Self Employment Tax Lawyers in Mount Vernon

In Mount Vernon, Missouri, a few different taxes are levied on employees, and subtracted from their gross pay during each pay period. The examples that most people are acquainted with are the taxes imposed to fund Medicare and Social Security, which get their funding mostly from these relatively small pay deductions.

Individuals who are self-employed are still accountable for these taxes, and are responsible for figuring out how much they owe.

Normally, it's the employer who does all the calculations, deciding what deductions need to be made from a worker's paycheck to cover his or her tax liability. But if you are your own boss, you have to do this, and confirm that your figures are accurate.

Self-Employment tax obligations in Mount Vernon, Missouri

If you mainly work as an independent contractor, or are the owner of a sole proprietorship, you have to pay what's regularly referred to as the "self-employment tax," if your annual income from self-employment is over .

Employees in a regular employer/employee relationship do enjoy one considerable perk that the self-employed do not: their Social Security and Medicare contributions are matched by their employers. So, if you pay in Social Security and Medicare taxes with every paycheck, your employer has to match that. This basically doubles your contribution to these programs, without doubling their financial burden on you.

However, self-employed workers in Mount Vernon, Missouri must make both the employee and employer contributions. Therefore, this means that the Medicare and Social Security tax liabilities apply doubly to the self-employed.

Currently, the self-employment tax rate in the United States is 15.30% of all income earned from self-employment in Mount Vernon, Missouri. Nonetheless, half of your hypothetical self-employment tax liability can be deducted from your income. This means that you only pay self-employment tax on about 92% of your income, which creates an effective self-employment tax rate of just over 14%.

Can a Mount Vernon, Missouri Tax Attorney Help?

Self-employed individuals in Mount Vernon must ensure that they keep good, complete financial records. This makes it much easier to determine what you owe, and, if you need a tax attorney, it makes it easier for them to assist you with your legal tax contentions.

If you have any difficulty calculating your self-employment tax liability, an accomplished Mount Vernon, Missouri tax attorney would likely have very little trouble assisting you figure it out. A seasoned lawyer can also give you practical legal advice, which can help you avoid more egregious tax law issues in the future, by dealing with them before they become problematic.