Self Employment Tax Lawyers in Wichita Falls
In the U.S., including in Wichita Falls, Texas, taxes are levied on employees, which are typically deducted from their paychecks. The ones that most people are acquainted 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 obliged to pay these taxes, since you will also be qualified for those retirement programs. It's also your responsibility to determine what your tax liability is.
Most frequently, employers handle all of these calculations. With regular salaried and hourly employees, this is an easy procedure, and any decent payroll computer software can do it automatically. But, if you work for yourself, it is your responsibility to figure out precisely what you owe.
Self-Employment tax obligations in Wichita Falls, Texas
If you are an independent contractor, or run a sole proprietorship (a company which you own, and which is not incorporated as a separate legal entity), you must pay the so-called "self-employment tax" if your income from self-employment is higher than per year.
For usual employees, Social Security and Medicare payments are made in equal parts by the employee and employer. This essentially means that every employee's contribution to his or her future Medicare and Social Security benefits is matched by the employer.
But, the self-employed in Wichita Falls, Texas are responsible for making the employer AND employee contributions to those programs, essentially doubling what they would have to pay if they were employed by someone else.
The self-employment tax rate is 15.3% of all self-employment income, assuming your income from self-employment exceeds per year in Wichita Falls, Texas. But half of your self-employment tax liability can be deducted from your income tax. This results in a slightly reduced 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 Wichita Falls, Texas Tax Attorney Help?
If you're self-employed in Wichita Falls, you need to keep accurate records of all your income and expenses from the operation of your business. This will make it much easier for you to calculate your taxes when they come due, and it will make it simpler for a tax attorney to give you good, useful advice, should you eventually need it.
Anyone having difficulty with figuring out what they owe in self-employment taxes in Wichita Falls, Texas should seek the assistance of a reliable tax attorney. Most tax attorneys also have a good familiarity of accounting, so making this determination probably won't be too hard for them. And on top of that, a skilled tax attorney can give you objective and useful legal advice, which can help prevent more egregious issues from rising in the future.