Self Employment Tax Lawyers in West Fargo

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

It's important to note that if you are self-employed, you're still liable for those taxes, and it's your responsibility to figure out what you owe.

Usually, it's the employer who makes all these calculations, and the employee doesn't have to think about it. Most larger employers have payroll departments to handle these matters, making it pretty simple for them. But, if you are self-employed, it's up to you to accurately determine what you have to pay in self-employment taxes

Self-Employment tax obligations in West Fargo, North Dakota

If you own a sole-proprietorship, or work primarily as an independent contractor, you need to pay the "self-employment tax" if you derive any significant amount of income from self-employment. You must pay these taxes if your income from self-employment is more than annually.

For people who are employed by another person or company, the employer usually matches the employee's contributions to Medicare and Social Security. This effectively means that, when you look at your Medicare and Social Security tax statements on your paychecks, you can know that those programs are actually getting double what's shown there - with your employer covering the other half.

But, if you are a self-employed business owner in West Fargo, North Dakota, you are responsible for both the employee and employer contributions to Medicare and Social Security. This basically doubles your self-employment tax rate.

The total self-employment tax (note that this is completely distinct from the income tax) is set at 15.3%, if your income from self-employment in West Fargo, North Dakota exceeds . However, half of this tax is deducted from your income, for income tax purposes. So, this means that, at most, the self-employed only have to pay income on 92% of their total income, and that amount may be lowered with additional deductions for which you may be eligible. This means that, effectively, the self-employment tax rate is only 14%, as opposed to 15.3%

Can a West Fargo, North Dakota Tax Attorney Help?

If you are self-employed in West Fargo, it's essential that you keep good records of your income and expenses, because a tax attorney will only be able to help you to the extent that you help yourself.

Anyone having difficulty with figuring out what they owe in self-employment taxes in West Fargo, North Dakota should seek the advice of a good tax attorney. Most tax attorneys also have a good knowledge of accounting, so making this determination probably won't be too hard for them. And on top of that, a competent tax attorney can give you objective and useful legal advice, which can help prevent more serious issues from arising in the future.