Taxes - Starting the Year off Right. Sitter Tips?

Mileage can be a huge deduction against earnings if you drive a lot for your business, I drove 40+miles each Mon-Fri providing walks to my recurring clients. I recommend getting a smart phone app to capture and classify your trips so you have an IRS compliant log. I use and love MileIQ, not free, but worth the annual expense.

https://www.mileiq.com/

For my income and expenses I capture them in Excel and file hard copy receipts, being ready for tax season is a breeze.

Good tips already. I would add that you should set aside 20-30% of your income for self-employment taxes. If you make, or plan to make, more than $400 with Rover/DV/etc you should pay estimated taxes 4 times a year. You are required to cover 80-90% of your previous year's tax amount either through withholding or paying estimated taxes, otherwise you'll get hit with a penalty when you file your 1040. Voice of experience - I paid a penalty last year because I didn't pay in enough estimated taxes.

You can also use the EFTPS website to pay at any time. www.eftps.gov.

The Electronic Federal Tax Payment System (EFTPS) is a free service from the U.S. Department of the Treasury. Since it began in 1996, millions of businesses, individuals, federal agencies, tax professionals, and payroll services have used EFTPS.

All federal taxes can be paid using EFTPS. You can make payments via this Web site, a voice response system, or special channels designed for tax professionals, payroll services, and financial institutions.

Quick, secure, and accurate, EFTPS is available by phone or online 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can schedule business and individual payments up to 365 days in advance.

Throughout the year, I use Google Sheets religiously to keep everything in order. I have a sheet for each month listing my payout by day and by business (I am on Rover, DogVacay, and I also pet sit for a local small business). Any time I purchase something (other than gas) that is business related (such as dog toys or treats for gifts, my CPR & First Aid certification, books on pet-sitting or other dog-related educational texts) I enter them on a monthly spreadsheet with their description and total cost. For the hard-copy receipts, I keep them in envelopes labeled by month in case I need to reference them. In my car, I have a clipboard with a mileage spreadsheet to keep track of miles driven to and from M&Gs, drop-ins, and walks. This spreadsheet also contributes to noting what percentage of my car's upkeep expenses I can claim on my taxes (using the beginning and end of year mileage) and makes calculating how much of each gas refill I've used for visits simple. I have a notebook where I tape each gas receipt in, note the price of gas, date, and MPG, and then by date I list how many miles were driven for each business (Rover, DV, small business) for every day that correlates to the gas refill that was used. With this, I can determine the cost of the gas used for business, which can also be claimed on your taxes. Personally, I use TurboTax, though it is important to note that you have to purchase TurboxTax Home and Business, so there is a little bit of an expense there.