Freelance editing

[lettered]

First of all, apologies to those of you who follow me on various platforms, since I am basically putting this everywhere. I just finished writing my novel (yay!), and while I work on editing and eventually querying some agents, I'm hoping to do some freelance editing work. This makes me an independent contractor (right?), and I'm confused about some of the legal aspects. Does anyone who feels like they understand tax-speak want to talk to me about it for a bit? I've found a bunch of relevant legal info for my state and city, but it'd be nice to talk to someone about some of the terms/issues.

Comments

[lynnenne]

Sorry, all my tax knowledge is about Canada. Congrats on finishing your novel, though! That's a huge accomplishment.

[lettered]

Thanks! I don't actually think it's a great book, but at least I got it done. ...I definitely should not be in charge of selling this thing, perhaps obviously.

[lynnenne]

LOL, I'm sure it is great! Writers are always their own harshest critics.

[breathedout]

Eyyy! I am of no use with the taxes thing, but congrats on finishing your novel!

[lettered]

Thanks! I...don't actually think it's that great, but I'm proud I finished it.

(This is why self-publishing would be such a problem for me; I hate too many of the things I write...)

[magpie_fngrl]

Well done on finishing the novel!

As for the freelancing, I can't offer any insight into US practices, but I wondered if you know the sites upwork.com and peopleperhour.com, where you sign up as a freelancer and find clients. I think you need to invoice and work out the tax yourself, but the legal matters might be covered by the website? Apologies if you already know of them and I'm saying nothing new!

[lettered]

Thanks!

I do know about upwork and have done a bit of research on it. I didn't know about the other site, but I really don't want to work for a company where I have to find the clients myself. The reasons I'm asking about it though is I'm currently looking at a company that does hire freelancers and sends them projects, and they're actually what made me realize I have to ask some of these questions! They said that if you work for their company you're an independent contractor, and some states require that independent contractors require forms/licenses etc, and that if that is the case for your state you'd better have it worked out before working for them! But yes, a perk of working for such a company is presumably they'd just send me the tax form, which is nice. Thank you for your thoughts!

[magpie_fngrl]

No prob, I wish I could have been more help. Hopefully someone will know more :)

[geneva2010]

Geez, I think that's pretty cavalier of them - they have responsibilities, too!

[geneva2010]

Hi! I have some tax knowledge, not as much legal, but I think I get by on the issue of independent contractors. Most familiar with California and federal.

Congrats on your novel!

Biggest risk in being an independent contractor is making sure you save 15.3% of your net earnings (after expenses) to pay your social security taxes, plus more for Federal and state income. Businesses who hire independent contractors have more risks than the contractors because if the classification gets questioned later, fines can be extreme.

The new tax law has an advantage for contractors in a 20% deduction before income taxes are charged. Very unfair to employees! What a mess.

These may not be your questions - and I'm not around much on any platform right now! But let me know if I can help.

[lettered]

Thanks! I think I have it mostly figured out for right now.

[geneva2010]

great! Good luck with your work.