With a little more than two months left in 2011, it’s time to think about taxes.
When it comes to year-end tax planning, freelancers have more to do than the average employee. We’ve got to estimate annual income, calculate what expenses to take as deductions, and decide whether to accelerate income or expenses to the current year to decrease the taxes we owe.
To provide some help, the next WordCount Last Wednesday chat for writers will be devoted to the topic of taxes for freelancers.
For the chat, my guest will be Julian Block, an attorney, former special agent with the Internal Revenue Service and syndicated columnist who has written extensively about freelancers and taxes, including a chapter on taxes and deductions in the American Society of Journalists and Authors’ book, The ASJA Guide to Freelance Writing.
Tune in on Oct. 26, at 10 a.m. Pacific time. To follow along, use the hashtag #wclw.
For the hour-long chat, we’ll start off with introductions, move to some pre-set questions and save time at the end for anything else you want to know.
Here are the initial questions Julian Block will tackle:
- Q1: Are there any changes to the 2011 tax codes freelancers should know about?
- Q2: If a writer’s freelance income is higher this year than last, how can they minimize taxes they owe?
- Q3: A writer completes an assignment but doesn’t get paid. Can they deduct it? What about related expenses?
- Q4: What expenses can a freelancer deduct for attending a conference or seminar?
- Q5: What home office expenses are deductible?
- Q6: When a 1099 includes a writer’s fee and expense reimbursement, how should they handle it on Schedule C of their tax return?
Joining the #wclw chat
It’s possible to use the standard Twitter interface for the chat, but you might find it easier to follow along with an add-on application such as TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite. Of those three, my favorite is TweetChat, which you can log into using your Twitter account. You might want to alert followers that you’ll be tweeting more than usual during the chat, and suggest they use Muuter.com to temporarily mute you if they don’t want to tune into the conversation.
If you’re unable to join us, I’ll post highlights from the chat in an upcoming post.
Meanwhile, here’s some additional tax advice from Julian Block: More Tax Tips For Writers and Other Freelancers.
Got an idea for a future #wclw chat? Would you like to participate as a guest speaker? Send your idea or bio to me at wordcountfreelance@gmail.com.