Frenzied Daddy

We are a dog free family. For now. Honor, our Aussie, passed away pretty gently yesterday in the sun-lit freshly mowed grass. She’s been resting on the mossy patio lately, when she’s been put outside.

We got Honor from a mall pet store (the one in Lloyd Center, now closed), before Miss B was born. She had been there a while and was marked down half price. She was a sweet, sneaky, little wench of a dog. She had some mild behavior problems and she had some bad hip dysplasia, which led to her FHO surgery. But she was a big part of our family. We’ve been worried about her age, and last week I thought she was going to be staying at the vet’s. She came home with some pain medicine.

It’s been about a year since Perrin died and we’ve been talking about getting a younger dog. There have been a couple of real winners that have gone through the Humane Society, and we’ll probably get one from there in the next few months. I’m sure the girls will like a younger dog to play with. It was hard to rough house with Honor.

I have a business license. Because I have a business. And every year about this time, this discussion comes up.

I have to admit that I only have “a business” because FileFront wouldn’t pay a contractor directly. So even now that I’m no longer at FileFront, I’ve still got arghwebworks running as a business. And every year I consider closing it, specifically because of the Multnomah County Business Tax. I mean, I can either pay the tax, close the business or move the business to Tigard. I’m not actually sure how to move it to Tigard; do I just get a PO Box ?

I recommend a business to lots of people. It makes it a lot easier to, say, discount my income by $500 in a year and buy a new laptop (for the business). Or my cell phone, which is pretty much a requirement. Lots of stuff cause a decrease in my income, which is what I’m taxed on for state and federal income taxes. But the business tax is taxed on the gross income for the business, and if you make over about $50K (gross!), you’ll be paying income tax.

It would be less bad if I could figure out this “saving” concept. But I just had some money saved up for the kids to go to camp, and the engine broke on the car. That sucked up half my savings. I could almost get this done if surprises stopped happening. Financial surprises suck. And I just got another one; since I haven’t been saving (much) money, the almost-three-thousand dollar tax bill kind of hurts. (I’m arranging a payment plan this time). If I had been saving up some money each paycheck, this would have just been a normal payment.

This snowballs too. I could be making estimated payments, or saving money up in a savings account, but I have to pay last year’s bill. So I won’t be saving up that tax money — and then I’ll be in this same situation next year (just like I was last year).

Anyway, thinking again about closing “ArghWebWorks” and just doing 1099 work. I’m not sure I’m finding enough deductions to make it worth my dollars.