Take the gross receipts or sales and subtract from it the returns and allowances. This is simply Line 1 minus Line 2.

Literally, returns. Say that you made an awful pizza because you were too busy doing drugs in the freezer. The customer rightfully complains, and you give them a refund. The IRS wants to know about this, and your books should have this listed. Find all refunds, returns, rebates, or other “you lost money but it was not a business expense” items in the books and add those up.

If you have practiced good bookkeeping up until this point, this is a cinch – just add up the total value of sales, unaudited, from the fiscal year. In a standard book, this will be the total value of the sales column.

If you did not practice good bookkeeping, round up everything that counts as business income and add it all up. Then go buy a book and get an accountant like an adult. Pony up.

Why would a W-2 matter? Say you own your own business and work for it – your sales ARE your earnings. This makes you a “statutory employee,” such that the business' earnings are yours.

A good way to think about this is the family owned pizza shop. If you sat in the kitchen every day, making pizzas and serving customers, you are both awesome and materially participatory – you made the business run. If you instead merely started the business and otherwise sat around listening to music, sleeping, or doing questionable things, you really did not work, and thus did not materially participate. Realistically, if you put in more than 500 hours at the business, you should mark yes.

Why does this matter? Businesses have certain incorporation methods take on certain liabilities. Depending on how involved you are with the business, you may not be liable for full taxes or losses if the business fails.

This is something that you or your business' accountant should know about far beforehand. But just in case…

1. Cash basis – Cash basis looks at the real world: when the money changes hands. You do your books such that items are added or deducted only when the money reaches your accounts.

2. Accrual basis – Unlike cash, this basis adds income items when they are drafted. Likewise, deductions are taken only when they incur. The cash has not changed hands, only the agreement.

Did you actually legally incorporate your business? Good – this means that you already have an IRS Employer ID Number. This is a code given by the IRS that registers your business for tax purposes. For the IRS, it removes a LOT of paperwork and effort, while it simplifies your tax load. Make sure that this is correct – an error here means delayed refund.

Snowden was a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton, a relationship he described in detail when talking with Glenn Greenwald.

Each category had a 1% increase, representing 900,000 barrels of beer in increased sales. Actual sales values matched this gain, which is extremely impressive, given the recent bloom in craft beer sales. For every brewery, there was an estimated 3,000 barrels, an very impressive average for a new industry.

Yes – that means that a new brewery opens in the United States every day!