You love the idea of working for yourself… until tax season comes around.
That pile of W-9s and receipts is a disaster.
When you work for yourself, you file taxes as an independent contractor a self-employed taxpayer.
Dont know if youre self-employed?
It means you control when, where, for how long and for how much you work.
Think: everything fromwriting blog poststodriving with Uber.
Professional Tax Preparers Are Your Friends
Step 1?Talk to a professional.
Probably not as good as youd like.
It always seems like an uphill battle to build (and keep) a decent amount in savings.
But what if your car breaks down, or you have a sudden medical bill?
Ask one of these companies to help…
Thats not just for tax season.
Talk to a pro year-round to stay on track with quarterly taxes and deductible expenses.
Tax-Deductible Self-Employment Expenses
Which receipts do you gotta keep?
see to it you knowwhat you’re able to deduct from your tax bill.
Its probably more than you think, especially if youwork from homefull time.
You have to pay your share first.
And dont forget about the self-employment tax.
Just ensure you increase those payments if your income increases, so you dontwind up with a nasty surprise.
When youre ready to file next year, one of theseeight free tax-filing sitesmay come in handy.
Your Turn: Do you file taxes as an independent contractor?
Dana Sitar (@danasitar) is a senior writer at The Penny Hoarder.
(Can you sense my millennial sarcasm there?)
You know which ones were talking about: rent, utilities, cell phone bill, insurance, groceries…
