For Gig Workers and Business Owners, Taxes Are Even Trickier Now
Filing taxes has never been simple for freelancers and business owners, but the pandemic has made it far more complex.
Credit.Party of One Studio
Tax time is always complicated for freelancers and business owners, but this year, it’s especially swampy.
Pandemic relief programs that helped small companies and self-employed individuals created new tax challenges. And many people had unusually jumbled patchworks of jobs and income sources last year.
“I’m kind of scared,” said Celeste Holcomb, an artist and designer. In 2020, her income included book royalties; fees for illustration, design jobs and work done through a gig platform; wages from a contract job at a university publisher; and, for several months, unemployment benefits. Ms. Holcomb, who plans to do her taxes herself, expects to spend hours wading through records and tax documents to figure out what she owes.
Recognizing the current global and national focus on the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, the March 2021 installment of the President’s Speaker Series will present a moderated panel of leading medical, pharmaceutical, and biotechnology experts who will share their professional knowledge and experience with COVID-19 vaccines and examine what society might expect from vaccines in the future.
Stéphane Bancel, chief executive officer of Moderna, Stephen M. Hahn, former commissioner of food and drugs at the US Food and Drug Administration, and Jonathan B. Perlin, president of the Clinical Services Group and chief medical officer of HCA Healthcare, will present “Vaccines: Where Are We and Where Are We Going?” via Zoom on Monday, March 29, at 5 PM PDT. Dee Anna Smith (’86), CEO of Sarah Cannon, the Cancer Institute of HCA Healthcare, and chair of the Pepperdine Board of Regents, will moderate the discussion.
Wait, she said, until you can t wait anymore.
Sa, founder of Community CPA & Associates, is usually concerned about the looming rush of income tax work this time of year. With the April 15 tax filing deadline just weeks away, she envisions customers piling into the company s offices in Des Moines, Iowa City and Bloomington, Minnesota, at the last minute. Like most accountants, she typically would prefer they came in earlier, spreading out the work for the staff.
Not this year, though. With Congress passing a COVID-19 relief package Wednesday that includes tax forgiveness for unemployment benefits and with the Iowa Legislature debating a similar proposal Sa told clients to pause any filings.
Congressional leadership is mounting pressure for the extension of the income tax deadline.
House Ways and Means Committee chairman Richard E. Neal urged the IRS to extend the deadline until July 15, noting that the pandemic is continuing to impose a âtitanic strainâ on the agency and taxpayers.
The National Association of Tax Professionals is also asking for an extended tax deadline.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants sent a letter to Charles Rettig the IRS Commissioner and Acting Assistant Secretary Mark Mazur, urgently asking for the deadlines for filing all 2020 federal income tax and information returns to be extended to June 15, 2021.
Every time.
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