Well, things had to change a little this year.
When I first got my Australian Business Number (ABN) in 2008 it was for my jewellery company and in that name. But now that I’ve set up a publishing house I needed to change things around a little and I had to make sure everything was changed to suit what I do now, and that all of the considerations were taken into account.
When you take on the role of author or writer, there are so many business issues to deal with, such as taxes, do you want to be a business, will you need an ABN and website, do you need ISBNs for your books, will you set up a publishing house for them, etc.
Here in Australia authors come under Special Professional, income averaging for authors.
Now, something I’ve recently found out while getting my taxes ready, is that if you sell on a book site that’s not your own, and other companies sell your product, Amazon, Kobo etc, then you DO NOT pay GST on royalties earned. You do need to deal with the whole 5% treaty with the US and the IRS however, but if you set that up yourself then you’ll have no issue. Otherwise, your accountant will have to deal with it.
If you DO sell your books on your own website, then yes, you will need to pay the GST on sales over $75,000 AUD. Even if it’s as little as $1.
You just need to make sure you have the right accountant for all of this, and that they know about the income averaging. I had to sort this out with my accountant last week. But once again, my taxes are done for the 2017/2018 tax year.
How do you guys feel about doing your taxes every year?
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