your balance within 3 months or so they’ll usually leave you alone; the IRS isn’t as scary as they’ve been made out to be. If you can’t, then you might have to deal with them at some time. Just remember that you can make small quarterly payments; at long as they get something they’ll leave you alone.

Our advice would be to try to make some kind of quarterly tax payments just to be safe. Obviously if you make a lot of money it’s the smart thing to do. If you don’t, and you can’t, don’t immediately worry about it because you’ll always have both time and payment options to catch up when you can.