Is Turbo Tax Easy for Tech Workers
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A Freelancer's Guide to Taxes
Updated for Tax Year 2021 • September 15, 2022 02:52 PM
OVERVIEW
Freelancing certainly has its benefits, but it can result in a few complications come tax time. The Internal Revenue Service considers freelancers to be self-employed, so if you earn income as a freelancer you must file your taxes as a business owner. While you can take additional deductions if you are self-employed, you'll also face additional taxes in the form of the self-employment tax. Here are things to consider as a freelancer when filing your taxes.
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Typical deduction categories
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Education and certifications
Income
Your first step as a freelancer is to gather and report all sources of your income. If you're like many freelancers, you have many sources of income.
Keeping track of all your income can be more difficult than if you were a traditional employee, in which case you'd get a single W-2 form for reporting purposes. As a freelancer, you're likely to get numerous 1099-NEC forms, (1099-MISC in prior years) one from each of your clients. If you receive payments through online payment services such as PayPal, you might receive a 1099-K. Payers will also send these forms to the IRS to report your income.
The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 significantly reduced the reporting threshold associated with Form 1099-K for card payment processors, and third-party payment networks like Venmo and Cash App from $20,000 to $600. Beginning with tax year 2022, if someone receives payment for goods and/or services through a third-party payment network, their payments are required to be reported on Form 1099-K if more than $600 was processed during the year. This change impacts small and large businesses including those who are self-employed or have side-gig income, real estate rental income, sales of items (online garage sales, re-selling of tickets) or hobby income.
Self-employment tax
When you're self-employed, you are your own boss—which is great news until tax time. In addition to regular income tax, freelancers are responsible for paying the self-employment tax of 15.3%in 2021. This tax represents the Social Security and Medicare taxes that businesses pay and that employees have taken out of their paychecks automatically. As a self-employed freelancer you are considered both the employee and the employer.
Tax liability
For most people, the ultimate goal when you file your taxes is to reduce your liability to the lowest allowable amount. As a freelancer, you'll likely have more business expenses than a typical employee, and you can take a number of tax deductions not commonly allowed as a regular employee. However, you're only allowed to take deductions that areordinary and necessary for the operation of your business.
Typical deduction categories
As a general rule of thumb, freelancers can write off many expenses including:
- business-related food
- travel and lodging
- office expenses
- required equipment or materials
- phone and Internet service
The IRS requirement for business tax deductions is that expenses must be ordinary and necessary.
Home office
Since most freelancers work from home, the home office deduction can apply. The IRS allows you to take a deduction for many expenses ranging from rent to utilities for the portions of your home that you use as an office.
The catch is that your office space must be exclusively used for your self-employment work; you can't "borrow" your kid's room from 9 to 5 and consider that space your home office nor can you use the same space for a job that you work at as someone else's employee.
Travel and meals
Travel and meals are some of the trickier tax deductions as a freelancer.
- You're allowed to deduct the costs of traveling to a job—with the exception being commuting to your office—and business meals with clients are also deductible, but usually at a 50% rate.
However, your expenses have to be necessary for the development and operation of your business. You can't simply write off your vacation costs as "business expenses."
Education and certifications
If you're a learning buff and your interests overlap with your profession, your educational costs may be tax deductible.
- If you take classes to get certifications in your field or to enhance your business knowledge, you can typically deduct those expenses.
- The same is true for business related licensing, registration or certification costs you have.
As with all freelance expenses, these deductions need to directly relate to your business. For example, a class on gardening skills would not typically be considered ordinary or necessary if you're a computer programmer nor would education that trains you for a new career.
Equipment and supplies
One of the downsides of being a freelancer is that you don't have an employer to buy you equipment and supplies, like a computer or a printer. However, if you need those items to perform your job, they're usually allowed as a deductible expense. Similarly, any other items or materials you need for your business can qualify for a deduction.
To avoid problems with the IRS, keep your business and personal expenses separate. For example, you might run into a gray area if you deduct the entire amount of your cell phone or Internet service while using them only partly for work.
TurboTax Self-Employed will ask you simple questions about your life and help you fill out all the right forms. Perfect for independent contractors and small businesses. We'll search over 500 tax deductions to get you every dollar you deserve and help you uncover industry-specific deductions.
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Source: https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/self-employment-taxes/a-freelancers-guide-to-taxes/L6ACNfKVW
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