Excitingly, this past Saturday I figuratively chained myself to my computer and did my best to put together our tax information for 2015, in preparation for our upcoming meeting with Our Guy.

I may have mentioned in a previous blog that I always did our own taxes up until a few years ago, when we somehow ended up with a nasty result of needing to pay more instead of getting the refund we’d always enjoyed. It was at that point we got in touch with a tax professional who had the stamp of approval from several of our friends, and although we do have to pay him for his services, his cut has always come out of the refund he gets us and we’ve yet to regret the trade-off. It was with his help that we finally got Lab Reject Studios set up as a valid entity for deductions, which is very, very important considering how much money we invest yearly in conventions, supplies, and other expenses.

And now, especially, I’m glad we have his help figuring out how our Kickstarter figures in, representing as it does a quite significant income spike. I remember asking him last year what his advice was and he just confidently replied, “Raise as much as you can.” Still, I think it’s a good sign that once I sorted through my Saturday session, the amount of money we raised for the project and the amount of money we spent on it were extremely close — first because it indicates we did a good job with our budget estimates, and second because all that spending should cancel out the spike. This is why it’s a very, very good idea to try to have your Kickstarter (or other crowdfunding project) happen earlier in the year, and do your best to fulfill everything by December 31st. Otherwise, even if you do eventually end up spending everything you raised on valid business expenses, you get dinged because you didn’t spend it in the same year you raised it.

Our Guy will have the last word on this, of course, but it seems like this is the best possible result we could hope for. Keep it in mind if you ever go for it yourself!