What you owe when nobody withholds it for you. Self-employment tax, quarterly payments, 1099 forms, deductions, and the deadlines that matter.
Every platform feels like it has its own tax rules. It does not. Uber, DoorDash, Etsy, eBay, Upwork, and Fiverr all land in the same two places — Schedule C for your profit, Schedule SE for self-employment tax. What changes from one to the next is only which form arrives in January and which deduction…
The IRS does not care what you call it. It asks one question: were you trying to make money? If you were, it is a business, and your ordinary and necessary expenses come off your income even in a year you lost money. If you were not, the income is still taxable and the expenses…
You owe interest, not a fine. The IRS charges the federal short-term rate plus three percentage points on whatever you were short, and only for the days you were short. Skipping all four payments on an $8,000 tax bill costs about $372. Send what you have today and that number gets smaller. And if you…
Nine US states do not tax individual income at all. Everywhere else, add roughly 3% to 6% on top of what you already set aside for the IRS, and expect a second set of quarterly payments on a schedule your state picks for itself. There is no state version of self-employment tax, so this second…
Both plans stop at the same number in 2026: $72,000. They get there very differently. A SEP IRA takes only an employer contribution, capped at 20% of your net self-employment earnings. A Solo 401(k) takes that same employer contribution and lets you stack an employee deferral of up to $24,500 on top of it. On…
The enhanced premium tax credits expired on December 31, 2025. For 2026 the old cutoff is back, and it is a cliff: if your household income lands above 400% of the federal poverty level — roughly $62,600 for one person, $84,600 for two, $128,600 for a family of four — the credit that lowers your…
If you turn a profit freelancing, roughly 20% of that profit comes off your income before tax is figured. You do not have to spend a dollar or file anything unusual to get it. On $80,000 of profit as a single filer it is worth about $2,183, and as of 2026 it is permanent. The…
If you paid another freelancer $2,000 or more for work during 2026, and you paid by check, bank transfer, or cash, you owe that person a Form 1099-NEC by January 31. Pay the exact same person the exact same money through PayPal or a credit card and you owe nothing. The payment method decides it….
A W-9 is one client asking one question: what name and what taxpayer ID number should we print on your 1099? Three answers finish the form — your name, your tax classification, your number — and it takes five minutes. It never goes to the IRS. It goes into your client’s files and stays there….
Three years is the default. Keep everything that supports a return for three years after you file it. Six years if you left out more than 25% of the gross income you reported. And with no end date at all if you never filed that year, or filed something fraudulent — those years never close….