SHORTEST VERSION: My daughter and I collaborated on a print! It’s signed by both of us and limited to 100 pieces. GO BUY IT NOW (and tell 99 of your friends)!
SHORT VERSION: Instead of selling a limited print to pay for a trip for my wife and I on JoCo Cruise Crazy, like I wanted to (and like I have for the past 2 years), I am NOW selling a limited print to pay off an unexpected tax bill from the IRS which cost ALMOST EXACTLY what the cruise was going to cost. THANKS, UNIVERSE! It was drawn by my six year old daughter and I, and I’m SUPER proud of it (mostly of the parts she did).
For $35 you get this print, plus a free print of your choice, PLUS you have the option to be SUPER supportive and purchase more prints of your choosing at a HUGE discount. GO BUY IT NOW!
LONG VERSION: For the past two years you wonderful Fancy Bastards have sent my wife and I on fantastically geeky Caribbean Cruises (JoCo Cruise Crazy to be precise) via the purchase of signed, numbered, limited prints. As I was gearing up to create this years print (something featuring the HE cast in a Sharknado type scenario) I found out from my accountant that I had crossed over the threshold of self employment where I make so little money that the IRS pities me and doesn’t actually want any of it to the point [[[[juuuuuust]]]] above that where the IRS wants thousands of my dollars, effectively causing me to make less than when they wanted none of it at all. Still following along? I barely am. Seeing as how I have never owed additional taxes since I’ve been self employed, I have foolishly not set any extra money aside for the paying of such taxes. Now I’m getting charged all kinds of fines and fees for every month I don’t pay.
So instead of coming to you Fancy Bastards and asking for your support in sending my wife and I on a magical cruise, I am now asking for your help with OPERATION C.R.U.I.S.E. (Calculating Revenue Undermined Impending Seafaring Escapades). I didn’t want to come out and just ask for donations, especially around the holiday times (though DONATIONS are ALLLLWAYS appreciated) and I didn’t feel like doing the Sharknado print since it would seem out of context with my current comic direction. I decided the best thing I could offer you was something that really reflected where my art is, where my passion is and where my heart is right now, so I created something new with my daughter.
This print is inspired by (and features some of the art from) the Daddy/Daughter Digital Drawing Time posts I’ve been making on my Tumblr over the last year. In a sense, this is the very first piece of merchandise that accurately represents the new direction of HijiNKS ENSUE. When you purchase the print, you can also select a second free print of your choice, or you can purchase additional 3 print sets OR you can purchase all 7 prints I’m offering, you know… if you want to be super supportive and help me dig myself out of this C.R.U.I.S.E. hole.
Anyway, GO BUY IT NOW! (please)
~Joel
Comments (4)
Gene · 78 weeks ago
Payday is Friday…. I’ll be there! 😀
how is it even possible, that you'll end up having less? I mean, what the hell is wrong with your tax laws.
Where I live, you pay no taxes until a certain amount per month and for every additional € you have to pay taxes. That way, you'll never have less after taxes if you'd earn less.
Then again, I should not be surprised, some laws in the world are cray cray
As an example (these are NOT the real numbers, but it might make it easier to understand): Let's say you are a self employed sole proprietor of a US business. You take in $30,000 your first year, but you spend $35,000 to keep your business running for merch, office space, supplies, etc. You pay no taxes that year because you operated at a loss. That doesnt mean you made NO money. As a sole proprietor you get to legally write off ALMOST every dollar you spend that is in any way connected to your business. Since you might (and probably do) work out of your home the line between personal and business expenses starts to blur in a wonderful (and again, PERFECTLY LEGAL) way. Part of your rent/mortage is a write off, as is part of your utilities, your cell phone bill, your property taxes, etc. Your new computer is a write off. Do you work on video games, or write about them or produce video reviews of them? Your X-Box is a write off. You can actually hit a sweet spot where you make less than zero dollars after all the expenses are added up and subtracted from your sales, but have actually managed to pay rent, pay for your car and buy food for the year. Again, 100% legal. Just VERY very confusing.
I was in this sweet spot of making no money on paper, and making just barely enough each month to live, work and travel (all travel expenses are write offs as well) for the last 5 or so years. In 2012 I made about the same actual real world money as I made the year before, but I had fewer expenses due to not putting out a new book (a $10,000ish expense) and not purchasing as much merchandise on my own (since my merch was being produced and fulfilled by a third party).
So let's say I made (again totally fictional numbers) $30,000 in 2010 and spent $35,000 on my business (on paper). No profits, No taxes. Then let's say I made 40,000 in 2011, and spent $30,000 on expenses. $10K in profits, but that's so low, plus I get all sorts of credits for having a kids, etc. that I STILL don't owe any taxes. Now let's say in 2012 I made $45,000 but due to when I paid for large items, how I didn't put out a book, how I didn't buy a lot of merch, how I maybe traveled less, etc. that I only had $15,000 in expenses (on paper). Now I have a profit of $30,000. The government STILL doesn't actually want hardly anything in income tax from me since I am a sole provider for a 3 person family. What they DO want VERY BADLY is about %10-15 of that $30K in self employment tax. I have to pay them for the right to pay myself.
So that's how you can accidentally or at least unexpectedly go from thinking you weren't going to owe any extra taxes to owing about $4000. It's a delicate dance and I have officially crossed over the point where I don't have to worry about incorporating or paying quarterly. If i had any advice for someone wanting to be a full time, self employed creative I would say TAKE A BUSINESS/FINANCE/TAX CLASS!!! Take a dozen of them.
Again, I have made up all the numbers here and I'm WAY over simplifying things, but I just want to make people aware of these pitfalls of small business. It's rough, but it's worth it in the end.
My family and I live in Florida and every December we head up to Tennessee to see extended family and every year we play the " Will We Snow For The First Time In Ten Years Game". We lose every year.