Cornered Office
with Mir Kamin
I'm a freelance writer and mother of two working from home, which theoretically means I can set my own schedule so as to best accommodate my family. In reality, "flexible hours" often equals "working too much." Yes, I'm my own boss; no, that doesn't mean life is easy. It's hard to leave the office when you live there. But I love what I do and feel very lucky. And not just because I get paid to work in my pajamas.
To learn more about Mir, check out her profile on Work It, Mom! or visit her blog at http://www.wouldashoulda.com/
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I consider myself an educated person. I navigate my day-to-day life with my fly zipped and matching socks (usually). I hold some fancy degrees from expensive schools. I qualified for (but did not join) MENSA.
And yet I cannot seem to triumph over my current accounting woes here in my new life.
For years I happily freelanced from my home in New England, deposited the checks written to me, reported the income on my personal tax returns, and all was well. Hey, there’s nothing to this whole freelancing thing when it comes to keeping the books, I stupidly thought, I don’t know what people are complaining about!
Now I’m here in Georgia and the bank keeps screwing up my business account and I want to switch banks. But before I do that, I figured fine, I will go get that DBA certificate so that there’s no problems, this time.
So I called the appropriate county office this morning and this is what I was told to do:
1) Call the IRS and get myself a new tax ID number. I have been filing under my social security number and that’s the logical way to do it. But today I was told that no, I need a business tax ID number in order to…
2) … report to their office and fill out paperwork and pay money to obtain a business license. Which I can only have if I have a new tax ID number specifically for my business. But wait, I can’t do that until after I…
3) … go to the county zoning offices and request a zoning permit to work from my home. Yes, I need to go pay money for a piece of paper allowing me to sit at my own computer in my own house. Brilliant.
4) Once I have a new tax ID number, a zoning permit, and a business permit, then the county will happily grant me a DBA license, which I need in order to straighten out my bank account. And by the way, that costs money as well. Of course.
To say that I’m feeling frustrated, angry and bitter at the moment would be an understatement.
I’ve just moved my family over a thousand miles. I’m trying to unpack and settle in to a new house, help my children adjust, find my way around a new town, squeeze in some quality time with my new husband, pay three mortgages (don’t even get me started) and oh yeah also maintain my more-than-full-time business commitments at the same time. To have to run all over town to jump through all of these hoops just to get a functioning bank account may just be the straw that break’s this camel’s back.
Because this? Is starting to get ridiculous.
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Oh, Mir. I’m so sorry you’re having to deal with these idiots.
Come over and have some cookies and ice cream and amaretto sours. *pats Mir on back*
Rachel May | July 19th, 2007 at 9:29 am
Unfortunately, many of the actions you were to to take I also had to take just to open a business banking account. It seems so silly, so needlessly time consuming and so OVERLY complicated but hopefully once it is done, it is done.
Just don’t move again.
KathyHowe | July 19th, 2007 at 10:29 am
Oh man, sorry you’re having to deal with all that red tape
sheryl | July 19th, 2007 at 3:25 pm
Mir, I can totally relate - we went through ridiculous hoops just trying to open a simple bank account for Work It, Mom! It didn’t help that the original person at the bank helping us seemed to know less about how to open an account than we did, but on top of that, the number of steps required baffled me. They told us it all got more complex after 9/11 - so the way I calmed myself down was trying to think about how I was helping to keep the country safe. Right.
Nataly | July 19th, 2007 at 3:37 pm
Mir, I hope this all gets sorted out for you soon. How utterly ridiculous that you have to go through so many steps.
I’m an occasional commenter on your regular blog and have been reading you here since you started. I just can’t get enough of reading about your adventures even though I’m neither a mom, nor do I work at home. Hope that’s ok!
Delton | July 20th, 2007 at 3:06 pm