Taxes Archives - Page 2 of 3 - Pajama Pants Finance

04Dec 2017 by Galen

Top 7 mistakes streamers make with their business and personal finances

Personal Finances, Running a Business, Taxes

We’re all human. Humans make mistakes. Therefore, we all make mistakes. As you can see, I took logic in college. Don’t worry though, you can recover from (and maybe even prevent) mistakes. Here are the top mistakes I see streamers making in their business and personal finances. If it’ll make you feel better as you read it, everyone makes the personal finance mistakes and most business owners, regardless of industry, make the business mistakes. Business Mistakes Not separating business and personal accounts. If you’re running a business you’ll make your life worlds easier by keeping it separate from your personal finances. They are of course tied together but they are separate in important ways. First, you pay taxes on what the business earns, less what it spent to earn that…

20Nov 2017 by Galen

How and why to set up a payroll.

Personal Finances, Running a Business, Taxes

Previously we’ve covered how you can potentially save money on taxes by incorporating your stream as an S-corporation. Please read up on it as there are some rules you need to make sure you’re following to actually get the tax benefit. The core concept to remember is that you wear two hats in your business. One is the owner who is responsible for making business decisions. The other is the employee who is actually providing the labor the business needs to earn income. That employee is paid via a payroll. One word of warning: This advice is based on the assumption that you're organized as an S-corporation and the only employees of the business are also owners. If your business has non-owner employees payroll gets significantly more complicated. A second…

18Sep 2017 by Galen

How streamers can buy a home without revealing their new address

Privacy, Taxes

How Broadcasters can buy a home without doxing themselves. Your streaming career has taken off; you’re doing great! In fact, you’re doing a lot of the adulting kinds of things you know you should do. You’re saving and investing money, you’re properly insured, and your business is a well-oiled machine. Now it’s time to buy a home! Just one problem- you don’t want a fan just showing up at your door because your name’s on the publicly available mortgage info! It’s happened before and it could happen to you. Let’s look at how you could avoid it. Please note, I am not an attorney. This is the kind of thing that you should take to a lawyer to make sure all of the steps happen in the right order and…

11Sep 2017 by Galen

Kickstarter and GoFundMe Taxability

Personal Finances, Taxes

Kickstarter and GoFundMe Taxes We’ve already established that money you earn from streaming counts as income for US income taxes. That holds true whether it’s a tip, donation, or a sub from any platform. So what about other sources of money? Sometimes when things go wrong, especially costly medical emergencies, we turn to GoFundMe. Also, if there’s a specific project you want to get off the ground Kickstarter can make sense. GoFundMe GoFundMe is the easier case to talk about. Since with GoFundMe you’re asking people to donate money for a one-time thing they’re generally considered gifts. Gifts are not taxable to the recipient in the US. If you’re giving money on GoFundMe and it’s to a registered charity (under US tax code section 501(c)(3)) then you may be able…

21Aug 2017 by Galen

What if your stream loses money?

Running a Business, Taxes

What if your stream loses money- deducting business losses It’s never fun when your business loses money. However, it’s a fact of life for many businesses, especially in their initial years of operation. Once the machine is running smoothly you’re all set but until then it can be hard! Let’s look at what you can do if your stream loses money in a year. If you need a refresher on tax basics, check here or here! As always, I’m not an accountant so if you feel you may need to take a loss work with a tax professional. Let me know if you need a referral! What counts as a business loss? You have a business loss when the income from your business is less than your expenses. This could…

14Aug 2017 by Galen

Deducting Home Office Expenses for Streamers

Running a Business, Taxes

Can Streamers Write Off Their Home Office? Unless you’re as high profile as the folks at N3RDFUSION I feel safe guessing that you stream from home. It’s super convenient and relatively inexpensive. However, did you know that you might be able to write off your home office for business purposes? I first and foremost want to say that I am not a CPA or tax attorney. While this article is a good guide you should consult with your tax professional (you have one, right?) before taking the deduction. Also, this applies specifically to the US. If you’re outside the US you may have something similar but I won’t know about it. Does your home office qualify? The IRS is pretty leery of people taking advantage of this opportunity. They…

07Aug 2017 by Galen

Do You Need to Care About Itemized Tax Deductions?

Personal Finances, Taxes

IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS INFORMATION IS OUT OF DATE AS OF 2018 Do You Need to Care About Itemized Deductions? Choosing whether you use the standard deduction or you itemize deductions is one of the key parts of a tax return. That’s a fun sentence, huh? Unfortunately, it’s not always clear which route is best until you do the math. Often, this is a major reason to hire a tax preparer. They’re much more comfortable with the process and can make the decision more quickly. Let’s take a look at your different options and the ones I think will be most relevant to you. If you want to learn more about tax basics before jumping in to this article check out our tax basics! Standard Deduction First, let’s look at what…

26Jun 2017 by Galen

Health Insurance for Streamers

Insurance, Personal Finances, Taxes

Health Insurance for Streamers Well folks, this is US only because we’re one of those weird countries that leaves health care up to the individual. If you’re from outside of the US feel free to skip this health insurance article. Regardless of where you fall on the debate around how health insurance should be provided you should get health insurance. Why? If you read through our article on analyzing risk you will know that you should insure risks that are infrequent and catastrophic. Health issues are (hopefully) infrequent and are often catastrophic so they fit right in that bucket. Additionally, the American healthcare system is built around people having insurance. Unless you’re remarkably healthy, well-off, and lucky you won’t be able to bear the cost of healthcare without insurance. …

12Jun 2017 by Galen

In-Kind Income for Streamers

Running a Business, Taxes

In-kind Income for Streamers Isn’t that a really, really interesting name for an article? I promise you, while the nitty gritty of this topic is boring the overall message is really important. This is an area that most streamers get wrong. Heck, most don’t even know this is a thing. Think about what that means. You can do better than most other streamers! Let’s dive right in lest you fall asleep before you get to the meat of the matter. What is in-kind income? In-kind income is income paid to you as a good or service instead of money. There are two basic examples of this that are highly relevant to streamers. First, if you get a game for free to promote it you’re getting a good (the game) in…

15May 2017 by Galen

Business Bank Accounts for Streamers

Personal Finances, Running a Business, Taxes

How many of you have business bank accounts? I’ll admit, it wasn’t the first thing on my list of to-do’s when starting my business. It’s not like there was a ton of cash running through it anyways! There also aren’t many differences between a business and personal account so it’s not that scary of a thing to do. However, it’s a smart idea that can both help you run your streaming business and help your mindset. Why There are two major reasons to get a business checking account. The first is that you then can do transactions in your business name instead of your own name. The second is that you’re separating your business and personal finances. That comes with a whole host of benefits. Doing things in the name…

Category: Taxes