Tax Information
There are many tax advantages for having a home-based business such as Mary Kay. I am not even going to attempt to provide tax advice, however, I have done lots of studying for my own personal business, and I just wish I had known years ago what I know now.
The first thing you need to do is have a tax consultant who is well versed in home-based businesses. The fees for a consultant are tax deductible. Check this out.
Keeping Records
I prefer to use a 2-envelope system. A manila envelope for expense receipts and the other for income receipts. Each month total the expenses from each category (check out Learn MK to know the categories) and write it on the front of the envelope. Inside will be all the supporting receipts. At the end of the year, you have an envelope for each month of the year and it will be very easy to total all the categories for the year and send to your accountant. You can use another envelope for income and write on the outside the total of sales for classes, facials, reorders, open houses, etc. You then have a total of actual cash income to use for tax purposes, too. I personally don't put the sales tickets in the envelope, but you could. I use a computer program (you could print a monthly income statement). But when I did do paper pink tickets (sales tickets), I stapled them to the back of that customers profile AFTER I had finished totalling everything on the envelope. (Otherwise, the ticket gets lost in the profile box never to be found again!)
Begin from the beginning by keeping great tax records! MK can be a great tax shelter if you keep accurate records and get a good accountant who understands all the deductions available to a home-based business. Many husbands have become very supportive when they realize the tax savings from MK! Go to Intouch and click on Learn MK. You'll find a lot of tax info there.