The taxing business of writing

As a writer, you have extra possibilities open to you at tax time — possibilities and responsibilities. Lynn Viehl at Paperback Writer has some good advice on getting your head squared away so you’re always thinking in terms of business-related deductions.

Every now and then I fantasize about a 60 Minutes segment that aired way back in the 1980s about Ireland’s policy of exempting writers, musicians, sculptors and painters from paying income tax. The star witness in the segment was Frederick Forsyth, who was just coming off a run of international bestsellers that started with The Day of the Jackal, and he looked pretty damned smug about the whole thing.

If, like me, you prefer Forsyth’s initial batch of thrillers to the later, inferior works, you might want to lay the blame for that, along with so many other things, at the feet of the taxman. I once heard a story about the author getting into hot water with the Ireland tax authorities when the gap between his books grew a little too wide. Rather than lose his tax-exempt status, Forsyth resumed cranking out books. If the story is true, then whatever Forsyth gained in income he lost in inspiration.

Of course, none of this beefing has gotten me anywhere closer to getting my own taxes done.