Income documents needed for self-employed?

[cwilliams]

We are finally filing after paying the attorney for about three months. We have an appointment on August 10. They said to bring the last 60 days of pay stubs and our 2008 taxes. I have dh's pay stubs, but I am self employed and plan to bring the following:

A P&L statement for my business - Or should it be an income statement? I just want to list my income / expenses.
Invoices I turned in to clients
Paypal statements as that is how I get paid from 90% of my clients
A bank statement showing income from one contract that pays via DD

Does that sound about right?

I have a fun week ahead of me making a master creditor list as well and putting together that P&L as well as copying out invoices and paperwork.

[TrainWreak]

If I don't forget I will let you know tomorrow. I am self employed and doing BK7 paperwork tomorrow morning.

[StartingOver08]

Do you have 1099's or tax returns showing the business income?
Most of the time you will need to provide proof of income for a longer period when showing self employment income/business income.

Call the attorney's office, they usually have a list for you of required items.

[jadams]

Sounds like you have what you need.

Your lawyer will just be looking for any type of documentation that can substantiate what you put on your schedules.

I provided my attorney with a monthly P&L (6 months + prior year, just to show trends) that he used to do his calculations and prepare the paperwork. I then followed up with a spreadsheet listing all of my invoices and my major payments (rent, insurance, etc.)

The lawyer asked to see the spreadsheet to make sure I wasn't deducting any expenses that risked a trustee objection (i.e. a private jet rental).

He said if asked, that spreadsheet is what he would provide to the trustee. And if there was some trouble I should be prepared to provide the carbons from my receipt books, bank statements or cancelled checks showing the payments, etc.

The trustee only asked me to explain how I valued my business inventory, and the P&L was what he accepted from my lawyer as proof of wages/income. He didn't even ask for the spreadsheet.

Of course, your Schedule C on your 1040 should match what you provide on the P&L.

[cwilliams]

I have 1099 forms as I've been self-employed for four years, but I don't have any for 2009 yet, of course. But my business has changed this year as I stopped doing one particular type of work in April and switched to something totally different. I started a service business in January and did both businesses until April when I just went to the one. So nothing on my tax forms will reflect the current work I'm doing now. So should I do a P&L for just my current business for the past 60 days or should I do a year-to-date P&L that will include what I was doing from January - April? Or two different P&L statements for each business?

I guess I'll bring whatever I have and we'll see how it goes. I didn't think to ask the attorney's office when I had them on the phone. I'll call back on Monday and see what they recommend I bring.

[jadams]

I would prepare separate ones for each business. I suppose a combined one would still be sufficient, but I think it's makes things more clear to have two. Your expenses are probably at different levels.

The goal here is just to make everything nice and clear so your lawyer and eventually the trustee can quickly go through it, know everything, and move on.

If something is ambiguous, the trustee may want to dig further.

[Inthestorm]

Okay...and what happens to the self-employed after BK? Do they re-start the business under a different name? In our state (GA) the tools of trade exemption is $1,500. NO WAY could my husband do business with only this!!! I am underemployed and underpaid and have no qualifications. How can this exemption possibly be???