Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with taxes and work

Take this rate and STFU?

Anima Mundi — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 04:16:51 -0800

Started a new freelance gig and got my first paycheck. It's lower than I expected. Should I ask about this or would it make me look greedy? I'm in a new (to me) field and still learning the ropes - juggling multiple projects, working with multiple project managers, etc. I'm grateful to be working at all considering my level of experience, so that's why I'm hesitant to ask about why my rate is lower than the one I submitted. I asked for the rate I did because I'm incurring greater costs in regards to commute (gas, tolls) and since I'm working in another state I'm getting taxes taken out for both states on a W2.

How should I go about this? Keep in mind I've only been at this gig for less than a month, and I don't want to rub people the wrong way.

Reaching out to Uncle Sam from under the table.

grapefruitmoon — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:32:04 -0800

U.S. TaxFilter: I get paid under the table, and as such I don't have a W-2 for my work. How do I declare this on my taxes? Yes, I know, I get paid under the table and want to pay taxes. It's not that I'm a masochist or super eager to support my government, but I'm in a relationship with a non-citizen who may someday want to get married and if we're going to apply for a green card, we'll need to submit my taxes, so everything needs to be on the level.

I get paid by check once a week. I don't have copies of any of the checks, which may be stupid, but it never occurred to me (until now) to save any of them. I get paid the same amount each week and can easily calculate the total amount that I've earned, so the amount I need to declare isn't in question.

My question is how do I declare this on the 1040? Other earnings? Is there any kind of "proof" that I need to submit for this? Some kind of other form I need to get?

Roth IRA but will not be working anymore??

lynnie-the-pooh — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 21:28:55 -0800

Can I keep my Roth IRA if I'm not working anymore? I work for my husband at his small business but now I want to be a stay at home Mom. What happens to my Roth IRA? Can I keep contributing to it? We do our taxes jointly, but I just will not be working at his Chiropractic business. He will be alone for a while, maybe someday I would work with him again. Will the Roth IRA no longer be valid? Or can I just keep paying into it?

Thanks.

Does freelancing count as a second job as far as taxes go? (CA)

mallow005 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:25:13 -0800

Sometimes I get small job requests that come from outside my fulltime job. They don't pay much (barely over 1k this year) but it's enough to require me to report myself as a business. Does that mean it's a second job?

Should I file even though it was a hobby?

grablife365 — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 07:40:53 -0800

Mortgage and work history question: Can I go back and file my taxes even though I was told I wasn't making enough? Is it worth it? I was self employed for two years while in college just to make some side money. I was told I wasn't making enough to have to file taxes, that it was more like a hobby so I didn't worry about it. Fast forward to now three years or so down the line. I want a mortgage quote from another company but I need some kind of tax proof that I was working and making money those two years. What do I do? Having that as proof would be great and would get me more quotes but is it a good idea to go back and file? I don't know how that works. Help please and thank you.

As a freelance Canadian consultant/faciliator, what are the legalities of taking on US clients?

ManInSuit — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:45:03 -0800

As a freelance Canadian consultant/faciliator, what are the legalities of taking on US clients? I’m a Canadian Citizen, living in Canada. I do some work organizing and facilitating conferences and meetings. I’m starting to get some interest from potential clients in the US, with a possible small gig pretty soon.

I’ve been trying to find out a few things about the legalities of all this, and it’s been surprisingly hard. What I’m trying to figure out is:

- When I'm going to the US for a few days to do some work for the client, what do I say at the border? Is there a specific visa I need to apply for?

- Are there specifics of how I need to invoice the work that are different from invoicing here. (eg- I assume they don’t care about my GST number…)

Some things about me, and the work,

- My business is just me. I’m not incorporated.

- I’ve been doing this sort of work for a few years, and I have a BA, so I could possibly make the case for myself as a “Management consultant” under the free trade rules, if that helps.

- It seems like one way to do this is to say the visits are for “meetings” which aren’t paid for. But in my case, at least sometimes, it seems pretty undeniable that the thing I’m being paid to do is to go to the US and facilitate a conference or meeting.

- I really want to be completely honest in how I do this stuff. A few people have advised me to just say I’m going to the US on vacation, or for unpaid work, but I don’t want to do that.

Any help on this would be much appreciated!!

Work in on state, get hosed in two.

littlerobothead — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 13:06:31 -0800

TaxFilter: I work in VA and live in NC. My state taxes are already a nightmare... I have a dev job in metro Virginia (Norfolk), but we live in North Carolina because it's so much cheaper. We've just discovered that apparently my company hasn't been taking any state taxes out of my salary, and NC is asking for its penance.

Friends had told me I could file in VA, get a refund, and pay NC with it; that was before we found out I haven't had any deductions taken. We're giving up and taking everything to an account, but before we do does anyone have any idea what I'm in for? To top it all off, this is the first year we're filing jointly and my poor wife is bracing for impact.

Isn't your employer required to deduct something for taxes for the state? I mean, obviously your mileage may vary, but this is Virginia we're talking about; I'm surprised they don't tax the air you breathe here. It seems they'd be pretty gung-ho about employers covering taxes.

Tax planning advice for the self employed.

Nothing — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 13:57:55 -0800

Tax planning advice for the self employed. The web is full of articles, the bookstores are full of guides. But there is so much "get rich quick" and "pay zero taxes" crap out there that I am not sure where to go for good, solid tax planning advice. Is it better to operate as an LLC? An s-corp? What expenses are deductible? What is a good system of recordkeeping? What records should be kept? If I have two related business pursuits, should I keep track of them separately or together? And so on. I know I need to see an accountant, but I'd like to be as educated as possible. Right now I am paying a rather high percentage of a rather small income in taxes. I'm not anti-tax, but I am very pro-eating.

So, what books do you recommend? What websites have accurate, useful articles? What has helped you better understand managing finances as a self employed person?

How badly have I messed up my taxes?

Anonymous — Sun, 09 Apr 2006 11:05:05 -0800

I earned 12,100 total income this year. All 1099. Have not made any estimated payments. How bad is my tax situation? This will be the first time I file. Based on the IRS tax estimator, reading on the IRS website, and what my parents and friends told me, I thought I would get to the end of the year and owe about $800. And I guess I do, in income tax, but there is also the self employment tax. I do not have enough money to pay that. I thought I was being smart, keeping track of, and saving more than enough to pay, what I would owe. But I guess I owe about six times that and I can't pay. I earned 12,100 dollars. All from a single company that I did contract web design work for. So how screwed am I?

We don't want the IRS mad at us.

Anonymous — Wed, 04 Jan 2006 20:48:07 -0800

We have a couple of blogs and use a combination of Google Ads, AdBrite and Amazon Associates placements on them. We're trying to figure out how best to approach the income from these ads on our tax filings... We never thought we'd be making as much as we are making (which still isn't much...not enough to live on), so we hadn't really thought through the tax implications in advance. We were blogging for fun and then...well, income.

Since our Google Ads income exceeded 4 figures this year, we think that we probably have to cover our bases on our upcoming tax return. (More than $7500, less than $10k). Our other income sources posted more modest returns (Amazon, $500+; AdBrite: $500+). To facilitate our blogging, we purchased domain names, paid for hosting services, attended a conference, bought a digital camera, etc. Are these officially expenses?

Also, we'll probably get paperwork from Google for filing with our tax return, but can't imagine that Amazon or AdBrite are going to send us something for those amounts...are we wrong?

I'm a temp and my spouse works full-time so we really don't have experience with this little "side business" situation. Any suggestions for where to research this? Any other folks out there dealing with a similar situation? We are not incorporated or anything "official" like that. Just two regular folks with a laptop who are passionate about the subject we write about.

We talked about hiring a CPA but we've been told that may cost us close to $200-300. Since we're already going to owe the IRS this year, we'd rather try to do this ourselves with Quicken/Turbo Tax. We just don't know how to categorize this unexpected income. Thoughts?