With the arrival of my W2 from my day job this week, taxes have been on my mind.  I’m fairly determined that this year I begin representing myself as a writer to the IRS.  I believe with the completion of a first draft manuscript, serious revision underway, I have submitted my work (in some form, mostly queries) to an agent and an editor (with negative results…sigh) that I have earned the right to call myself writer and receive credit for the things I’m doing to reach the goal of publication.  So with a bit of trepidation I step out onto the icy surface of IRS requirements and begin my adventure.

One of my local RWA chapters will have speakers from a tax preparation service presenting material next week but in the mean time I’m looking around for information to educate myself on what is permissible and what is not in terms of deductions.  I’ve found the following sites that reference author taxes and thought I’d share them here.

Note:  I do not have any qualification to determine that these sources are reliable, correct or otherwise represent the reality that is the IRS tax code.  But they were interesting and helpful to me.  Your tax return is your problem as mine belongs to me.

The Eclectics website provided a list of IRC (Internal Revenue Code?) sections that particularly refer to writers and authors.  It includes case studies sited in the code itself I think.  Including a reference to RWA Dues specifically and the “deductibility” of same.  I found this site particularly interesting.  Although it appears the sections were snipped and assembled from various documents, each does reference the code section that it applies to and I thought the cases were interesting.

As long as I was putting that site out there I thought it why not take it further, so I have asked uncle Google for his assistance and received the following links in return.

On ForWriters.com a history of the current tax code as it applies to authors is provided.

Publishlawyer.com provides a more summary account of what authors can expect in terms of categorizing themselves for tax purposes.

On a LSU faculty website I found this page that goes into some detail of hobby vs for profit pursuits.

On Gentlemanranters.com I found this “tax guide for journalists and authors.”

And don’t forget you can always ask the IRS or your local tax professional - Yeah, that guy standing on the corner in the green bedsheet and the statue of liberty foam crown - There’s an expert for you (Just being snarky, I’m sure the company he represents is exceedingly capable).  But seriously, I bet his boxers are sticking out of his pants that are way down around his dangly bits if you look beneath the verdigris (shudder).

I digress.  I’m sure the IRS has lots of publications that are certain to provide you with something to think about.

So that’s what I found on the internet.  Any other resources you care to add I’m happy to see.  Comments for first time posters are moderated so don’t be surprised if your comments don’t appear immediately.