Steve Boultbee
Forum Replies Created
-
If you’re using the regular Nucleo, you won’t need it in AE CS3 as Adobe added the functionality to AE. It’s in the Multiprocessing tab in AE’s preferences. Something like “Render Multiple Frames Simultaneously” should be checked (I don’t have AE CS3, so I’m not sure of the exact language).
If you’re using Nucleo Pro, you’ll need Nucleo Pro 2 to work with AE CS3. According to an email I got from Gridiron, it’s due to be released in a few days, but you can still get in on the pre-order price if you act quickly.
-
[Nick Griffin] “Well, technically, Mark if you’re earnings are over $600 on this moonlighting work I believe you already ARE supposed to be declaring this income and paying taxes on it. (NOTE I’m NOT an accountant — along with NOT being a lawyer, so the $600 figure may be off.) “
Actually, any income you earn is reportable – there is no threshold. So, even if you make $5 doing something, it’s taxable income. Now, if $600 is your only income, you wouldn’t have to file a return as your income would be less than the standard deduction and you’d have no tax liability. In 2006, the filing threshold was $8,450 for a single taxpayer ($5,150 standard deduction + $3,300 personal exemption). Nick, I think what you’re thinking of when you mentioned the $600 is that that’s the threshold for when someone has to issue you a 1099 if you performed services for them as a contractor. I’m sure the IRS would like 1099s issued for amounts much less than that even.
[Nick Griffin] “An LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) or straight incorporation can do more for you than protect you from lawsuits. It can make not paying taxes on expenses much simpler and less likely to be challenged by the tax authorities. It can also be a way of showing prospective clients that by virtue of being a company instead of just an individual you are somewhat more serious. OK, mostly it’s the not paying taxes on expenses thing.”
I’m not sure what you mean by “It can make not paying taxes on expenses much simpler…” – do you mean that it’s easier to write off your expenses? Yes, any sort of business entity is less likely to have its expenses challenged, provided they really are ordinary and necessary for that line of business.
Another benefit to using an LLC or other business entity would be if your business is not making money. If you’re losing money, the IRS may come in a say that your “business” is a hobby, and if that’s the case, your expenses are only deductible to the extent of your receipts. If you’ve taken the time to go through the process of forming an entity, it’s additional proof in your pocket that the activity is engaged in for profit.
To the OP: If you go with an LLC and you’re the only member, then the entity is disregarded for income tax purposes and the income and expense are reported on Schedule C of the 1040, just like it would be if you were running as a sole proprietor. However, the LLC gives additional benefits like those that Nick and I have mentioned.
Whatever you decide to do, keep detailed records. I cannot stress this enough. Not only will these records help immensely if you ever get audited, but the more organized you keep your things, the less time your CPA has to spend figuring out what you did…
Sole proprietorship and LLC will both be subject to self-employment tax as well, so don’t be surprised if half of your net income disappears in the way of taxes.
-
I’ve seen this message when exporting to Compressor as well. What you want to do is this: in the Browser, select the sequence that you’re trying to export. Then, go to File -> Export -> Using Compressor.
-
It’s very unlikely that the nVidia 8800 card will work in a Mac Pro. The reason for this is that the ROM on the graphics card is designed to work with the standard PC BIOS, not the EFI boot ROM that the Mac uses.
Since Microsoft doesn’t support EFI with Windows, most graphics cards will not have the capability to work with EFI. Maybe once MS does support EFI and graphics card manufacturers add EFI compatibility to the cards, you’ll be able to drop an off-the-shelf PC graphics card into a Mac and have it work.
-
[Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.] “You do that at the end of the year by basically getting rid of cash… buy needed equipment, salary bonuses for employees, or pay dividends to shareholders (which hopefully primarily will be you).”
Paying out cash to the owners of an S corp doesn’t have any affect on profits. It’s simply a return of the income that the owners were already taxed on (or will be, if it’s current year profits). Hence, it’s a non-taxable distribution. The other stuff will work, though.
[Fantastic Plastic Entertainment, Inc.] “Another thing to note… some people can’t decide whether to incorporate as an S-Corp or a “regular” full corporation. If you incorporate as an S-Corp, you can convert it to a regular corp later… but you can’t go the other way around.”
This statement is incorrect… you can convert from a regular “C” corp to an S corp. It carries with it some caveats regarding the types and amounts of income that you can earn as an S corp, but it can be done. However, converting from an S corp to a C corp is much easier. For a single owner running a business, there’s almost no reason to incorporate as a C corp. If your business expands and you need to bring in many investors, a C corp might be the way to go (an S corp has limitations on the number of shareholders, as well as the type of shareholder). However, C corps suffer from double taxation of income – net income is taxed once at the entity level and then again to the shareholders as a dividend when they take a distribution of that profit in cash or property. S corps pass all their income through to the shareholders, so it’s taxed only once (except if the state has an S corp tax – see my example of CA below).
To the original poster, if you don’t like writing a big check to Uncle Sam at tax time, you need to update your accountant throughout the year as to your expected income so that he/she can update the projections of your tax liability. It sounds like you didn’t do that.
The decision of LLC or S corp isn’t an easy one. You should really speak to a CPA and/or an attorney that can look at your situation in detail and recommend a course of action based on the laws of your state. I know from your profile that you’re not in California, but I am, so I’ll give you an example of some of the differences in CA. Your state may have similar provisions. California imposes an LLC fee based on the gross receipts for the year. This means that even if you sustain a net loss, you can still get hit with a fairly substantial bill. A California S corp pays an entity level tax of 1.5% to the state based on net income. This difference in entity level taxes/fees is just one thing to take into account along with the differences in legal protection and other requirements (such as the required corporate records and so on).
Disclaimer: This post is not intended to be tax advice. See a professional who is familiar with the laws of your state.
-
The nVidia 7300 only works with the Mac Pro, not the Quad G5. I’m sorry, but your only real option for better OpenGL performance is to order the ATi X1900 G5 Edition. It’s not available direct from Apple, but resellers such as OWC and Small Dog have it. It’s also available direct from ATi.
-
You’re confusing memory (RAM) with storage (hard drive space). The “out of memory” error has nothing to do with the amount of space left on your hard drive. The problem is that Final Cut Pro doesn’t have enough RAM to do what you’re asking it to do.
How much RAM do you have installed (look in Apple Menu -> About this Mac)? And, how much is Final Cut Pro set to use?