As I mentioned in my previous post “Expat Taxes – Can you do them yourself?” I am slowly learning the process of completing my own taxes. Now, my taxes aren’t straight forward – I own a Limited Liability Corporation, which means I have business tax expenses. I have student loans, which I have interest as a deduction. I have some investments and dividends, and I have an IRA.
I have always tracked my own expenses on a spreadsheet (Yes, I know- there are apps by the millions to do this) but I am stuck living in manual-land under a rock. I did my best based on limited knowledge to make tabs to “help” my accountant. Surely, they didn’t help now that I know more.
The first thing I’ve started working on is researching all of the self-employment expenses that can be deductible. I made a much bigger, badder spreadsheet that makes more sense to which items are deductible and a main page with each category, an explanation of what is considered and not considered deductible within that category, and which line on the tax return that will be entered.
Step 1: I’m currently working through my credit card statements to fill out the spreadsheet with expenses placed into the proper tabbed categories.
