silly question

[inky leeuhhh]

i am looking into doing childcare from my home next year. i was wondering- how do taxes work? i really have no idea and i dont know where to look for info. do i pay them out at the end of the year? heeelp! LOL. thanks

[janasmama]

you can pay them out at the end of the year but i think you get penalized for not paying quarterly

[Pumpkin_Pie]

I didn't have to pay quarterly last year. I just filed my taxes in April like I normally do and treated my child care business like self employment. Most tax forms have info for child care providers specifically. It was a little more work than just entering a W-2, but not too bad. Just make sure to keep all of your receipts for anything you buy for your business.

[vegmom]

Where do you live? In Canada I just filed in April. I have never heard that you could be penalized if you did not file quarterly.

[inky leeuhhh]

i live in WA state. what does filing quarterly entail? lol. i told you all i was clueless!

[fruitfulmomma]

If you are talking about federal income tax, then it depends on how much you owed last year on your taxes. If you generally don't owe or owe a very small amount you won't need to file quarterly. You should be able to find the specifics at www.irs.gov.

[gardenmom]

Originally Posted by fruitfulmomma

If you are talking about federal income tax, then it depends on how much you owed last year on your taxes. If you generally don't owe or owe a very small amount you won't need to file quarterly. You should be able to find the specifics at www.irs.gov.

Read it carefully. We thought this was the case too, but DH was self employed for a few months last year, and we had to pay a small penalty to both IRS and NY for not paying quarterly, despite the fact that the IRS had historically owed us a (fairly large) refund every year for the past 5 before that. Lousy...

[Kristine233]

Originally Posted by gardenmom

Read it carefully. We thought this was the case too, but DH was self employed for a few months last year, and we had to pay a small penalty to both IRS and NY for not paying quarterly, despite the fact that the IRS had historically owed us a (fairly large) refund every year for the past 5 before that. Lousy...

It probably depends on the state. Here I only have to pay at the end of the year and we have someone else do ours for us to make sure all the t's are crossed and i's are dotted.

[Mama Dragon]

Self employment tax is 15.3% of your *net* (after expenses and loss) income. You must pay quarterly if you expect to owe over $1000 in self employment taxes, otherwise you can pay at tax time. Last year was my first year filing with SE income, I owed a bit over $800 and just had to taken from my refund (EITC).