Taxes and Money

Regular Thursday update! See, I can do this.

So today in class we learned about taxes and write offs. And holy shit, I feel like a baby. Everyone is just nodding along with everything the prof says, asking the occasional wise question. And I'm just sitting here, thinking that I don't even know how to do my own taxes, or even how they work at all.

I'm twenty one. I live at home with my parents. My mom does all the taxes and stuff when it comes up. The most I know is that it's sometime around April, and I have to give her all the stuff to prove that I was in school. That itself sometimes proves difficult, because none of the administrators at school care about the students, or that they're struggling to figure out taxes. They're just like 'it's online. Go find it yourself'. (No joke, this happened. Except the person gave me a slip of paper that explained it all. But still!)

I guess I have a lot of learning to do in this category. I talked to my parents over dinner, and they were chatting about it a bit too, so I think I understand more. From what I understand, I can write off expenses made toward my career, or my progression toward my career. That would include my laptop that I bought earlier this year. However, since there are so few expenses that I could write off, at this time I wouldn't be doing much. I don't pay rent, or any utilities. My phone has nothing to do with writing, so I would be hard pressed to figure out how to write that off, and I'm already paying taxes for school... or is it writing off on school... Either way, my parents and I agree that there is no reason for me to get an accountant while I'm still in school, and not until I'm actually earning money from my writing. For now I'll compile my receipts and learn as I go, probably from my mom when she does taxes.

Wish me luck with that!