I employed my wife for three years to sit in the attic and type up my autobiography, 700 pages, organise everywhere I go. I'm paying the normal rate of tax on the money I take out for myself.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My first book took five years to write and I made $1,000 on it. The second took three years and I made $3,000. All this time I was a housewife being supported by a husband. I was very lucky.
What I usually do is hoard money - I accumulate as much as possible in the fear of not having enough to pay tax.
For 10 years, I'd been working as a freelance writer and editor, making money but not a living. It was a good arrangement family-wise, allowing me to stay home with our daughter, but not so great financially or, sometimes, ego-wise.
I spent a lot of time writing about tax and pensions and mortgages.
I used to get taxed on my allowance. Yeah, I've been taxed since I was a little kid. And at the end of the year I had to pick a charity to donate my taxes to.
I'm a children's book writer, and my wife is a musician. We've raised a family on income from songs, performances and books.
Now my only income is a few royalty cheques from my books.
I paid $1.9 billion in taxes in my lifetime.
I sell my first book to Random House, a memoir of my years as a war photographer, for twice my NBC salary.
I used to do my own taxes. You know how you buy that gigantic sheet at Staples, add up the restaurants, clothes, and taxis and glue your receipts into the book month by month? The more money I made, the more complicated things got.