Yaaaaaaaaaawn .... booooooring ..... question about taxes .....

Janette

Anyone got any good articles or advice on paying taxes in the US and other boring, stupid stuff you have to do as a freelancer? I just made my business an LLC because I figured it gives me more legal protection, but I also think I just made my life a lot more complicated, yay me. Janette Hill - making her life more complicated since 1975.

My main thing right now is providing W9 forms. I provide them to companies I work for, but trying to figure out if I give one to a self publishing author who's just doing a book for pleasure (as opposed to doing a book to promote their own business and claiming the book production as a business expense).

I'm currently looking for an new accountant, as my current one is 145 years old, but I just thought I ask here first and see if anyone's got any good thoughts.

Melissa_Bailey

@janette I use the QuickBooks app, which really helps keep track of things and gives some direction. But for any questions, especially regarding how to set up your business, ask an accountant from your state, as things differ from state to state.

Janette

@melissa-bailey-0 yeah I got that too. I need to talk to an accountant. Just thought someone might have some info. Thanks

carlianne

@janette I just set up an LLC as well so I'm at the same place in my journey haha. But yes best thing I have done so far is get an accountant that is responsive and available to help walk me through everything as well as my taxes at the end of the year.

He did say that by making myself an employee of the company I'll save a rediculous amount on taxes so I would research that or talk to your new accountant when you find one.

And I second QuickBooks. At very least the self employed version. But honestly I think the best places to look are on the IRS site or your state/county website

This is taken from the IRS website

"Use Form W-9 to provide your correct Taxpayer Identification Number (TIN) to the person who is required to file an information return with the IRS to report, for example:

Income paid to you..."

I've personally only done w9s for companies, not individual commissions. But this is not financial advice and I am not a qualified person

Janette

@carlianne Thank you! The legal stuff is so eye rolling lol I just want to draw.

jdubz

@janette

I'm currently looking for an new accountant, as my current one is 145 years old

Hah this made me seriously lol.

Where do you live? My CPA advised once I hit a certain income threshold to move to a "Disregarded Entity". It's technically an LLC, but it functions like a INC. Normally a standard LLC hits you twice for self-employment taxes (one for you, one for the LLC). Since disregarded entities function like an INC you don't get the double tax hit. It also means no one has to send me 1099's if they don't want to which is really nice.

Not every State allows it though, so you'd have to look up where you live specifically.

I tried Quickbooks but in the end it was kind of overkill. What I ended up doing was going with Harvest, which has been perfect. It handles all my invoicing, estimates, payments (I switched all my billing to ACH transfer instead of credit cards so you get more of your money). You can then set up your expenses in Harvest, and then on your phone any time you charge anything for your business, you just input it and take a picture of the receipt if there is one. At the end of the year I export my invoices, export my expenses (which comes out as one huge pdf with all the receipt pictures) and send those to my CPA and I'm done. It's been pretty great.

Janette

@jdubz Oh, that's really great information! I will look into that for sure! Thank you!

Oh, and I'm in Wisconsin