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Freelancing, taxes and audits

February 10th, 2008 at 08:11 pm



My husband and I have a very easy tax return. We own no property and have pretty straightforward expenses--childcare, student loan and that's it. A friend of mine, who freelance edits/writes, got me into doing event research for a small website. It provided a small bit of extra cash monthly, which I relished.

Now that it is tax season, I am worried about filing my taxes incorrectly all based on my little freelance gig. Will an audit be worth the extra $1725 the job provided during 2007? Is an audit that bad? Sigh. I am reluctant to hit "send" on my electronic return for fear of how badly I've completed my return and yet I do not want to spend any money having my taxes prepared. What to do?

4 Responses to “Freelancing, taxes and audits”

  1. thriftorama Says:
    1202677673

    I'm self employed and I use turbotax to file my taxes. It really helps and let's you know what you can and can't deduct legally. I also seriously doubt that $1725 will be enough to trigger an audit.

  2. compulsive debtor Says:
    1202691078

    I wouldn't worry about $1725. As long as you claim it on your taxes as income, you should be OK.

  3. JoeMama Says:
    1202748222

    Adding in such self employment income is pretty simple. You typically add it in as a 1099-misc, which the website who paid you is required to send to you. You'll obviously owe regular income taxes on it plus about 15% in self employment taxes.

  4. ceejay74 Says:
    1202752584

    Does the site you're using let you preview the return they're going to send, with all the forms filled out? If so, just make sure they've filled out a Schedule C or C-EZ (Net Profit From Business--Sole Proprietership) and a Schedule SE (Self-Employment Tax). Then on the 1040, make sure there are entries on lines 12, 27 and 58. You can feel pretty secure it's right if that's all there.

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