Skip to main content
March 4, 2025
Question

Self employment

  • March 4, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 0 views

My husband is considered an independent contractor. He works for a guy who pays him in cash or personal checks. They don’t take out taxes and don’t report his wages to the irs. How would I report them for taxes or do I need to?

    2 replies

    VolvoGirl
    March 4, 2025

    Yes you have to report his self employment income.  You need to fill out schedule C for self employment business income and pay self employment tax in addition to regular income tax on it.  The SE tax is to pay Social Security and Medicare tax that wasn't taken out like on a W2.

     

    You use your own name and ssn or business name and EIN if you have one.   You should say you use the Cash Accounting Method and all  income is at risk.  After you put in your income and expenses  if your net profit is $400 or more you will pay 15.3% for Self Employment tax in addition to your regular income tax.  The Schedule SE will be automatically filled out for it.

     

    You can enter Self Employment Income into Online Deluxe but if you have any expenses you will have to upgrade to the Premium version.  Or use any of the Desktop installed programs.  All the Desktop programs have the same forms.  You just get more help and guidance in the higher versions.

     

    How to enter income from Self Employment

    https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/self-employed/help/how-do-i-report-income-from-self-employment/00/...

     

     

    Here is some IRS reading material……

     

    IRS information on Self Employment

    http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Self-Employed-Individuals-Tax-Center

     

    Pulication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business

    http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p334.pdf

     

    Publication 535 Business Expenses

    http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p535.pdf

     

    Turbo Tax Self Employed Tax Hub
    https://turbotax.intuit.com/personal-taxes/self-employment-taxes


    Turbo Tax Self Employment info
    https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/self-employment-taxes/beginners-tax-guide-for-the-self-employed...

    Ashgi89Author
    March 4, 2025

    Thank you for the help

    March 4, 2025

    You should report the income from his self-employment on Schedule C. You are also able to deduct expenses from this work.

     

    Here's how to report your business in TurboTax Online:

    • Navigate to Federal > Wages & Income > Self-employment income and expenses > Start
    • Answer "Yes" to the question "Did you have any self-employment income or expenses?"
    • Give a description of the business.
    • Continue until the interview asks "how does your work fit into your big picture?", based on the information you provided, it's a business.
    • Answer all the informational questions until you get to the screen  "Let's enter the income for your work."  Here, enter that you received common income- Other self-employed income, including cash and checks; then enter what you were paid.
    • Once you've entered your income, type in your expenses in the proper categories, TurboTax Online will recommend popular categories, but refer to your records to ensure you are deducting all of your expenses.