Thanks. The thought of being audited scares the crap out of me, not because I think I have an actual reason to worry, but because numbers scare the crap out of me. Numbers + me = really bad news.

I use a separate account for business so I don’t have to cry and so my accountant won’t have to smack me. He threatened to do that to me the first year I went to him with a stack of unopened statements that had everything all together.

Between dyslexia, OCD and ADD, I definitely need to keep things separate. Lesson learned, the hard way.

Great, funny post.

My mother owns a business, and there is this ONE book that covers everything – Tax Strategies for Business Professionals by Sandy Botkin. It’s amazing the deductions you can take, that book just opened my eyes, SERIOUSLY.

Just sharing resources. Enjoy .

But having separate accounts for business and pleasure is a good idea. Most banks should offer you a *debit* card with a checking account, which you can use just like a credit card. On my monthly checking account statements, it even lists where the card was used, so it will say specifically “Printers R Us” (or whatever), just like credit card statements, so you can demonstrate that it’s business related.

Then there was tax to calculate. Then there was US exchange to calculate. Then I had to add it all up and show him the results.

He had one question: “Are your numbers right?”

God. I hope so.

This year? One credit card. I can take all 12 statements and bring them to him. Have fun with them, buddy. Squeaky clean.

@ Jodee – Make that *when* you’re audited, especially if you’re a web worker

We also had trouble with “too many credit cards” so now have just two: a personal debit/credit card and a business amex card (which we pay off each month).

The toughest part of the whole thing, for me, is the transferring of money from one account to another. We don’t MAKE more than we need, but by putting income into the “business” account and then transferring it (in theory for tax purposes) we wind up with double the frustration and very little to show for it!

Will saving receipts help at all? Anytime I make a business purchase, I purchase it separately from everything else and set it aside in a “business expenses folder.”

The next month, I go in to pay and find late fees galore have been added back on. My payment is now up to $280 in interest and late fees (triple what it usual is), as well as the fact that they really upped my interest rate to 30% (more than double what it was) because they claim I hadn’t paid. I opted to pay the entire amount and then fight it after. That extra money, of course, had to come from somewhere, so groceries were out for a couple weeks. The payment cleared my bank so I went in to the BOA Web site to check. Sure enough, they said I hadn’t paid and had now doubled the late fees and interest which then put my account over the credit limit, so I was being charged that as well.

I got on the phone and asked for a supervisor who immediately berated me for not paying. I read off payment confirmation numbers and was told that I wasn’t paying the correct amount. That the amount showing on the computer screen was $8 lower than the amount showing up on my printed statements and that it is my responsibility to make sure those amounts match and that I’m paying the right one. This ticked me off. Their computer and statement should match! Anyway, I was getting no where so I hung up on that person and contacted my attorney general.

Needless to say, three months after it started, my account is now straightened out thanks to the President of BOA’s secretary. But it was a nightmare getting it straightened out.