What you owe when nobody withholds it for you. Self-employment tax, quarterly payments, 1099 forms, deductions, and the deadlines that matter.
Most self-employment tax calculators ask for one number. That works until you also have a job, at which point the answer they give you can be three times too high. This one asks for your W-2 wages because they change the answer. Everything below explains why. The number most calculators get wrong Self-employment tax is…
Four dates, and a number you have to work out yourself. The IRS does not send a bill for estimated taxes — it expects you to know what to send and to send it on time. This calculator works out the safe harbor for 2026 and splits it into the four payments. Everything below explains…
Box B on Schedule C wants a six-digit number, and the form tells you almost nothing about how to pick it. The instruction reads: enter the six-digit code from the Principal Business or Professional Activity Codes chart at the end of these instructions. That chart is four pages of dense columns organised by industry, not…
Form 8829 is one page and 44 lines, and it exists to turn what your home costs into one number on Schedule C line 30. Most of those lines are arithmetic. Four of them decide the answer. You only need this form if you are using the actual expense method. The simplified method — square…
$425 in year one, then $350 every year after. That is what Nevada’s own statutes charge a single-member LLC, and it is three separate fees rather than the single number formation ads quote. If you live anywhere else, all of it sits on top of what your home state already charges. Nevada’s missing income tax…
Apple deposits $27,200 and you earned $32,000. The $4,800 gap is Apple’s commission, and both numbers belong on Schedule C — the $32,000 as gross receipts on line 1, the $4,800 as a deduction below it. Report only the deposit and your return will not match the 1099-K Apple already filed. Same profit, wrong paperwork,…
A camera comes off in full. The shirt you wore in the video almost never does. Creator spending runs through the same test as every trade, but lands in stranger places, because much of what you buy is also just life. Gear is the easy part Cameras, lenses, lights, microphones, a machine fast enough to…
A creator’s money arrives through six different pipes, and only some of them send a form. Ad revenue, brand deals, affiliate links, fan funding, merchandise, and free product. All six are taxable income. The one that surprises people is the last one. A $900 camera sent to you for a review is $900 of income,…
Four ways to handle your books and your tax return. They run from $16 a year to about $2,500, and the cheapest one costs the most of your time. Before the prices, the thing that decides more than they do: you cannot hand over all of it. Recording what happened stays your job in every…
Reconcile your gross receipts against your 1099s before you open any software. Then go in this order: business profile, income, expenses, the four things the interview handles badly, and a verification pass. The four are home office, vehicle, health insurance, retirement. Your own number comes first, and no software will ask for it Total what…