Not the place for specific tax advice, ‘cause I’ll contradict Joe here and say that you
can definitely still deduct expenses after 3 years of losses, you just may not be able to
claim the loss (i.e., reduce your overall claimed income and hence tax bill).
Also, you only have to make quarterly payments if when you file your taxes at the end of
the year you'll owe (i.e., write a check to the IRS for) more than $1000 (pretty sure
that’s the current amount). If you’ve got a job that withholds tax from your pay, you can
change your W-2 to have more withheld, instead of filing quarterly. And iirc, the first
year you owe more than $1000 you won’t have to pay a penalty. (Bear in mind, if you’re
trying to figure out where you are wrt that $1000, that self-employment tax is about twice
as much as Social Security, ‘cause you’re paying both the employer and employee parts.)
You may just want to wait till you file taxes this year (maybe do it a little early), and
pay for in-person tax help this year—my guess is you’ll see that it’s simple enough that
after that you don’t need extra help. But I have a small simple side business and I found
that the walk-through that online commercial tax filing (it needs to include the
self-employment forms) was all I needed. Turbo Tax seems to be everyone’s favorite, though
now that I know how it works I use a cheaper one.
Also, the librarian is your friend—ask this same question at your library. And there may
be local help for small businesses. Were I’ve lived, tax help during tax season often
happened at the library, so they may have that info too.
And I’ll say again—this isn’t the place for tax advice: don’t assume what I said is right
either.
On Jan 10, 2020, at 5:15 PM, Joe Kwiatkowski via
Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Slipped fingers. The
IRS.gov <http://irs.gov/> website allows you to make estimated
tax payments on line. You can also download the forms and instructions if you want. If you
don't make a "profit" in your first three years, the IRS calls it a hobby.
You still have to pay taxes, but you can't deduct expenses Find a tax shop or a book
on small businesses. JKLasser has some good thouough books.
Joe Kwiatkowski
On Jan 10, 2020, at 5:06 PM, Don Veino via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
OK, we all know we're really in this for the outrageous sums of money, right? ;-)
But if you're lucky, you're finally at the stage where you're at least
covering your costs and have enough gigs where you're concerned the IRS may expect you
to be reporting your income, recording expenses, etc.
I've looked into this somewhat and from what I can tell in the US, it involves making
quarterly Social Security tax contributions on the income and including the
income/expenses toward your estimated tax payments at the Fed/State/Local level. The trick
is how.
Does anyone have a pointer to a good tutorial or other tips/direct advice on the topic?
(Apologies for the intrusion of the Real World into our magic place...)