Self Employment Tax Lawyers in Eugene
In the U.S., including in Eugene, Oregon, taxes are imposed on employees, which are normally deducted from their paychecks. The ones that most people are familiar with are the Medicare and Social Security taxes. The idea is that workers pay into these programs during their entire working lives, and then enjoy the benefits they provide once they retire.
Individuals who are self-employed are still accountable for these taxes, and are responsible for figuring out how much they owe.
Most commonly, employers handle all of these calculations. With regular salaried and hourly employees, this is an easy process, and any decent payroll computer software can do it automatically. However, if you work for yourself, it is your responsibility to figure out clearly what you owe.
Self-Employment tax obligations in Eugene, Oregon
If you primarily work as an independent contractor, or are the owner of a sole proprietorship, you have to pay what's commonly 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, if you're self employed in Eugene, Oregon, or anywhere else, you are obligated to make the employee AND employer contributions to Social Security and Medicare, basically doubling your employment tax liability.
The self-employment tax rate is 15.3% of all self-employment income, assuming your income from self-employment exceeds per year in Eugene, Oregon. 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 Eugene, Oregon Tax Attorney Help?
If you are self-employed in Eugene, it's necessary that you keep good records of your income and expenses, because a tax attorney will only be able to assist you to the extent that you help yourself.
Therefore, if you have some trouble figuring out what you owe in self-employment taxes, for whatever reason, chances are good that a reliable tax attorney in Eugene, Oregon can assist you with much trouble, and can provide you with good legal and financial advice, which can help you head off much more severe legal and financial issues.