Self Employment Tax Lawyers in Kirkland
In the U.S., Kirkland, Washington included, almost everyone who is employed during most of their adult life is suitable for Social Security and Medicare benefits when they retire. These programs are supported by taxes deducted from the paychecks of most employees.
Individuals who are self-employed are still responsible for these taxes, and are responsible for figuring out how much they owe.
Typically, 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 oversee 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 Kirkland, Washington
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.
Employees in a regular employer/employee relationship do enjoy one substantial 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 essentially doubles your contribution to these programs, without doubling their financial burden on you.
But, if you are a self-employed business owner in Kirkland, Washington, you are liable for both the employee and employer contributions to Medicare and Social Security. This basically doubles your self-employment tax rate.
Currently, the self-employment tax rate in the United States is 15.30% of all income earned from self-employment in Kirkland, Washington. 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 Kirkland, Washington Tax Attorney Help?
If you are self-employed in Kirkland, it's extremely important for you to be diligent in keeping records of your income and expenses, to ensure that you pay all the self-employment taxes that you owe (and also to make sure you don't over-pay). You may one day need a tax attorney to advise you with a legal issue, and they can help you far more effectively if you are able to quickly provide them with all the relevant information.
Anyone having difficulty with figuring out what they owe in self-employment taxes in Kirkland, Washington should seek the assistance of a knowledgeable 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 serious issues from rising in the future.