Question about freelance money

What do I need to do about freelance money when it comes to taxes? I'm going to be doing some freelance work for a website and need to know. When I do taxes how do I turn in my funds?

 

Best person to ask would be a waiter or waitress, if you know one who is honest with his/her taxes.

 

The good news is your checks will come tax free.

The bad news is you'll have to pay the taxes (or have enough deductions to offset them) when you file.

You should receive a 1099 from the organization that's paying you. You'll need to file that with your W2 and other tax records.

In addition, you'll have to pay social security and other taxes for yoru freelance work. Your best bet is to just whack off 25-30 percent of your freelance check, set it aside in an escrow (savings) account and then just pay it off in one lump sum come tax time.

If this is the preps job that you mentioned on another thread, you may have another issue -- local taxes. You could be working in several cities/towns/counties. I'm not sure if there's a threshold for local income taxes.

 

Yes, this is about the job I mentioned on Anything Goes. I'll be making $140/month, so about how much can I expect to pay in taxes?

 

I believe you're taxed starting at $600. So you might, depending on how much work you get over the rest of the year, avoid getting taxed this year.

 

Very good. Uncle Sam doesn't need anymore of my money, dammit.

 

BYH, I don't think you have that quite right.

You can make up to $600 and not be taxed at all.

Once you make over $600, then whatever you make is taxed, minus deductions, if you have enough to itemize.

And whatever you make is added to your total income, so depending how much it is, it could push you into the next tax bracket too.

 

For $140 a month, I wouldn't worry about it. Chances are you just won't get a return at the end of the year. I pay off my CC with freelance work and make anywhere from $4,000-$6,000 extra a year and even then I'm not pay that much back at the end of the year.

 

My tax guy told me years ago that I should take about half of whatever I made free-lancing and sock it away because it was going to Uncle Sam.

That was one of many reasons why I decided free-lancing wasn't worth the time and trouble, unless it was a remarkably sweet deal.

Maybe that tax thing has changed in recent years. I don't know, because I rarely bother with free-lance anymore.

 

That's what I generally go by, too. Yeah, it sucks, but I usually get a bit back in the form of a refund.