The new tax law goes into affect for next year's taxes if that helps

I've been filing my freelancing gig since 2015, and in 2018 I started using TaxSlayer to help me with everything. They always answered my questions and I've never had a problem with them or the IRS. (I'm also under the threshold for my state.) PP's fees are deductible as well.

https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10099933

Thank you <3

That'll cost you one lewd RP. Bwahhahhahahaa! Not really. :P

Remember if you have questions and such to post them in the journal, so I can keep track of them and answer them there for others.

PFF oml xD i will pay in upcoming lewd art!! xD

will do! been taking a break from it this weekend but when i get back on it ill refer back to this and the comments here <3

Have a look at what I wrote under miza's post https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10105007/
you don't need to worry about any 1099 forms, just add up how much you made this year and report it as one figure as other income

The 12k is all sources of income added. So if your total income. So need to add all sources together to figure out if you need to file.

I'm not in the US but for my own taxes I've hired an accountant, basically I send them all my invoices and whatever other information they request and they manage everything else.

Yeah i think im more comfortable with things now but i might end up doing that if I get tired of dealing with it lol

This is not tax advice, because I am not *your* tax accountant (although I am *a* tax accountant, I'm not the kind that works on individual/small business returns.) What follows are *general principles* to help give you a bit of the lay of the land -- but you should talk to an accountant if you have questions about your specific facts and circumstances. I looked at the link that Vas had in the comments ( https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/10099933 ) and it looked fairly on point, so definitely check that out too.

So, firstly:

1. Reporting thresholds for the 1099 are not taxability thresholds. While platforms like paypal have a threshold before they must send you a 1099, that threshold says nothing about whether you should be taxed or not. Generally, all income is taxable unless there is a code section explicitly saying it is not. So, even if you earn <$20k this year/<$600 when that new law kicks in (and therefore a platform like Paypal may not be required to provide you a 1099), that income is (generally) still includable on your tax return. (The reason the government reduces the threshold occasionally is because people still don't realize that not receiving a 1099 doesn't mean you shouldn't report that income.)

[I don't want to go through the full history of that change, but really, $600 has been a threshold for many types of 1099s. The IRS recognized historically that putting the requirement on payment processors like Paypal might make more sense than for every individual buyer, but there has long been a requirement for buyers of goods and services to send a 1099 for >$600)]

2a. Whenever you *do* get a 1099, though, please note that the platforms send a separate copy to the IRS. So, if you have gotten a 1099, then the IRS knows to "expect" those amounts should appear on your return.

2b. 1099 is a document that payers send to you under certain conditions. The 1099 is like the w-2, except a w-2 is what an employer gives an employee to document wage income, and a 1099 is what a variety of non-employers use to document various kinds of non-employment income. So, it's not necessarily the case that a 1099 is for "people with a single income." However, per (1), there are certain thresholds for a company to be required to send a 1099, so if you ended up doing a bunch of services for many different people/companies and didn't hit the threshold for all of them, then you might not receive a 1099 from all of them. However, again, per (1), you still generally should report that income. It all has to be added up (and then you take deductions against it.)

Consider: let's say you do a commission for someone, and they do not pay you via a payment processor like Paypal, (E.g., let's say they just write you a check.) If that commissioner didn't commission more than $600 of art, then they aren't going to send you a 1099 (and TBH, even if they do commission more than $600, they may not realize they should be sending you a 1099.) But you as the artist should be aware that you have gotten that income and should be reporting it. (The IRS knows that this is a challenge, which is why they generally put reporting requirements on payments processors to try to capture "most" of the revenue. So if you get paid by your commissioners through major platforms, now the commissioners doesn't have to worry about sending the 1099 because the payment platform will handle that. [Imagine the IRS trying to enforce requiring every single person who commissioned more than $600 of art in a year to send 1099 to their artists.])

3a. A 1040 is the tax return for individual tax payers to report income and deductions. You would use it to report income from all sources (so, for example, if you had a w-2 job and also were a freelancer, then you may have to report w-2 income, 1099 income, as well as income that may not have hit a threshold for your payers to send you a 1099). If you are running a business and do not use a corporate or partnership business form, then Schedule C is where you would report the income and deductions from your business. So, the 1099s from freelancing are where payers report your income from your business.

3b. There are other tax returns for other business forms. But, unless you've gone out of your way to start a separate business entity, then you probably haven't created one. Again, this is definitely, "talk to your accountant for your facts & circumstances."

4. Earlier, I said that generally, all income is taxable unless there is a code section that says otherwise. So, generally, the stance you should take should be, "I should report this unless there is some reason not to." Many people will note numbers like "$12k", but I think you should understand the context of this.

Reporting income sources like w-2 or 1099 is just the *revenue* side of things. But you also may have expenses which are *deductions*. Revenue - deductions will give you a net taxable income or even a loss (if the deductions are higher than the revenue.) Individuals get a standard deduction which differs on if they are single, married, etc., In point 5, I write about business deductions. But the 12k is the standard deduction for individuals. (please look this up, as it does increase/change by year. And of course, there are some exceptions. For example, I think only US taxpayers get a standard deduction. So non-US taxpayers who make US source income may not have that! Again...ask your accountant) What this means is that for federal income tax purposes, if you have revenue less than 12k, then just taking the standard deduction will drive your taxable income to 0.

This does not necessarily mean you should not file a tax return if you have revenue under 12k. I think any accountant might say you should always file, even if the end result of the return is that you don't owe anything. First of all, there are other types of taxes other than federal income taxes. (For businesses, there is a self-employment tax if you have net earnings from self-employment of $400 or more. So, even if you don't owe federal income tax, you may still owe self-employment tax.)

Additionally, a tax return may be necessary to claim certain things for tax purposes, such as credits, stimulus checks, etc., Some credits are refundable, meaning you may get money *from the government* rather than you paying taxes *to the government*. A business loss (deductions greater than your revenue on business income) can be used to reduce taxable income from other sources, which again, can reduce your taxes owed in general.

I also haven't addressed *state* income taxes and I'm not gonna because I personally live in a state where we don't have those haha.

5. Please note that businesses have their own deductions. So, on the 1040 schedule C, you can take deductions to get to "net earnings from self-employment." So, please note that it's not just the $12k standard deduction (which is at the individual level), there's also deductions to getting to your business income or loss. See Vas's link for the section on expenses for some kinds of expenses you might have. Talk to an accountant about your specific facts & circumstances though.

6. I won't go into too much detail, but technically, taxes are "pay as you go." The point is *not* to pay a big check w/ the tax return, because you should have been paying it throughout the year. With w-2 wages, employers "withhold" income taxes from every paycheck. However, with 1099/self-employment/business income, there generally is not income tax withholding. So you are required to send quarterly estimated payments. Again, there are thresholds for this, and you may not have a penalty if your final tax due on your return isn't that high. [E.g., if it turns out you have no tax owed, then you probably also didn't have quarterly payments do.]) if you get "surprised" with a heavy tax bill, then you may want to talk to an accountant about getting quarterly payments set up properly. Or, even if you don't owe it this year, if in the future you plan to scale up, you may want to talk to an accountant *sooner* rather than *later* to see when quarterly payments make sense for your facts & circumstances.

That was actually super helpful tbh

This really helps thank you <3 I am more comfortable now especially since i know i have all my totals written up from last year, now its just what forms, what specific things mean and if they apply to me. Some of the terminology I am not familiar with x) thanks so much!!