Self Employment Tax Lawyers in Southlake

In the U.S., including in Southlake, Texas, 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.

But what if you're self-employed? You're still obligated 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.

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 Southlake, Texas

If you work as an independent contractor, or operate a sole proprietorship, you are deemed to be "self employed." You are required to pay the self-employment tax if your total income from self-employment exceeds per year.

For people who are employed by another person or company, the employer normally matches the employee's contributions to Medicare and Social Security. This basically 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.

However, if you're self employed in Southlake, Texas, or anywhere else, you are obligated to make the employee AND employer contributions to Social Security and Medicare, basically doubling your employment tax liability.

Currently, the self-employment tax rate in the United States is 15.30% of all income earned from self-employment in Southlake, Texas. However, 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 Southlake, Texas Tax Attorney Help?

If you work for yourself in Southlake, you have to stay on top of your self-employment taxes, to avoid facing severe legal and financial issues later on. This means you need to keep superb records of all your income and expenses, in case you need to seek the advice of a tax attorney: the more information you can provide your lawyer, the better he or she can help you.

If you have any difficulty calculating your self-employment tax liability, an accomplished Southlake, Texas tax attorney would probably have very little trouble helping you figure it out. A brilliant lawyer can also give you practical legal advice, which can help you avoid more serious tax law issues in the future, by dealing with them before they become problematic.