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How Do You Want Your Tax Refund?

Why You Should Opt for Direct Deposit

By on September 17, 2010. 1 Comment
No Checks

Practically everyone dreads tax season, but if there is one thing that can get people all excited about taxes, it is the idea of receiving a tax refund.  Even if the money is already actually yours from the start (it’s not like you are earning additional income when you get your  money returned to you), having that cash on hand is still a welcome thought. How do you receive your tax refund?  Check or direct deposit? There really are no strict rules as to which method you should choose.  You ought to know, however, that the IRS prefers to use [Read more…]

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What the IRS Doesn’t Know Won’t Hurt It

By on September 3, 2010. 5 Comments
Hide and Seek

I’ve heard it said so many times that I can’t keep track of it: what you don’t know won’t hurt you.  For some, ignorance is bliss.  Maybe in some cases, this can be true.  However, if you project this kind of thinking to the IRS, you might find yourself in deep trouble. How many times have you been tempted to NOT report income because you think that the IRS will not be able to track it anyway?  Perhaps your best friend might have told you – if you can get away with not reporting something, why not?  Or maybe another [Read more…]

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Tips to Help Avoid a Tax Audit

By on August 20, 2010. 2 Comments
116017204_3a475bc6a1

In the last post, we took a look at the different kinds of tax audits.  I hope that the information provided somehow alleviated any apprehensions about tax audits.  After all, the most basic kind of tax audit is not that much of a big deal! In this post, I am going to share some tips that can help you avoid a tax audit.  Yes, I sincerely believe in the old saying “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”  Let’s begin with looking the groups of people that the IRS usually looks more closely at. The bad news [Read more…]

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When Clients Do Not Pay

By on July 24, 2010. 14 Comments
write off

It’s every freelancer’s nightmare – when a client suddenly disappears after the goods have been delivered. You find a client, and you strike a deal. At the agreed time, you turn in your deliverables. Your client – and the money due you – is nowhere to be found. If you’re dealing with a person face to face, it might be easier to follow up on the payment. If you’re dealing purely via the Internet, it will be much more complicated. Worst case scenario – you do not get paid for your work. While this hasn’t happened to me yet, I [Read more…]

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Common Expenses for Freelance Writers

By on July 12, 2010. 4 Comments

It’s been more than a month since we had a post up in this section, but most of you already know that a lot of changes are underway in Freelance Writing Jobs.  Starting this month, I will be helping out in giving you useful information and insights on handling taxes as a freelancer. Let me start out with a very important aspect: listing down business-related expenses.  Organizing your taxes and filing them may prove to be an arduous task if you leave everything for the last minute.  If you do the groundwork way before tax-paying time, though, your work just [Read more…]

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How to Solve Freelance Tax Problems

By on January 3, 2010. 2 Comments
Taxes

by Thursday Bram When something goes wrong with an employee’s taxes, her employer is often responsible when everything is said and done. For freelancers, though, no employer is going to take the time to correct errors. That means that you have to take responsibility for making sure that all of your paperwork is in order and, if it isn’t, that you take the right measures to keep the IRS happy. Contact the IRS Staying in touch with the IRS can simplify most of the problems a freelancer can face when it comes to taxes. In most situations, such as late [Read more…]

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Freelancers and Taxes Part 2: Introduction to Quarterly Taxes

By on November 10, 2009. 1 Comment

by Thursday Bram The biggest difference between doing your taxes as an employee and doing them as a freelancer, at least in the U.S, is figuring out just what to do about quarterly estimated income tax. Since your clients pay you as a contractor, rather than an employee, they do not make sure that the IRS receives your payroll taxes. Instead, you’re responsible for sending in a check every quarter for a fourth of the amount you expect to owe at the end of the year. Not Every Writer Has To Pay Quarterly Estimated Taxes In general, it seems like [Read more…]

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