Tax and stories

I have to fill in a tax return this month. It’s with a joyous heart I do this because there will be a rebate. That’s because the story writing counts as self employment and makes bugger all money but takes half the tax allowance anyway. I could stop that happening by taking all the books off sale but I won’t ever do that.

In fact there are going to be more. The first Underdog Anthology has two submissions already and I haven’t put one in yet. I’m looking for at least 100 pages for this book, and will take multiple submissions or fill the rest of the space myself. It will be in print on Amazon and Lulu and as ebook for Kindle, Kobo, Barnes and Noble… you name it, I’ll get it in there. I can’t pay much but I can guarantee a wide distribution.

I’ll set a final date of May 31st for this one but there will be a next one. Smoking/drinking stories are especially welcome so that future generations can vicariously enjoy what will be taken from them. I’m thinking it could be an annual event or just whenever I have enough for  a book.

Use whatever pen name you want, just make sure I know who you are so I can send payment in cash or books as you choose. Two stories means double payment, naturally. I’ll always have at least one story in the book but there’s no point paying myself 😉

I can take stories as RTF files, Word files or OpenOffice. Even as plain text if you tell me where you want any italics etc.

Nobody gets rejected unless it’s pure porn or kiddie fiddling or Human Centipede style crazy gore. Some might need heavy editing, some might need none at all but I’ll get you into publishable shape one way or another. I wish I could promise fame, fortune and glory but all I can really promise is your name in print and a tiny bit of cash or some free books. Is it worth it? You decide. If you don’t like my editing you can withdraw but I won’t say no to anything that fits the horror/SF kind of theme.

Anything can be fixed. I wrote all of Jessica’s Trap on a bottle of whisky a day and it got published after some rather heavy sober editing 😉

The tax issue is my problem. I’ll have to declare the pennies I get from book sales. If you take payment  in books, it’s technically ‘payment in kind’ and taxable but if you give the books away that’s advertising so goes into expenditure. Your decision.

I see the Prime Monster is in trouble for tax issues but none of what he’s done is actually illegal. If his mum is alive then the money she gave him is not an inheritance. The offshore tax haven is legal. Dodgy ground for a Prime Monster but not actually illegal.

Yes, it’s twisted for the man who tells us to pay taxes to be dodging it himself but really, if I had that kind of money and could legally dodge paying tax on it, I would. Who wouldn’t?

The real issue for me is that our Prime Monster recognises our tax system is excessive and nasty and chose to dodge it rather than do something about it. ‘One rule for him and one for us’ is the way he’s taken it. It’s the wrong way, Cameroid.

I have pretty simple tax returns. It might be nice to one day have complex ones, but perhaps not.