Taxes

[Kerry F]

Wow, self-employment tax if you don't own a house and therefore itemize deductions is really high.  Like a 25 to 30 percent tax bracket for the average court reporting income.

Any ideas?  Incorporating then also reduces the amount of Social Security one could collect later as you pay in less.

[Glen Warner]

I've been looking for someone to write an article on taxes for Cheap and Sleazy for quite a while now!

In the limited research I have done on the project, it looks like the best option for reporters is to talk to a tax ninja that works with independent contractors exclusively.

With all the tech companies we have up here in the Pacific North Wet (Microsoft, Google, Real Networks, etc. -- and those are just the big ones), there are a lot of people paying taxes up here quarterly.

One of my tech writing friends told me the story about a young man (~19) who is/was a wiz at Flash programming.  He began working for the company she works for (they travel from state to state, developing training for the employees of other companies, basically).

They were paying this young man very well -- so well that he was able to pay cash for a rather expensive house after working for them for six months.

Unfortunately, this was his first job, so he knew nothing about taxes -- so little that he never paid any.

Let's just say that he had to take out a mortgage on his bought-and-paid-for home to pay off the rather hefty fine (I believe it was in the $200,000 range), and now is a big believer in paying his taxes quarterly.

Finally, we had a pair of accountants do a presentation on taxes at one of our CR conventions up here a few years back ... I'll see if I can find their business card so you can ask them questions.

Edited to add: I found their presentation! It was put on by Bret Espey, and you can find him here:

http://www.schramandassociates.com

Good luck!

[Kerry F]

Where on their site is the presentation?

[Glen Warner]

Sorry, I wasn't clear.  I meant that I found their presentation in my big pile of court reporting stuff in my closet!  That's how I got the website address.