Comments on: Self Employment Tax

By: James from FaceySpacey.com

James from FaceySpacey.com — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 00:57:24 +0000

Yea but the truth of the matter is nobody cares more about your money and what you lose in taxes than you do. So the greatest accountant will even miss things that you would if you did all your homework. It’s really so frickin easy to do this, and construed to be so complicated so CPAs have jobs. Everybody should just master this via 80 hours of their time.

By: fredct

fredct — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 03:11:15 +0000

Privatizing Social Security has the distinct problem of treating SS like something it is not. It is not a long term investment where money is put aside for you for later. Your SS money goes to pay benefits of current retirees. Your benefits will be paid by the workers of the future.

The major major problem with privatizing (besides wondering what happens if the market falters) is where do you get the money to pay current retirees benefits if current contributions are being siphoned off to private accounts? I’ve yet to hear a good answer to that fundamental question.

By: Dan

Dan — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 02:34:34 +0000

Cat,

Let’s start by privatizing Social Security. A brilliant idea brought up a few years back but was unfortunately shot down by Congress.

By: Curious Cat Investing Blog

Curious Cat Investing Blog — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 17:22:34 +0000

I like reminding people social security and medicare taxes are twice as high as their paystubs show. Even when people only see half of the tax on their paystub they can’t help but think it is questionable tht such a huge amount of tax should go to this system. It seems obvious the scope of social security needs to be returned to the something closer to scope it began with. As life expectancy rates have increase by over 20 years social security has not been adjusted to reflect this reality. instead taxes have been substantially increased over and over to expand the scope of social security.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:48:38 +0000

I’m in the same boat! And last year I would have tried to do it all myself, and this year I’ll just hand my taxes off. It’s easier and more efficient that way!

By: ChristianPF

ChristianPF — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:39:35 +0000

Ryan,
great analysis – a couple years ago, I would have had no interest in this article, but now I find stuff like this very valuable – funny how things change!

By: Jack

Jack — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:12:37 +0000

Thanks for the post and explanation – very concise and helpful. I’m recently self-employed and, as you recommended, got the help of a professional. I haven’t gotten his fee yet, but already I’m pretty sure he’s paying for himself. He even caught some costly errors on my 2008 return (which I did myself, foolishly).

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 13:54:40 +0000

Emily, I can see how some people enjoy it. But for others, it becomes a matter of calculating the value of their time. Learning the laws and regs is time consuming, and for some people it is better spent working on their business or spending with their family. I prefer to outsource the tasks for something like this. But each situation is different.