When you’re self-employed, there’s a plethora of acceptable deductions you can claim when you do your taxes. You can claim your office expenses, health insurance premiums and even travel costs that are work related.
Deduct Health Care Costs
Did you know that health care costs are also deductible, especially if they amount to more than 7.5 percent of your income? This includes doctor office visits, prescriptions, treatments, and dental costs.
However, you must be careful about what you choose to deduct. You also must remember to pay your taxes on all wages you earned before you lost your job. If you were one of the lucky few who received severance pay or a severance package, remember this is also considered taxable income.
Unemployment benefits can help if you are granted them, but did you know that you also have to claim this money at the end of the year? Make sure you put enough money aside when you find a job. By putting money into a bank account early on, you have enough money to pay your taxes when you need to.
Having Trouble Paying Your Taxes
If you are having problems paying your taxes, or have been or will be out of a job for 30 consecutive days between 2011 and 2012, up until April 17 of 2012. Or if you’re self-employed and your business has dropped by 25 percent or more because of the economy, the IRS will give you additional time to pay the taxes you owe. Plus, they won’t charge you penalties. How great is that?
The IRS announced that they will give taxpayers who qualify a 6-month grace period on failure to pay penalties, which are usually assessed every month a taxpayer is late making payments on their taxes.
IRS Offer Relief to Unemployed Taxpayers
On top of penalty relief, the government is also giving taxpayers the option of spreading out bill payments on their taxes. For example, if a taxpayer has bill that is considered high, like $50,000, this individual qualifies for installment payments. In addition, taxpayers that fall into this category aren’t even required to file a statement in order to do so.
The installment term was also increased from 60 months to 72 months. If you still find yourself unable to pay your taxes, file anyway and just let the IRS know that need help working with them. You can then work with them to design your own payment plan.
Whatever you do, don’t ignore them. They can create problems for you if you seem like you are trying to hide something from them. Just be frank, open and honest about your situation and everything will work out just fine, click here to apply for payday loan, it’s fast and easy form.