Taxes for Bloggers with Amy Northard | Mediavine On Air Episode 38

Mediavine On Air

It's a new year. Which means our favorite thing is coming up...That's right: taxes!Jokes aside, whatever the due date, we ALL must eventually pay taxes. And it's no joke that taxes for freelancers and creative business owners are often more complicated. Last year Amy Northard, CPA, joined Mediavine's Senior Director of Marketing Jenny Guy on Teal Talk to walk us through taxes as a content creator, and how to start off the new year on the right foot. You don't want to miss it! Helpful Resources The Accountants for CreativesAmy's Youtube"How Do I Reach a Real Person at the IRS?" ArticleAmy's Instagram https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-j7YtM9XvA Transcript [MUSIC PLAYING] JENNY GUY: So that's a great answer. But I have gotten word from my team that we just showed up on live. I don't know why it took five minutes for us to get going, but we are just now going. So we were having a fun private conversation just about a minute ago. Guys if you are just-- you're not just joining us. We've been here. But we just got live. So that was a fun thing that just happened that has never happened before. I am here with Amy Northard. She is a partner at Amy Northard CPA, the Accountants For Creatives. And she was just explaining how she works with bloggers. We're here to talk about all things taxes. The question I ask you guys to post on if you're here with us in the comments is, have you already done your 2019 taxes yet? Or are you more or are they wait till the last minute kind of person? And Amy was explaining what it means to be an accountant for creatives. And can you just go a little bit more over about how you do work with bloggers? And some of the specific things that, questions that they bring to you? AMY NORTHARD: Yeah. So we work with bloggers virtually, bloggers all over the US. And we do it through video calls, phone calls, emails, those sorts of things. But we work with them to work on things like cash flow, savings for taxes, saving on taxes-- not only being prepared for taxes, but also how can we reduce that, how much you're paying on your income. So we try to help in all aspects of things related to taxes, bookkeeping, those sorts of things. Because you never want to get to the end of the year without knowing or having an idea. Otherwise, it can be really stressful. So helping them throughout the year, instead of just being that one-- the account that you just talk to once right around April. Prepare people a little bit. JENNY GUY: OK. So we just got a comment from Melissa Greeley Olivieri, I just want to make sure I'm saying it right. She says, no, she has not done her taxes yet. She's in Canada. And this is her first year doing them as a blogger. She's terrified. And she doesn't even know where to start. So we'll get to you in just a minute. But let me start out with this question that might kind of address everyone broadly. Since we're all creatives, pretty much everyone that's watching is a creative in one sense or another, most website owners of their own. Could you tell us any common struggles or mistakes that you see content creators making regularly with their taxes or just general accounting. AMY NORTHARD: I think, two big ones. One is not worrying about your bookkeeping throughout the year, and just saving that for once the year wraps up. And the reason I think that's a big mistake is, like I just mentioned, you want to throughout the year what you can expect for taxes. So forcing yourself. Getting in a good habit of maybe once a month, or at a minimum once a quarter, sitting down giving yourself a chunk of time to get that taken care of. And just kind of like make that the day. You act like you are your business's SEO or CFO. And spend time really treating it like a business. Even if you consider your blog a hobby, treat it like a business. Because the more you treat it like a business, the more you could potentially bring in through that venue.