tax time

It is tax time again here at OSB world headquarters.  The quarterly taxes are easy, the fun stuff is working through the various paperwork for annual corporate filing.  North Carolina requires a balance sheet to be submitted while the federal return does not.  If you are not always on top of processing transactions via Quickbooks or another accounting program, or heavens forbid you have your tax-lines mapped incorrectly, or if Quickbooks made some updates that have funked up your previous lines for some reason, what should/could be a mostly seamless process between Quickbooks and Turbotax instead takes a full day or two to work out.  Good times.

This also is the time of year I sit down and realize how many costs are associated with operating a corporation vs a sole proprietorship.  If business stuff bores you, stop reading now.  A corporation provides some level of protection between the individuals that operate the business and the business itself, while a sole proprietorship does not. A corporation can also have multiple investors, while a sole proprietorship by definition, can not. A corp can grow into different operations; SP is somewhat limited to what the individual can do. 

However, for a small business there are a number of basic costs that you have to factor in right off the top:  articles of incorporation (1-time), annual filing fee (yearly), city/county filing (yearly), some sort of advanced accounting service (ongoing), payroll service (ongoing), and employer tax contributions to FUTA & State unemployment insurance (ongoing). There is also the labor cost of all the paperwork. 

This is all essentially unrelated to the operation of the business - the coaching, training, clinics, and so on.  I keep telling myself, accounting is fun.

But then I get to post stuff like this.  ;)

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Aging up

Yesterday I celebrated my 39th birthday, and 11th with my best friend Bri by my side.  We were joined by a few of our masters swimmers and friends at a local tavern for a rollicking good time.  I swam hard at practice, drank a few heavy beers, and am suitably achy today. 

So for 2011 I am now considered a Master competitor in USA Triathlon events.   This is either inspiring or frightful, depending on how you want to view things.  I am very thankful to have made it this far, and I hope to celebrate many more with the love of my life.

This weekend we are going down to Wilmington to cheer on our athletes and friends who are racing the Beach 2 Battleship half Iron or full Iron distance events.  Good times.

In other news, I am painstakingly making my way through ledger entries in the OSB Quickbooks accounting software.  I have about 500 entries to make on expenses, and our little business makes enough to generate an Uncle Sam fee.  So we track everything.  It is a pain in the butt but when tax time comes around it is good to have sh*t organized.

In other, other news, I decided I will train to run a 3:20 or so marathon at the Tobacco Road marathon in late March.  This will give me an early season goal without having to spend too much time on the bike in the cold weather.  I would still like to get my 5k time back into the 18s, I have not been there in a few years now.  The 3:20 goal is achievable without being too competitive, meaning I can train for it without overly risking injury.

In other, other, other news, commodity prices and stocks are going up while unemployment rises.  The asset based economy and the 'real' economy we live in are becoming more disconnected than ever before (in the modern US, anyway).  CYA.