Your Affiliate Business and Taxes

Starting a home-based business on the Internet is easy you say.
You have your web page built, your affiliate links and you're
ready to go. Not really, you need to make sure you have all your
i's and t's crossed when it comes to taxes.

Getting Started

First, you will need to register your business name with
the city government. When I registered my business name with the
city I was charged $11 -- so expect to pay a small fee when filing
this legal document with your local goverment.

Second, you need to apply for an Employer Identification
Number with the Department of the Treasury (IRS). To file for an EIN,
you will need to complete Form SS-4. You can find these forms
in post offices, public libraries, online, or by contacting the IRS.

Once you receive this document, keep it in a safe place -- in other
words, don't crumple, stomp, or throw away -- this identifies you
and your business with the U.S. government and you will need this number
when you file your taxes.

Third, you will need to check with your state government to determine
if you need any specific licenses. Such as Retail Sales Tax Permit --
if you are planning on selling items offline or online.

Fourth, you may want to open a Business Account at your local bank
once the money starts to roll in. Keeping your money separate from
your family account -- helps you to keep your accounting accurate
for your business.

What percentage of your income will go to
your State and Federal Government?

You will need to pay the following taxes, at the following rate,
on a quarterly basis:

States Taxes -- 3.7%
Federal Taxes -- 11.3%
Social Security -- 12.4%
Medicare -- 2.9%

The first year in business is difficult, because you have no idea
what you will be making--You will need to make a conservative guess.
However, you will only pay what you owe against that of your
expenses (your net income). For example, if you believe you will have
$3000 in expenses during the year -- and you believe in your first year,
you will make $6000-- you would report the following:

$6000 (Money Made)- $3000 (Expenses) = $3000 (What you owe)

This amount would be divided among the four quarters within the year
and paid to your State Government and the Federal Government.
If you find that you will be making more and you have paid
in for one quarter -- you will have to adjust the balance
and divid it between the remaining quarters.

The following is what you will submit to the Federal Government:
1) Federal Taxes-11.3%, 2) Social Security-12.4%, and 3) Medicare
payment-2.9%.

The State Government will receive only the 3.7% of your net
earned income.

(Please note: If you are unsure about anything, you should enlist the
help of a CPA, regarding tax matters).

Your estimated taxes are due on the following dates
throughout the year:

April 15
June 15
September 15
January 15

To obtain more specific information you can read IRS
Publication 505: Estimated Tax payments.

Note: You are not required to make estimated tax payments
until you have income not subject to withholding
on which you will owe tax. If you don't make
your first payment until a later period, you
must divide your entire estimated tax by the
number of payment dates remaining. If, for example, you
have three payment dates pending, you would pay one third
of the total tax by June 15, the other third by
September 15 and the last by January 15.

Typical Expenses To Deduct

Here is a list of some of the expenses you can deduct.

1. Your home mortgage -- If you use a room solely for
conducting business then you can take this deduction.
There are a couple of different formulas to determine
the percentage of your home that is used for your business.

You can use the "number of rooms" method or the "area method".
I would suggest using the "area method" because I can't imagine
having a home where all the rooms are the same size.

With the area method, you would take the area of your home
office divided by the area of your home. Example:

Your Office= 10' X 10' = 100 square feet
YOur home is 1000 square feet
Your deduction = 100/1000 or 10%

2. Indirect Expenses -- with indirect expenses you will only
be able to deduct the area percentage (Note: use area percentage
calculated above) of the total cost. These indirect expenses
would include such things as:

House payment
Utilites
Telephone
Garbage collection
Internet connection (If other people are using the Intenet)

3. Direct Expenses -- these are expenses that relate only to your
business.

Supplies
Advertising
Business account bank charges

Keeping Track of Expenses

To keep track of all your expenses. and you are comfortable working
with a spreadsheet software, I would suggest purchasing a small
business accounting package such as QuickBooks or Peachtree
Accounting.

To conclude, this definitely is not an exhaustive list of
what you need to know. However, this will give
you a beginning as to what you will have to be aware
of when starting a home-based business. As your
business grows, your CPA will be able to assist
you and keep you on the straight and narrow to your
success on the Internet.