Money Talk for Writers at Tuesday's Workshop

CPA Joe Schaben>

All right, writers, it's time to take your medicine. The fifth installment of the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge's Writers Workshops features a CPA talking about money most of you don't have. But you will. Some day.

Joe Schaben, a partner in Boitnott & Schaben CPAs in Daleville, will offer a lot of money management advice, if not a lot of money, Tuesday 7-8 p.m. at the Arts Council offices on the second floor of Center in the Square.

Joe will talk about tax and money management responsibilities ("How much of that freelance check do I owe Uncle Sam?) and will answer questions like these:

• How much freelance income can I earn from a single source before having listing it?
• Am I responsible for self-employment taxes?
• If I buy my own health insurance policy, is it deductible?
• What travel expense and mileage reimbursements is a freelancer entitled to?
• Do I need to pay business license taxes?
• Is it OK if I don't make estimated tax payments?
• What items that I use are tax exempt?

There are quite a few more and my guess is that you have a few questions of your own, which you can ask Joe in person. The session is free.

Next month we get back to the business of writing with the only Roanoke Valley appearance this year--other than last January's Roanoke Regional Writers Conference--of novelist Sharyn McCrumb. More on that later.