Do i have to pay taxes?

[whiteninja]

Unless your name is Charlie Rangle, yeah you got to pay Uncle Sam bro.

 

[Villanio]

what's SBA and i suppose i'll take a look into the local HR Block. Its probably best if i get to it now, because i'll be turning 18 by the end of the year and might as well get everything legitimate in the early run. Hoping this continues to go well. I don't have much expenses a lot of what i make goes to my savings and some into just buying some stuff to get around i suppose. College costs money =/. Thanks for the advice guys i'll get on the tax stuff as soon as possible

 

[themliteguy]

what's SBA and i suppose i'll take a look into the local HR Block. Its probably best if i get to it now, because i'll be turning 18 by the end of the year and might as well get everything legitimate in the early run. Hoping this continues to go well. I don't have much expenses a lot of what i make goes to my savings and some into just buying some stuff to get around i suppose. College costs money =/. Thanks for the advice guys i'll get on the tax stuff as soon as possible

SBA = Small Business Administration

 

[filmy]

No offense to anyone but NEVER use H&R Block, Costco, or some idiot down the street...

1) They simply will not save you as much as you can in fact save when it comes to paying taxes.

2) You are much more likely to get audited sometime down the line.

What you really want is an ENROLLED AGENT. This is someone certified by the IRS to do taxes and RARELY is anyone ever audited when your taxes have been done by an enrolled agent.

Plus, it really doesn't cost that much more than a place like H&R Block but much more safe in the long run.

filmy

 

[Kyle787]

Yeah you should always be safe by paying taxes on anything. My neighbor sells on ebay and was audited last year at random. She had to pay huge fines because they found out about the eBay income she wasn't reporting.

I am 18, just report your full income minus any expenses. At a relatively young age you shouldn't have to pay much of a percentage for income tax.

 

[cjmo75]

I wouldn't. Let the assholes come after you. Then again, I don't worry about shit like that because I've made it so nothing is in my name and I basically own nothing.

When you're a lowlife loser like me, you don't give a shit about the government and all of the pieces of shit who work for it.

It's about time the government started doing for it's citizens instead of boning our assholes and taking everything away from us. I honestly hope that people just stand up soon and say Fuck the IRS and all of the corrupt politicians who are just filling their fat asses at our expense.

Bunch of ass fucks.

 

[Griffin]

technically, grade schoolers (assuming you mean 1-5) arent allowed to work since they are under 16 and we have child labor laws in the US, but yea your right "technically" your suppose to pay them.

Plenty of children operate businesses, or are actors/models/singers andmake beyond a living wage. Lots of people work on farms for pay. Lots of 15-year-olds work "regular" jobs at McD's, for pay obviously. These are all taxable activities.

I say pay taxes voluntarily, because it makes it easier to qualify for home loans etc down the line. Also, if a guru says they made $400k last year, but they didn't file... uh-oh! They'll be paying taxes and penalties on $400k or fighting off the FTC.

 

[Affiliate Mgr Dave]

Listen - Hire an accountant to do your year end taxes (Go to him in like December and get a ballpark price of what it will cost you) and tell him it's for this years taxes. In MN where I live, with your income, I wouldn't pay more than 150.00. So in that ballpark go for it. In the future when you are making 500 a day, a GOOD accountant is worth it, and this is your chance to find one.

You should write off everything biz related (hosting, traffic costs, your computer, software,hardware,books etc). I'm guessing you wont have to pay in for this year, but if you do you can still get audited for it 3 years from now and that is why it is worth your time to address taxes now. Your age is irrelevant, if you make money the govt wants to know about it (doesn't mean you will pay).

Bottom line is when you are making bank in the future the govt wont be able to hold this year against you (not that it is that much to pay or not pay, the fact that you chose to ignore it).

 

[biffordm]

I wouldn't worry about hiring a full on accountant, and FYI I use Turbo Tax every year and have never been audited. Between my wife and I we made about $149k last year with salaries and business and have never been audited. A lot of auditing is based on income and certain thresholds, but it's not even necessarily a bad thing as long as you keep receipts.

As far as the original question about taxes, the yearly exemption per person was $5,700 in 2009, meaning that you remove that amount from revenue, then pay the different in the rest, which in your case is around $300. If you take the standard deduction you *cannot* itemize, and vice versa, and I'm guessing your business expenses don't exceed $5,700.

The other thing to consider are payroll and self employment taxes, but really considering that you'll be taxed about 15-20% on $300 that's not a big deal.

 

[tajinder]

i am wondering if you are making money from US but you are living outside of the US let's say in asian countries,you have to pay taxes to US or the country you're living in??

 

[volund]

Take a look at the turbotax online system, it walks you through the process and if you are smart enough to be making $500 a month off your website you should have no problems.

While the chances of getting caught for not filing are pretty small I would go ahead and file anyway. First off you are still a minor so if you do not and they do find out later the irs could well go after your parents for the money. Second you are probably only talking about a few hundred dollars so the risk vs reward for blowing off the irs does not really seem worth it. Seriously who need to take a chance on that kind of crap coming back to you three years from now for a few hundred bucks?

Get all your expenses figured out, you can claim everything from your hosting to the paperclips you bought. One thing you will need to do though is coordinate with your parents if they are claiming you on their taxes, pretty sure that your personal exemption can not be on two returns so you need to check on that if they are planning on including you on theirs.

 

[BorisTipsIt]

File. If you get audited, the IRS looks back to when the business began and then moves forward. If you don't have books, you can end up bent over something fierce. I did. I used Turbo Tax, but eventually found a CPA. Guy has saved me so much money it isn't funny. Also, if the IRS ever comes back around, you just send them to the CPA. Might be expensive for you at this point, but ask around. I'm not sure what the rates are in New Jersey.

 

[teeniegenie]

I would take the risk and not pay taxes if I were 17 making $500 a month. Your income probably isn't high enough to require tax filing. Plus if you do file, your age is going to let you reduce so many things you won't pay anything anyway.

Now if you know ahead of time you won't have to pay anything, I think you're supposed to declare anyway. Reduce your site expenses. Reduce any paypal fees you're paying. Get receipts for pencils, pens, and office supplies. If you don't need that, what do you need? Need a new laptop. You need it for business. Go reduce that.

Really, if you're making $500 a month you can reduce everything with frivolous expenses. I guess you're still buying things you might otherwise not purchase, but it's better than getting nothing. Don't buy an ice cream maker or something ridiculous, but basic business expenses won't raise any red flags, and it's not unlikely for someone making a $500 business income to have even a $0 profit.

There are likely billions of dollars lost by taxpayers because they don't reduce eligible expenses. Save receipts for everything now and figure out what to do later if you want.

Go the safe route and file something. Even if you don't owe any taxes, an "informational return" should be filed. The statute of limitations begins to run for the IRS to challenge you returns when you file. There is no statute of limitations when you don't file. After you go through the process once, you'll see that it is pretty straight forward until you start making quite a bit more money...