Latest Good Reads

State Tax Revenues Rise for Third Consecutive Quarter

The Twelve Days of Tax Season

When is No Tax Increase a Tax Increase?

3 Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make While Building their Businesses

A Record Number of Americans will File Tax Extensions this Year

The Tax Lady Roni Deutch: A Short Biography

If you have ever wondered what I was doing before I began resolving tax debts for the America taxpayers, then check out the video embedded below! My team put together this short biography on how I became a tax lawyer, even going back to stories of my childhood little league days. Be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel for more great videos.

Harmonic Tax Advice for Musicians

Last week the RDTC Tax Help Blog posted this entry with advice for professional musicians. You can find a section of the entry below, but be sure to checkout the full text at Harmonic Tax Advice for Musicians.

Classify Yourself

You need to decide exactly what type of musician you are before you can even begin thinking about taxes. What course is your career taking? Are you in a band? Are you interested in being a music teacher? Or, do you offer lessons from your home or at a nearby music shop. Once you have classified yourself, if will be easier to keep track of your finances and tax liability.

$600 Rule

No matter what type of musician you are, if you make more than $600 in a year doing something then you will need to report your income to the IRS. Whether you make that much in tips from performing at clubs, or from teaching the piano to a family friend, it will need to be reported to the IRS.

Teaching Advantages

If you are a music teacher at a school, you may be able to take advantage of several tax deductions available to teachers. One of the most useful tax advantages for teachers is the educator expense deduction that allows qualifying teachers to deduct $250 worth of out of pocket expenses for classroom supplies. For more information on tax tips for teachers, including the educator expense deduction check out this article on CEO Roni Deutch’s personal blog.

The Business of Music

If you teach music classes from home or a business, you may be able to classify yourself as a small business owner. Speaking of teaching from home, if you have a separate room used to run this business then that room may qualify for a home office deduction. If you have not already, you may need to get a small business license from your city or country, and if the business expands you may even need to get a federal ID.

Quarterly Payments

If you are earning income from your music, either teaching or performing then you might want to consider making estimated quarterly payments. If you wait until the end of the year, then you might end up with a massive tax bill, and possibly even penalties and fees.

10 Reasons You Need a Mentor, Especially Mid-Career

Just before the holiday weekend The Glass Hammer – one of my favorite blogs – posted this interesting article explaining why it is important to have a career mentor, even if you have been working in the field for a few years now. As author Andrea explains, mentoring has been associated with higher job satisfaction, higher promotion rates, higher future income, increased work success, and higher retention rates.

1. Perspective and Experience. A mentor can give you the benefit of his or her perspective and experience. He or she can help you assimilate to a new position and give you an insider’s view on how to get things done.

Bayer agrees, “This was the value to me of working with my first real mentor. She knew all about navigating big, traditional companies and how the structure and promotional system works. She helped me build my ‘personal board of directors,’ people who provided support for me, and how to make a ‘dance card’ whenever I was going to a large corporate event of some type (to make sure I had people to try and talk with and know what I was going to talk about). This mentor gave me the help I needed to advance my career significantly, starting that year.”

2. Think Outside the Box. A mentor can help you look at situations in new ways. He or she can ask hard questions and help you solve problems.

“This was another critical area for me – my mentors helped me to gain a level of self awareness that I wasn’t getting to on my own. My mentor helped me to learn and use emotional intelligence, even helped me craft exercises and offered practice and reviews, so that I could become proficient in understanding myself, my impact on others, and other people’s emotional being and state, and how to use that to work together better. This was a big ‘growth spurt’ for me, both at work and personally,” Bayer said.

3. Define and Reach Long-Term Goals. A mentor can help you define your career path and ensure that you don’t lose focus and continue down that road even when you become distracted by day-to-day pressures.

Latest Good Reads

The Impact of the Tiger Woods Scandal on His Charities

It’s Unpopular, Unworkable, and Insane, So Naturally They’re in a Hurry to Pass It

Five Top Books for Working Women

Economic Theory--How Much is it Worth

10 Mistakes That Will Kill Your Transition From Executive to Entrepreneur