Taxes Help!

Taxes

[driver]

Hi, I need some advise on Taxes for my web site. Last year I made $8,000 (gross) from my web site. I am claming this as personal income this year because I do not have a business license. This year it looks like I am going to make about $50,000 (gross). My questions are. Do I need to get a business license? Do I need to start paying quarterly taxes? Should I just hire a CPA and let them figure all this out? Do you know of any good information on this subject on the Internet? Thank you for any help you can give.

[JayC]

Assuming you're in the US, if you're bringing in that kind of money as self-employment income you probably will be required to file quarterly estimated taxes. Generally the requirement is that you have to do that if your payroll withholding covers less than 90% of your tax liability, and your amount due will be over $1000. But since you're experiencing a big increase in 2003, there's a loophole that may mean you won't have to file quarterly this year -- if your withholding and other credits in 2003 will be more than or equal to your tax in 2002.

Whether you need a business license is a local issue and has no relation to how much money you're making, but you might not really mean "business license" -- a lot of people use that term inaccurately to mean the formation of a separate business entity such as a corporation or LLC, instead of operating as a sole proprietorship. But there is no limit on the amount of money you can make as a sole proprietor, so there'd be no legal requirement that you do so. There may or may not be tax advantages, but that depends very much on your personal situation and that is certainly a topic about which it would be worth consulting an accountant.

A good online source for this kind of information is nolo.com.

[gopi]

nolo.com is very good ...thanks JayC

[NeedScripts]

If you haven't paid quarterly taxes you should also fill out form no. 2210 for IRS (I think this is the number, but confirm it before filling it out).

Also, you can hire a CPA or go to near by H&R Block or generally you should be able to find free tax help at near by library or college or walmart by tax volunteers.

[jmbishop]

Without being too specific can you tell us what your website does that allowed it to jump from $8k in revenue to $50k in a year?

[Drastic]

>Do I need to get a business license?
Depends on the laws in your state/city.

>Do I need to start paying quarterly taxes?
Yup

>Should I just hire a CPA and let them figure all this out?
Absolutely. When you get to that level of income, you want pro help. Plus, you want somebody on your side that knows the game if you get audited.