Not the place for specific tax advice, ‘cause I’ll contradict Joe here and say that you can definitely still deduct expenses after 3 years of losses, you just may not be able to claim the loss (i.e., reduce your overall claimed income and hence tax bill).
Also, you only have to make quarterly payments if when you file your taxes at the end of the year you'll owe (i.e., write a check to the IRS for) more than $1000 (pretty sure that’s the current amount). If you’ve got a job that withholds tax from your pay, you can change your W-2 to have more withheld, instead of filing quarterly. And iirc, the first year you owe more than $1000 you won’t have to pay a penalty. (Bear in mind, if you’re trying to figure out where you are wrt that $1000, that self-employment tax is about twice as much as Social Security, ‘cause you’re paying both the employer and employee parts.) You may just want to wait till you file taxes this year (maybe do it a little early), and pay for in-person tax help this year—my guess is you’ll see that it’s simple enough that after that you don’t need extra help. But I have a small simple side business and I found that the walk-through that online commercial tax filing (it needs to include the self-employment forms) was all I needed. Turbo Tax seems to be everyone’s favorite, though now that I know how it works I use a cheaper one. Also, the librarian is your friend—ask this same question at your library. And there may be local help for small businesses. Were I’ve lived, tax help during tax season often happened at the library, so they may have that info too. And I’ll say again—this isn’t the place for tax advice: don’t assume what I said is right either. > On Jan 10, 2020, at 5:15 PM, Joe Kwiatkowski via Contra Callers > <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > > Slipped fingers. The IRS.gov <http://irs.gov/> website allows you to make > estimated tax payments on line. You can also download the forms and > instructions if you want. If you don't make a "profit" in your first three > years, the IRS calls it a hobby. You still have to pay taxes, but you can't > deduct expenses Find a tax shop or a book on small businesses. JKLasser has > some good thouough books. > > Joe Kwiatkowski > > On Jan 10, 2020, at 5:06 PM, Don Veino via Contra Callers > <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net > <mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote: > OK, we all know we're really in this for the outrageous sums of money, right? > ;-) > > But if you're lucky, you're finally at the stage where you're at least > covering your costs and have enough gigs where you're concerned the IRS may > expect you to be reporting your income, recording expenses, etc. > > I've looked into this somewhat and from what I can tell in the US, it > involves making quarterly Social Security tax contributions on the income and > including the income/expenses toward your estimated tax payments at the > Fed/State/Local level. The trick is how. > > Does anyone have a pointer to a good tutorial or other tips/direct advice on > the topic? > > (Apologies for the intrusion of the Real World into our magic place...)
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