Self Employment Tax Lawyers in Portsmouth

In Portsmouth, Ohio, a few different taxes are placed 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.

But what if you're self-employed? You're still required to pay these taxes, since you will also be eligible for those retirement programs. It's also your responsibility to determine what your tax liability is.

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 Portsmouth, Ohio

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.

Employees in a regular employer/employee relationship do enjoy one significant 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 effectively doubles your contribution to these programs, without doubling their financial burden on you.

However, if you are self-employed in Portsmouth, Ohio, you are liable to pay both the employee and employer share of the employment tax. Effectively, this means that the employment tax for self-employed individuals is double what it would be for regular employees.

The self-employment tax rate is 15.3% of all self-employment income, assuming your income from self-employment exceeds per year in Portsmouth, Ohio. But half of your self-employment tax liability can be deducted from your income tax. This results in a slightly lower income tax bill, which partially offsets this additional tax burden. It essentially means that the self-employment tax only applies to 92% of your income, as opposed to all of it. This means that your effective self-employment tax rate is about 14%, as opposed to over 15%.

Can a Portsmouth, Ohio Tax Attorney Help?

Self-employed individuals in Portsmouth must ensure that they keep good, thorough 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 help you with your legal tax issues.

That said, if you are having trouble figuring out exactly how much self-employment tax you owe in Portsmouth, Ohio, a competent tax attorney shouldn't have any trouble helping you on that front. Likewise, if you end up in a dispute with the government over your self-employment tax obligation, a good tax attorney can give you the best possible chance of getting a favorable result.