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The Forsyth County News
Opinion
This is a page of opinions - ours, yours and others.
Signed columns and cartoons are the opinions of the
writers and artists and may not reflect our views.
Promise of spring
General Lee, the groundhog at Yellow River Game Ranch in
Gwinnett County, had predicted the early arrival of spring
when he peaked out Monday morning. However, the prog
nosticating groundhog did not say winter was over quite
yet-
And the weather this week is proof that the Forsyth County area is like
ly still in for a little more of the cold weather. After all, Wednesday
marked the mid-point of winter. Perhaps Mother Nature was celebrating
when she decided that a little arctic blast with some snowfall sprinkled on
spme Northeast Georgia counties would be a gentle - or maybe not so
gentle - reminder that it is just early February. —TOW
But spring will come. The promise is already I S
out there. A check under some of the those I. .' ' ;•
leaves you haven’t been able to rake up because |
of the rain reveals some little surprises yet to |
come. Crocus, hyacinth and other early-bloom- "
ing bulbs and the bloom-encrusted forsythia are I- z
getting ready to burst forth to greet whatever I ' . .
weather comes our way.
Hang on! Spring will be on the way soon.
On Your Payroll ~
CITY COUNCIL
Mayor, H. Ford Gravitt, 212 Kelly Mill Road, Cumming, Ga. 30040.
887-2352
Mayor Pro-Tem, Lewis Ledbetter, 205 Mountain Brook Drive,
Cumming, Ga. 30040.887-3019
Ralph Perry, 1420 Pilgrim Road, Cumming, Ga. 30040.887-7474
Quincy Holton, 103 Hickory Ridge Drive, Cumming, Ga. 30040.
887-5279
Rupert Sexton, 705 Pine Lake Drive, Cumming, Ga. 30040.887-4332
John Pugh, 10813th Street, Cumming, Ga. 30040.887-3342
COUNTY COMMISSIONERS
Chairman Bill Jenkins, 430 Oakleaf Trail, Suwanee, Ga. 30174.
887-0935
Vice-Chairman Lamar Suddeth, 3145 Pleasant Grove Rd.,
Cumming, Ga. 30040.886-0738 ,
William “Andy” Anderson, 9740 Misty Cove Lane, Gainesville, Ga.
30506.889-1829
John Kieffer, 4403 Pine Tree Close, Cumming, Ga. 30040.889-3255
Julian Bowen, 5035 Pilgrim Point Rd., Cumming, Ga. 30041
887-0784
BOARD OF EDUCATION
Chairman Don Hendricks, 5985 Polo Drive, Cumming, Ga. 30040.
< 889-2909.
Vice-Chairman Sherry Sagemiller, 1460 Squire Lane, Cumming,
: Ga. 30040.887-8388.
Ben Benson, 1265 Dahlonega Highway, Cumming, Ga. 30040.
: 889-9892.
Paul Kreager, 9810 Kings Road, Gainesville, Ga. 30506.889-9971
Eddie Taylor, 4195 Morningside Drive, Cumming, Ga. 30040.
; 887-4405.
NATIONAL REPRESENTATIVES
;U.S. Senator Paul Coverdell
• 200 Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20510
Atlanta: 100 Colony Square, Suite 300,1175 Peachtree St.,
? Atlanta, Ga. 30361
Telephone: (202) 224-3643;Atlanta (404) 347-2202
Fax: Washington, (202) 228-3875; Atlanta, (404) 347-2243
U.S. Senator Max Cleland
: 75 Spring Street, Suite 1700
: Atlanta, Ga. 30303
• Telephone: 331-4811
U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, 9th District
- 1406 Longworth House Office Building, Washington, D.C. 20515
Gainesville: P.O. Box 1015, Gainesville, Ga. 30503
Telephone: (202) 225-5211 ;Gainesville, 535-2592
: Fax: (202) 225-521 |; Gainesville, 535-2765
STATE REPRESENTATIVES
Billy Ray, 48th District
I State Capitol, Suite 327, Legislative Office Building, Atlanta, Ga.
; 30334; (fax) (404) 656-6581
: Telephone: (404) 656-0048 (office) or (770) 822-0900
e-mail: bray@legis.state.ga.us
Senator Casey Cagle, 49th District
- 325-B Legislative Office Building, Atlanta, Ga. 30334; (fax) (404)
- 657-1424 Telephone: (404) 656-6578
Rep. Mike Evans, 28th District
f 18 Capitol Square, Legislative Office Building, Room 604, Atlanta,
; Ga. 30334 Telephone: (404) 656-0265
” e-mail: mevans@legis.state.ga.us
Rep. Keith Breedlove, 85th District
Legislative Office Building, Suite 412, Atlanta, Ga. 30334
; Telephone: (404) 656-0137 (office) or 945-1579
; e-mail: kbreedlove@legis.state.ga.us
«
j What do YOU think
j ...about the upcoming closure of Hwy. 369 for
j road work? Which detour route will you take?
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] Mail your response to:
THE FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS
P.O. Box 210
Cumming, Ga. 30028
Hand-deliver to: 302 Old Buford Road
Fax to: (770) 889-6017
; k • e-mail to: edftor@forsythnews.com
Two-
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Z T- -- l| J
It
“I thought the country was in trouble when the
Clinton story broke. But now the polls show
nobody cares, I know the country is in trouble!"
The struggles of paying tax when self employed
Having been a sole proprietor
(self employed) and knowing
many individuals who are in this
tax status. I can fully understand
the budgeting struggle of being
ready to pay your individual
income taxes, not only at year
end but also on a quarterly
basis.
Being self employed requires
much more focus and diligence
on setting aside the monies that
you may be required to pay, not
only on your income tax, but
also the self employment tax.
For those who are employees of
companies, it is somewhat easi
er to budget the taxes because it
is directly taken out of your
paycheck as withholdings and
submitted by the employer to
the Internal Revenue Service on
your behalf. However, when you
manage your own business, you
tend to focus more on generat
ing more income and paying
your vendors and tend to put
your own personal tax require
ments on the back burner. And
then when it is time to file your
taxes, you are left with a fairly
significant balance due based
upon the profits, yet have no
reserve available to pay these
funds. Does this sound familiar?
I recommended to numerous
clients that are self employed,
that if they are not disciplined
enough to maintain a specific
balance in their checking
account to pay their quarterly
estimated payments, then they
have two courses of action to
help themselves.
One choice is to establish a
money market account with lim
ited check writing ability. After
you have completed a job and
been paid by your customer, you
calculate how much profit you
think you have made on that job.
Assuming you have made a
profit of SI,OOO, I recommend
to the client that they take at
least a percentage of that profit
number and transfer it out of
their checking account and into
this savings account. So whether
you are in the service-related
business or the product relating
business, you are forcing your
self to save the monies for the
taxes before you spend them on
personal needs, or other operat
ing expenses, which may be
necessary or unnecessary. If this
process is maintained, then at
the end of each quarter, when it
is time to make your estimated
payments, you should have a
reserve in this savings account
to assist you without creating a
cash crunch all of a sudden to
your checking account.
The second choice is a little
different in that instead of trying
to save your money to make a
quarterly payment, you can
actually make monthly pay
ments to the Internal Revenue
Service. Therefore, at the end of
the month, you would make a
payment to the Internal Revenue
Service based upon what you
anticipate your taxes to be for
that month. This is very similar
to having withholdings coming
out of your paycheck which is
deposited on a monthly basis by
an employer. However, you
must be sure to properly notate
on this payment with a letter to
Internal Revenue Service that
this is an estimated payment for
the current tax year. I have
known a few people who have
actually chosen this method to
help themselves on a regular
basis for their personal budget
ing purposes.
Personally and professionally,
I prefer the first method because
you are drawing interest on your
money while it is sitting in the
savings account waiting to be
paid to the Internal Revenue
Service and the State of
Georgia. The most important
item, however, is that you ade
quately budget and set aside the
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employer or our office for more
mformation.
On staff at Northeast Georgia
Medical Center St Chestatee
Regional Hospital
,CaU (770) 886-2229 for
an appointment today!
FORSYTH COUNTY NEWS Friday, February 8,19 W I
monies for your taxes to be sure
you do not to incur any penal
ties or any additional interest
charge at the end of the year.
Even though we hate to admit it,
Uncle Sam and Aunt Georgia
are vendors that expect payment
for what we owe.
I know it is not an easy process
trying to juggle your business
bills as well as your individual
bills but I find if you have taken
more money out of your operat
ing account and set it aside,
individuals typically find ways
to stretch the dollars that they
have left over because they do
not use the money on frivolous
expenses because they are more
focused on their personal bud
gets and needs. In my next arti
cle I will address how potential-
_____
Rick iMn
ly incorporating your self
employed business can save you
some income taxes.
(Richard Lee is a CPA practice
ing in Cumming and writes arti
cles for the Forsyth County
News related to individual and
business matters. If there is a
topic you would like to see
addressed in future articles,
please write to him in care of
the of the Forsyth County
News.)
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