1. Sales
Sales tax is the one deadline where being late costs you on both ends. Kentucky pays you a small credit for filing and paying on time — miss the date and you forfeit that, then pick up penalties and interest on top of it. Even a month with no taxable sales still needs a return filed.
The penalties aren't really the point, though. Sales tax you collect was never your revenue — it's the state's money sitting in your operating account. If you're not tracking that liability separately, your bank balance looks better than it is, and the due date shows up as a surprise every month instead of a bill you already funded.
If you're not certain your sales tax liability in QBO ties to what you actually owe, let's talk.
2. Selloff
Last Wednesday the Treasury said it would at least double its buybacks of 10-, 20-, and 30-year bonds, and Secretary Bessent signaled the next day he could go further. The goal is pushing long-term yields down. It hasn't taken — by Friday the 30-year was back near 5.27% and the 10-year over 4.73%, giving up nearly everything gained after the announcement.
The interesting part is the other side. Warsh has suggested he welcomes higher long-term yields as a way to tighten through the market instead of raising short-term rates himself. So Treasury is pushing yields down while the Fed is content to let them sit up there. I don't have a view on who's right, but I can't remember the last time fiscal and monetary policy were this visibly pulling against each other — and the national debt crossed $40 trillion the same week. Warsh gives his first Jackson Hole speech Friday.
3. Scale
There's a version of running a business where you're the most talented person you'll ever employ and the company never grows past the edges of your own calendar. Every hour of growth has to come out of an hour you're already spending delivering. That's not a business yet — it's a job with more risk attached.
The way out is protecting time for the work that doesn't pay today: writing the process down, training the person who takes something off your plate, building the relationship that turns into referrals next spring. None of it feels urgent, which is why it's first to go in a busy week. But skip it long enough and next August looks exactly like this one.
Until next week
