Nathan Ellery-Osei
enrolled agent (tax specialist)
Precise; tax first, everything else second
Irregular
A big contract one month, nothing for six. Then an IRS notice arrives.
Planned · not started yet
Money & personal finance Money under pressure Living with uncertainty Family home Lightly witty Tense
The premise
A big contract one month, nothing for six. Then an IRS notice arrives. Bea builds a system for variable income, self-employment tax and quarterly payments, and learns that the anxiety she thought was about money was really about not knowing.
The protagonist
Bea Kowalski-Adams — Brooklyn freelance illustrator with feast-or-famine income
The council
Every council member is an original fictional character. None represents, quotes or is endorsed by a real person.
Kirsty Lomond
cash-flow coach
Upbeat; turns chaos into a routine
Dr Femi Adebayo-Ross
household-finance researcher
Evidence-minded; questions rules of thumb
How the story moves
One US tax year from crisis to calm; each quarter brings a new test of the system she is building.
What readers take away
- Budgeting on variable income
- Building buffer accounts
- Self-employment tax
- Quarterly estimated payments
- Deductible business expenses
- Record keeping and receipts
- Retirement accounts for the self-employed
- Responding to an IRS notice
- Use the IRS safe-harbor rules for estimated tax
- Track mileage and home-office deductions properly
- Open and fund a SEP-IRA or solo 401(k)
- Negotiate an IRS payment plan
The books
- 1The notice Planned
- 2The buffer Planned
- 3The quarter Planned
- 4The return Planned
- 5The plan Planned
Book titles are working titles and may change before publication. No book is on sale until the complete series is finished, checked and released.