Take a deep breath—filing taxes as a photographer this year won’t be nearly as nutty as it was last year.

In 2020 and 2021, wedding photographers not only dealt with an unprecedented upheaval to their anticipated wedding season, they also had to deal with a quick-changing and chaotic tax situation. PPP loans, Economic Impact Disaster Loans, stimulus payments, unemployment boosts—they were all complex and required loads of bookkeeping to navigate correctly.

[Read: Must-Know Tax Tips for Photographers in 2022—Your Questions Answered]

There’s good news for people filing taxes as a photographer this year, though: Everything has mellowed out and simplified a ton.

The 2021 tax year didn’t bring much change on the business front. The forgiveness process started for PPP loans, and EIDL repayments began for some of us. Overall, compared to the year before, there weren’t many tax implications for wedding photographers. So far, 2022 is looking to be pretty uneventful as well for photographers filing taxes. There’s speculation that a tax rate hike will go into effect, but nothing is concrete right now.

Let’s recap some tax tips to think about as we go through filing taxes as a photographer in 2022.

Be proactive when you’re filing taxes as a photographer; not reactive

As a business owner, it’s important to take a proactive (rather than a reactive) approach to taxes. Every dollar you earn throughout the year is taxed, so it’s best to think of paying taxes and planning for them as a monthly or quarterly task rather than something to deal with once a year.

Not thinking about taxes until April each year is a reactive approach. This leads to surprise tax bills that you might not have planned well enough for. Instead, paying taxes throughout the year, or at least saving for them, lets you absorb that inevitable end-of-year tax bill rather than being left scrambling to pay it.

[Read: How to Track Photography Expenses for Your Business]

Stay informed about tax changes (and don’t react to tax rumors)

Tax news isn’t the most exciting topic, but it’s important to know if you want to run your business well, especially when you’re filing taxes as a photographer. Thankfully for you, it doesn’t change often, but when it does, it usually changes in a big, impactful way. You can go straight to the source and Google “IRS tax updates” to get the government’s tax update page. It’s super helpful, concise and, best of all, reliable. If the IRS says something is happening in the tax world, it is.

On the other hand, don’t make tax decisions based on rumored tax law changes or even law changes that are still making their way through Congress and only appear to be a done deal. So many tax laws get killed at the last minute.

Joe Biden’s Build Back Better initiative is a great example. I know a handful of friends who bought electric vehicles this year assuming that the EV tax credit would pass. Well, guess what? It didn’t, at the last moment. That doesn’t mean it won’t someday, but the point is simply this: Don’t make business decisions about taxes until the law is law.

[Read: What Does the New Tax Bill Mean For Your Photo Business?]

Keep good records all year long when you’re filing taxes as a photographer

This one seems simple, right? Make sure your bookkeeping is all neat and tidy throughout the year. It’s often harder than it sounds, though. Even I, the guy telling you to keep up on bookkeeping, finds it hard and often slips during the peak of wedding season. It’s really important for a couple key reasons, though:

1. The more time that passes, the more likely we are to forget by the time you’re filing taxes as a photographer. Keeping track of business mileage is a great example. If I don’t journal my business miles after a day or two (or  14…), it’s pretty challenging to remember all the little business trips I took, and they add up! It’s not just the big two-hour drives to weddings once a week; it’s the little errands to go to a client meeting, check the P.O. Box, go pick up prints, etc. You might be missing out on a bigger deduction that you earned simply due to forgetfulness.

2. If you want a loan, you’ll need to have updated records. A lot of my friends are in the market to buy a home, and if you’ve gone through the process, you know how thorough banks are with making sure you can actually afford the mortgage you’re applying for. You don’t want to let a house slip away because you didn’t have up-to-date financial statements available to get the mortgage quickly.

And then there’s the overarching reason for keeping up on records throughout the year when you’re filing taxes as a photographer: it makes tax time infinitely easier, because you’re not having to catch up on a year’s worth of bookkeeping.

Keep these tax tips in mind all throughout 2022 and you’ll be in great shape for whatever April 2023 brings along!

Brandon Scott is a wedding photographer and CPA based in Monterey, California.