Ryan VaughnCOO of Incite Tax & Accounting. Ask me anything about your taxes.

Messy Books Are Costing You Money

22 Mar 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:15

In this short‑form video, Ryan Vaughn warns freelancers, 1099 earners, and small‑business owners that disorganized bookkeeping leads to overpaying taxes. He explains that without a systematic way to record expenses, taxable income appears inflated, causing the full 15.3% self‑employment tax (covering Social Security and Medicare) to be applied on a higher base. Vaughn emphasizes that the lack of a tracking system forces people into guesswork and costly catch‑up at year‑end. To solve this, he offers a free income‑and‑expense tracker (linked in the video bio) and encourages viewers to adopt clean bookkeeping from day one, so taxable income can be intentionally reduced. He also advises following advice only from qualified tax professionals who handle these issues daily.

Chapters

I understand nothing. This right here is why so many businesses overpay in taxes. Our tax pros see this every year. January hits and you're trying to remember 12 months of expenses, but at that point, it's not strategy anymore. It's playing catch-up. If this is you, you're not the only one. Most 1099 earners think you're freelancers or your contractors were never shown how to track expenses during the year. What ends up happening? You Google it, you watch a few reels, you guess your way through it. But if there's no system in place, a lot of income ends up looking taxable. So what does that mean for you? That's where that 15.3% self-employment tax comes in. That tax percentage covers your Social Security and Medicare. And when you're self-employed, you're fully responsible for that amount. So if your expenses aren't tracked properly, your income looks higher on paper. You end up paying more of that tax than you need to. That's why it's important to get a system to track your expenses so you can reduce your net income and pay less taxes. To help with this, we made an income and expense tracker that you can grab for free in our bio. We help business owners set up clean bookkeeping from day one, because when your numbers are clear, lowering your taxable income becomes intentional, not a guessing game. So if you're gonna follow tax advice online, make sure it's coming from tax pros who do this every day. Follow along for real strategies from real tax professionals.