I usually swear by Turbo Tax but this year I had a few complexities so I went to a tax professional that my brother recommended.  These guys are great.  You hand them your papers, and they look and them and shuffle them around and then they peer at you intently:

“You have a bit of secondary income.”

“Yes, I took on a few freelance writing jobs.”

“And when you’re writing your little words, do you ever stop and scratch your head because you can’t figure out a sentence?”

“I guess so...”

“And do you ever scratch your head so hard that you need band aids?”

“Well--”

”Right.  Three crates of band aids for a year’s worth of freelance work--business expense deduction.  Now, do you ever drink anything when you’re writing?”

“Sure, I guess so.”

“What do you drink?”

“Iced tea, maybe juice--”

“Because it’s very bad to get dehydrated when you’re writing, correct?  Dozens of people die a year due to freelance dehydration?”

“I’m not sure that--”

”Right.  Five pallets of Ocean Spray--business write off.”

“Hooray!”

Note to the person with the IRS address who sometimes visit this site: This conversation was exaggerated for comic effect, and there’s absolutely nothing untoward, unseemly, or suspicious about my tax return.  I would have written this post differently in order to make that more clear, but it’s extremely hard to type when my fingers are covered in band-aids.