by The Happy WAHM
First of all, thank you to the ladies who submitted their questions yesterday! Wow! Really appreciate your participation!
So here’s the first of the questions I received. She asked to be kept anonymous, and I respect that.
I need help in paying taxes. How do you do it? Do I need to do it? I do freelance work, too, and I also have a small online store. I just don’t know how to go about it.
Okay. I’m not sure if I can really be of help, because I’m far from being a voice of authority in this field, but I will share with you what I have done for my own business.
I started my virtual assistance service back in 2006. But it was only in 2009 that I registered as a business. Reason? I sought the advice of a lawyer who told me to wait until I’m very stable before I register as a business. Meaning, I had to wait until my income was steady at a certain amount.
When in 2009, I felt that I was ready, I registered as a sole proprietor, under “services” as the industry category. My first stop: DTI. I registered VASupportPro Services. VASupportPro stands for Virtual Administrative Support Professional. It’s the result of a month-long study on how I would rank on searches. I added “services” to make it flexible in terms of service offering. I wanted to have that elbow room to grow the business, offering services other than virtual assistance.
Then I secured a business permit, registered with BIR and had my official receipts printed.
I won’t go deep into the process that I went through, because I don’t want to turn this post into a rant. Having to transact with (some) government offices in this country can really discourage you to be a responsible citizen. Suffice it to say that I’m holding on to the belief that the change is in me, in all of us, and it is up to me, to us, to do our share and contribute to the change, for the better. So however hard it is to be good, let’s still be good. 🙂
To help you out with the process, I’m sharing here an article which lists down the types of taxes for self-employed people like us: What Taxes Should I Pay in the Philippines (Self-Employed)
I’m paying the 3% percentage tax, based on gross earnings. To help me stay organized in monitoring my earnings, I use this free invoicing platform, so that at the end of each month, I just copy everything to the eBIRform. I always make it a point that I file my monthly return on the first week to avoid the rush, but due date is always on or before the 20th of the month following the taxable month. I use the 2551M form.
For my quarterly filing, I opted for the 40% optional standard deduction, instead of the itemized deduction, so it’s less hassle for me. After all, my operating expense is pretty much the same month after month, so going for the straight deduction makes sense for me. But if your operation incurs lots of representation expenses, the itemized deduction may be a better option. I use the 1701Q form.
Putting the horrors of registration aside, paying your taxes is pretty much routine and really easy. It’s even made easier by the electronic filing that we have now. Just download the eBIRform package, set it up with your valid email address, and each month, you only need to input your gross earnings and it will automatically compute the tax payable for you. After filling in the necessary form, you will need to save it, then click on submit. That form will then travel through cyber going to the central BIR database, or whatever they call it. Wait a few minutes, and watch out for an acknowledgement of your submission from BIR via your email. While waiting for the BIR confirmation to reach your inbox, go ahead and print three copies of the form you submitted. Then, when that confirmation finally reaches your inbox, print it also at the back of the form that you already printed. After that, go your merry way to the nearest BIR office and make the payment. I opt to pay at our local BIR office. Transactions are faster. But you can also opt to pay at accredited banks. I may be doing that soon. 🙂
There may be certain months that you have no transaction to declare, like if your family went for a vacation and you opted not to work. You are still required to file. Just submit your form electronically, print the form, and print the confirmation email at the back of the form.
To wrap up, do you need to do it? I would say, yes, you do. That is, if you already have a steady flow of income, please go ahead and do it. Being able to issue an official receipt has advantages for the business. Some clients actually ask for a receipt, so being able to say, yes, you can provide it, already puts you a step ahead of competition. Being able to show an Income Tax Return also has advantages. Visa applications require that you have one. 🙂
And best of all, you sleep better at night knowing that you are part of what’s good in this country. 🙂
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about this post?
Please leave a comment below, or post them at my Facebook Page.
by The Happy WAHM
10/365Challenge: You know what’s the bigger challenge than writing? It’s deciding on what to write about.
So today, I’m going to ask for your help.
Will you be my partner in this writing challenge?
I’m going to put here a form. I’ll only require that you leave your name and email address. And no, I’m not likely to spam you with promotions. I can’t even release a decent newsletter due to the limited time I have for this blog, so be assured that your email address will be safe with me, and if ever I send you an email, it will be about something useful/helpful.
I’m just asking you to send me a topic that you’d love to read on the blog, but it has to fall on the following categories.
- Health
- Education
- Livelihood
- Parenting
Yep! Those are the topics closest to my heart, so if you haven’t noticed yet, I’d like to share here that my Facebook page URL is actually http://facebook.com/TheHappyWAHM
You can throw me a question, and I will answer lenghtily here. It may not be immediate. Like I’m being audacious and thinking that there may be a lot of you who will participate, and I can only answer one question, or cover one topic, in a day. Plus, I also have some more DIYs that I’m planning to do, so those will be shared with you here, as well.
And, since my husband is a WAHD, and there may be some male souls out there who are actually reading this blog, I will also welcome questions or topics thrown in by the members of the male population.
So how about it?
Are you ready to be my partner in my writing challenge?
Ready… set… fill out the form!
Thank you all in advance, and I’m looking forward to seeing this form have some entries real soon!
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about this post?
Please leave me a message, or post them, at my Facebook Page.
by The Happy WAHM
Do you know that virtual assistance and crochet have a lot of similarities?
I’m taking a break from my financial management series and talking about my other passion.
In May last year, I learned how to crochet. My firstborn actually introduced me to it. And I’ve been addicted since.
I’ve been so committed to it that I have even set up a website and a Facebook page just so I can feature all my finished projects in one place. And I’m happy to share that this hobby I have taken up has actually been paying for itself. Yes, I’ve been able to sell some items, and orders are coming in, thank goodness!
I think I may have been sharing too much about my crochet activities that people are starting to wonder if I’m switching careers. I’ve actually been asked about a dozen times if I’m leaving virtual assistance to focus on crochet as a business.
The answer has been, and will always be… no.
Much as I love crafting, I don’t think I’ll ever make a decent living out of it. And virtual assistance is so much my personality that I can’t imagine ever giving it up. Oh, maybe I’ll slow down in five year’s time. But for as long as clients are engaging my services, I’ll always be a virtual assistant.
Wait!
Make that… I’ll always be a virtual assistant who crochets.
What a lot of people don’t realize is that virtual assistance and crochet are alike in many ways. And that may be the reason why I’m doing well in this hobby. Here are a few examples:
The foundation row is always difficult.
We always begin a project with a foundation row. The challenge for me is in the math. Most of my past projects were done in freehand, meaning I didn’t use any pattern. You are not going to believe how I have to draw sticks and circles on paper so I can figure out how many chains to start with. Do I make multiples of 5 plus 2, or do I make multiples of 5 plus 3? Do I make my first DC on the 3rd chain from the hook? Or should it be on the 4th?
Another challenge for me is how to make all chains even. I need to keep my strokes uniform, so I am not to be disturbed when chaining, or be on the path of my wrath. I also find myself counting and re-counting my chains. Although I’m using stitch markers for, say, every 50 chains, I’d still repeat counting, because if I don’t get the count right, I cannot move on to the next row. Well, basically I can move to the next row, but the whole project, the whole design, will be bust.
Very similar to the challenges I had to face when I was starting out as a VA. I had to wing everything. I had to repeatedly work on my numbers, being careful not to shortchange myself or the client. I stayed focused on my goals, on why I’m doing what I’m doing. I stayed motivated. And here I am.
There are different ways you can make your foundation row.
The most common is to make the chains, then single or double crochet. But there are also chainless foundation rows, using either the foundation single crochet (FSC), foundation double crochet (FDC) or foundation half double crochet (FHDC). Chaining is faster and easier. But the chainless foundation is cleaner and firmer. I just find myself always missing a stitch or two when doing the FDC, so I just use the FSC when I can, and stick to chaining for most of my projects. To make my edge cleaner to look at, I just do the SC or DC on the bump at the back of the chain, instead of inserting the hook between the V of the chain.
In the same manner that you are free to choose the way to launch a career in virtual assistance. Just go ahead and wing it, being mindful of the bumps along the way, or be totally prepped for it by learning strategies and techniques first before forging ahead. However you want to start it, just stay true to have what you have set out to do.
Follow a pattern, or create your own.
Having a pattern is great. That is, if you know how to follow one. I can follow a written pattern, but not the diagrams. It’s something I have yet to learn. The symbols confuse me. Maybe in time, I’ll learn how to read symbols, too. Meantime, I’m happy creating my own designs with the stitches I’m most familiar with, and simply mixing colors.
In the same manner that I started my virtual assistance career without any guidance. Back in 2006, there were no workshops (that I know of), no other VA that I know of, so I had to learn on my own. I focused on my skills and offered them as a service, while learning new skills that are already being sought by clients overseas.
Different yarn types or hooks for different projects.
This part, I’m still learning as far as crochet is concerned. The yarn I learned my stitches on were acrylic. And I assumed that all yarns were created equal. Not so. There’s cotton, acrylic, soft acrylic, wool, cashmere, and so on. Cotton yarns are heavy. Acrylics are light, and they can catch fire easily. So don’t make potholders with acrylic yarn. Use cotton. But if you’re working on a big wearable project like a shawl, use lightweight materials like cottonberry. The drape is better, too.
As for the hooks, there is a tunisian hook used for… you guessed it! Tunisian stitch. And they come in different sizes and lengths. For the size, say you are using a light material that requires a 3mm hook, try to use a 3.5mm or 4mm hook to achieve a lacy feel. And take care of your hands! Use ergonomic hooks.
In virtual assistance, it’s not one size fits all, too. Say your tasks are simple email management and calendar management, then you can survive with a 1.5Mbps connection. But if your tasks will involve video editing, lots of uploads and downloads to and from the net, you should at least have 3Mbps.
Frogging is not fun, but sometimes necessary.
It’s okay to make mistakes. But once you realized that you have committed one, be prompt in correcting it. Imagine having reached the 50th row, only to realize that you missed a stitch on the 25th row. So your project looks askew because you made a decrease when there shouldn’t be. Don’t be lazy and say, it will do. Go ahead and frog, and do the rows again.
Working with clients as a VA for almost a decade now, and in corporate for 12 years before becoming one, I’ve had my share of grave mistakes. But I’ve always managed to make necessary corrections and apologize to whoever got the brunt of the error. And I remember the lessons.
So next time you are working on a project that requires to be really even, take time to count your stitches every other row, so you can catch the missing stitch early. 🙂
These are just a few examples I have time to write today, but you get the idea. And these are the reasons why I’m thriving in both.
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about this post?
Please leave me a message, or post them, on my Facebook Page.
by The Happy WAHM
I’ve been yakking about surviving with just one income, I think it’s time I share this little Excel file I’ve been using in our money management.
So my office desktop is officially dead. And because of that, I have very limited access to online work, much less to my blog’s dashboard. So I’m going to make this short and sweet.
The funny thing about not blogging regularly is that I tend to forget what I have already written in the past. Not just once, but twice!
Check these out:
One-Income Household: The Early Days
One-Income Household: The Current Situation
Notice that I posed the same questions? That’s because I have those questions written in a notebook! And of course I always refer to my notes. 🙂
But anyway, I hope you’ll visit the old posts. And to those who are just getting to know me, my Facebook page and my blog, here’s your chance to download the money management tool I’m using. It’s pretty easy to use. It helped me identify where to cut back on expenses, and how much I should save for whatever big ticket item we’re planning to purchase.
To Liza, who left me a message at my Facebook page this morning, thank you! Timestamp shows it was received at 2:30 am. She left me a two-paragraph message, which ended with this…
Thank you for sharing! You inspired a soul today!
Thank YOU! You have made my day really awesome!
Download your Money Management file here.
Have fun!
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about this post?
Please leave me a message, or post them, at my Facebook Page.
by The Happy WAHM
7/365Challenge: There are several reasons why families can be a one-income household. It can be a lifestyle choice, when a husband works, and the wife stays home to care for the children. Or when a spouse loses a job. Or when you are single parent.
In my first One-Income Household post, I talked about how we are living on a single income, and why. It’s a conscious effort to save.
The family that saves together stays together.
My husband and I, we talk a lot. We talk about anything and everything. And money is a topic we don’t shy away from. Well, I do the talking, mostly, and he listens, and he approves. I present the numbers and lay down the plans. Sometimes, he would question the soundness of my plans, and it could be scary, you know. He’s an engineer, and he’s really very meticulous, and when he starts to cross-examine me, my brain starts to function overtime. He would have these what-if questions, and those were great to have. We get to work on alternative courses of action for any eventuality.
When his past company was bought out by the industry giant in 2013 and he was offered a contractual position for a year, I started managing our budget with just my income, and only took from his salary for big ticket expenses. So when his contract ended and we decided that he would not renew, we were okay. I’ve got it covered. When he landed a freelance gig after eight months of being idle, I told him that we should continue with our one-income lifestyle.
Well, not everything’s as rosy as it looks. I actually had a scare for a while. Coz in January 2014, we had our house extended to accommodate my home office. At that time, we were not even thinking that he would not renew. So a big chunk of our savings went to the house extension, and when he did not renew, we were almost back to zero.
You might ask, how can we even think about saving when we are barely meeting our needs with our current finances?
This is where creating a budget comes to play.
Ask yourself these questions:
What are our essential costs? – You have to know what is essential for your family. Ours are food, shelter, education healthcare, internet connection.
How much can we realistically afford? – Do you really need to buy Starbucks coffee, or will Batangas brew do? Do you really need an iPhone6 or will Samsung J5 do?
Can we afford our current house? – Lucky for us, we had the foresight to take care of buying a house before we even planned my second pregnancy. I adamantly insisted on it. But if you are still renting, think about how much you can really afford.
How much are our current monthly credit card payments? – Don’t use one if you know you are an impulsive buyer. Go ahead! Cut it in half. Now!
Can we afford maintaining a car? – Some families even have more than one. If you are a dual-income household and you have two cars, you might want to think about letting go of one. Mother Earth will be so happy.
How will be cover health insurance? – Or do you even have one?
Is our life insurance adequate? – Again, do you have one?
What’s our overall debt situation? – Credit card balances are debts, so consider those. House mortgage, car mortgage, and even insurance premiums.
How will we cut back on costs? – I have so many tips on this, starting with letting go of the househelps! How to survive without a househelp will be another good post, don’t you think?
How will we fund retirement? – Uhmmmmm… can I invite you for coffee one of these days? 🙂 Seriously, let me know if you’re interested on a financial management talk, I will sponsor you. I sleep better at night because I know we are covered. 🙂
What are our options? – How determined are you to make it work? Then you’ll know you won’t run out of options.
Can we find or create additional income? – Definitely! Just ask me. 🙂
My 15 minutes is up! Let’s meet again tomorrow for a continuation of this talk.
P.S.
I’m squatting on my kids’ PC coz my office desktop has been acting up for the last four months, and today has been the worst. Monitor dies every so often. Well, it celebrated it’s 5th anniversary last November, so maybe it’s really tired. Maybe it’s time we consider getting a replacement. And the good thing is… I’m not worried about a possible purchase because I’ve been saving for it for two years! Companies replace computer units every three years, so from the time my desktop turned two, I’ve been saving up for it.
Do you have questions, comments or feedback about this post?
Please leave me a message, or post them, at my Facebook Page.
