The Starlog blogNotes from the receipt‑layer of the internet. Sometimes useful. Always honest.
Tax tips and honest notes on building Starlog. Written by the person building it.
Tax tips
Showing 24 of 24How to track business expenses without a spreadsheet.
The spreadsheet works for about three weeks, then quietly rots. Why it always fails — capture friction, no image, drift — and how to track expenses without one.
How to make a professional invoice that actually gets paid.
Every field a professional invoice needs to get paid without questions — numbering, terms, line items, tax — plus a free, no-sign-up generator in six currencies.
A free expense report template — and where templates stop working.
The seven columns that matter, a template you can copy in five minutes, and an honest note on the exact moment a spreadsheet stops being enough.
The 2026 IRS mileage rate: 72.5 cents, and what it actually covers.
The business rate is up again for 2026. What's inside that 72.5 cents, standard mileage versus actual expenses, who can claim it — and the log the IRS expects you to already have.
HMRC mileage rates 2026/27: the 55p change, explained.
After fifteen years stuck at 45p, the approved mileage rate finally moved. How the two bands work, what happens when your employer pays less (or more), and the record HMRC expects.
There is no official rate — there is your employer's policy, and there is your logbook.Tax tips
Mileage reimbursement in India: no official rate, very real rules.
There's no IRS-style per-kilometre figure here — just your employer's policy, Section 10(14), and a logbook requirement most people discover at the wrong time. How the system actually works.
Keeping GST receipts in Google Drive: what the law actually requires.
Soft-copy receipts are accepted for GST — within limits. What India's retention rules require, what counts as a valid record, and how to store receipts in Google Drive so they hold up.
How to organize receipts in Google Drive (the good manual way — and its ceiling).
A folder structure and naming convention that make receipts in Google Drive actually findable at tax time — plus the point where manual filing stops scaling.
Quarterly estimated taxes, demystified for 1099 workers.
No employer is withholding your taxes anymore — that's the 1099 surprise. The 2026 due dates, the safe-harbor rule that ends the guesswork, and how much to set aside.
Tally-ready vouchers vs. CSV cleanup: the hidden cost of a “CSV export.”
“We export to CSV” sounds like a feature. For whoever has to load it into Tally, it's a starting line. The hidden cost of a raw CSV versus a Tally-ready voucher export.
Mileage or actual expenses: which vehicle deduction actually wins?
The standard mileage rate is 72.5¢ for 2026 — but “just use mileage, it's easier” costs some people real money. How to choose between mileage and actual expenses, and the lock-in nobody mentions.
The home office deduction, minus the audit paranoia.
The home office deduction isn't an audit magnet — that's an outdated myth. Who qualifies, simplified ($5/sq ft, max $1,500) vs the regular method, and the documentation that settles it.
Expense reports when your “team” is you and two contractors.
You don't need per-seat software for a three-person setup. How to run expense reports for a small team — and let contractors submit receipts without seeing your books.
From shoebox to accountant: a receipt workflow that actually ends.
The shoebox of receipts is the most expensive thing you hand your accountant. How to organise a year of receipts end to end — so filing is faster and cheaper.
A little, done regularly — not a lot, done in a panic.Tax tips
What accountants wish you'd do before tax season.
Ask any accountant and the wishlist is the same every year. The handful of things to do before tax season that make your return cheaper, faster, and less stressful.
Two businesses, one shoebox — keeping the books actually separate.
Two businesses in one bank account and one folder is a tax-season trap. Why GST and income tax force you to keep them separate — and a system that keeps them one tap apart.
A receipt isn't a tax invoice — what GST lets you claim ITC on.
Not every bill earns you input tax credit. What GST actually requires before you can claim ITC, the two deadlines that quietly kill it, the receipts that are worthless for it, and how long to keep the rest.
How to get expenses into Tally without retyping them at month-end.
Getting expenses into Tally is rarely the import button — it's the field mapping and the ledger names. Here's what Tally actually needs per voucher, the three ways people do it, and a workflow that skips the month-end retyping.
Receipt and expense tracking for Indian freelancers in 2026: what actually matters.
What Indian freelancers actually need to track in 2026 — a practical system for income, expenses, and GST, without the panic of keeping everything. How much you track turns on one decision.
Section 44ADA — do you even need to keep every receipt?
Presumptive tax promises you can declare 50% and skip the books. Where that's genuinely true, who actually qualifies, and the four places it quietly bites.
Receipt tracking for US freelancers in 2026: what actually matters.
What the IRS genuinely requires, what's overkill, and what the freelancers I've watched do today — shoebox, Excel, half-installed apps. A grounded guide for the 1099 and small-LLC crowd.
Deductible vs. not — a freelancer's guide with real examples.
The IRS's 'ordinary and necessary' test, applied to the expenses freelancers actually have: coffee meetings, new laptops, Uber to a client, gym memberships, home offices. Where the line is sharp, and where it's fuzzy.
Which receipts to keep, which to throw away.
What the IRS actually requires you to retain, for how long, and in what form. Digital vs. paper. The honest list — without the paranoia of 'keep everything forever.'
How to set up expense categories that actually help at tax time.
Use one bucket and tax season tells you nothing; use forty and you stall at the counter. The default set to start from, when a custom category earns its place, and how to keep the list small enough to be automatic.