Don’t forgot to join me today for the WordCount Last Wednesday chat, where we’ll talk about taxes for freelancers. The chat is on Twitter, starts at 10 a.m. Pacific time and lasts for one hour. Use the hashtag #wclw to follow the conversation.
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.
We’ll start with introductions then dive into the following questions:
- 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?
We’ll open it up to other questions about mid-way through the chat.
It’s possible to use Twitter for the chat, but you might find it easier to follow along with an add on such as TweetGrid, TweetChat or HootSuite. 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.