Last updated by Chrome Oxide on 03/21/2026
Under the pen name of Chrome Oxide I write humorous science fiction and fantasy. However, I've been accused of writing murder mysteries since I murder the English language and it's a mystery how I get published.
When people ask why I write what I do, I explain that my reality check bounced.
As authors we write what we know, so writing science fiction makes me a space cadet.
Home | Appearances | Bibliography | About | Contact | Store | Blog | Resources | Newsletter
March 21, 2026 - The Business of Writing
For those of you who prefer, here is the YouTube video of me reading my opening remarks.
I recently volunteered to be a panelist for the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society (GLAWS) Business of Writing meeting. Here are my opening notes.
Getting Down to Business - The Business of Writing
Under the pen name of Chrome Oxide, I write humorous science fiction and fantasy.
However, I've been accused of writing murder mysteries since I murder the English language, and it's a mystery how I get published.
When people ask why I write what I do, I explain that my reality check bounced.
Since I write science fiction, I must be a space cadet.
I can be found at http://www.chromeoxide.com/writer/ and lost everywhere else.
I volunteered for this panel since it's in the middle of tax season, and most accountants don't have time. I spent twenty years in CPA offices doing accounting and working with CPAs and tax attorneys before becoming a computer consultant, an audio engineer, and a writer.
As Will Rogers said, The only difference between death and taxes is that death doesn't get worse every time Congress meets.
With a show of hands, how many of you think you don't pay enough in federal, state, and local taxes? If you're embarrassed to admit that, I'll tell you how to solve that problem. File a Schedule C along with your 1040 long form. Put a large amount as income on your Schedule C, and don't list any expenses. You've just increased your taxes.
For the rest of you, it's more difficult to pay less tax.
Some writers think of their tax return as the greatest novel ever written.
Some gamblers like to think of their tax return as their opening bid.
Do you want to gamble with your tax return? If you're not afraid of being audited, nothing I say matters. If you are afraid, then everything I say matters. Why?
The first thing an auditor looks at is your books and records. A shoebox full of receipts is like a red cape to a bull. The I.R.S. agent knows you made one or more mistakes and will keep looking until he finds them.
The first step to protect yourself from an invasive audit is to keep good records. Quicken, QuickBooks, or other accounting packages are considered good records.
The next step is to correctly categorize your income and expenses.
Let's talk about income first. Let's say you're a successful author, and your publisher gives you an advance. Is that income? It depends. If the advance is not refundable, then it's income. If it is refundable, when does it become income? When it's received, or when you turn in your book to the publisher. If your tax preparer doesn't know the answer off the top of his/her head, he/she will be able to research the question.
Let's talk about expenses. Is paying to attend a writer's conference a deductible expense? It depends. The rule used to be that paying for continuing education was a deductible expense, but training for a new job was not deductible.
This gets us into the territory of deductible expenses. This is even more complicated.
Unless you do all your writing at Starbucks or the library, you are probably writing at home. The I.R.S. won't allow you to deduct the entire cost of your home and utilities as writing expenses. They do allow the deduction of a percentage of your home. While they prefer you have a separate room dedicated to writing, they do allow people who live in tiny apartments to deduct a percentage of their home. In both cases, this includes part of the phone bill, utilities, rent, and other expenses.
What are some of the other expenses, and how do they work? What if you're a self-published author and just bought one thousand copies of your book to sell at trade shows and online? Do you deduct the full amount of the books when you pay for them, or do you deduct only the cost of the books that you sold? This is what would be considered inventory and cost of goods sold on your Schedule C.
That leads to another interesting concept. Can you deduct the expense when it is paid, or should you deduct it when it is used? For example, what happens when you spend five thousand dollars on a new computer and printer? Even if you're paying cash, you might not be able to deduct the full amount at that time. Some items can't be expensed, but must be written off or deducted/depreciated over the expected life of the item. You've now learned more than you wanted to know about assets and depreciation.
This leads to the concept of significant cost. Buying a pen that lasts two years can be expensed immediately, even though the useful life is longer than a year. How do you decide if something should be capitalized and depreciated over time? Again, that is a discussion for whoever prepares your tax return, and your fear of being audited.
One thing to keep in mind is that the I.R.S. has millions of tax returns to compare with yours. If your income or expenses are much different than average, it might trigger an audit. Even if your income and expenses are exactly average when compared to other writers, you can still be hit with a random audit.
Another thing to contemplate. What if you never make any money, or your expenses are always larger than your income? The I.R.S. has a hobby loss rule. If your business isn't profitable three out of the last five years, they can disallow all your expenses. Does this mean you wait until you make a profit? Absolutely not. One time, our office faced an I.R.S. auditor who incorrectly classified an apartment building as a hobby because there were multiple years when it wasn't profitable. Our CPA objected and got that agent replaced with a more knowledgeable agent who better understood the law.
One last thing. Normally, when you file your tax return, the statute of limitations starts running. If you're considering a life of crime, consider robbing a bank or committing some other crime with a statute of limitations. If the I.R.S. thinks you've committed tax fraud, they ignore the statute of limitations and are allowed to audit every tax return you have ever filed.
Remember, tax law is what the better litigator or negotiator says it is, so hire a knowledgeable and experienced tax representative.
Never forget, the I.R.S. has what it takes to take what you have.
Between my opening comments and the end of the panel, we participated in an open question-and-answer period.
Final Comments:
Writers are frequently told to write what they know. Therefore, it should come as no surprise that my first novel will be Money Management for Monsters. It's about a CPA who prepares tax returns for vampires, werewolves, and other creatures of the night and then finds out there are worse monsters at the I.R.S.
END OF DOCUMENT
[Chrome Oxide: Music Collectors Page]
[site map]
[e-mail Chrome Oxide]
Copyright © 2026 by Chrome Oxide
LEGAL DISCLAIMER This site contains links to other Internet sites. These links are not endorsements of any products or services in such sites, and no information in such site has been endorsed or approved by this site.
chromeoxide.com hosted by: 1and1.com