Taxes for a photographer?

Question

I am starting a personal photography business. How do you know what taxes you have to pay? Do you just pay according to how much you make? Any help would be great. I live in CA.

Answer 1

You have self employment taxes - fedearal FICA is 7.65%, figure 20% for Federal income tax and whatever California stae income tax is and if there is any local wage tax - Ballpark figure - put 35% or your gross sales away for taxes - probably won't be all that, because you'll have expenses which will decrease net income-but better to have more than you need put away than to owe tax and not have it to pay

Answer 2

Federal income tax, state income tax. Also, if you are working for yourself, you will have to pay self-employment (SE) tax. You'll have to keep track of the income and expenses from your photography business on a schedule C. The self-employment tax will be based on the net profit from the Schedule C. If your net profit is more than $400 you will pay 15.3% of 92.35% of the schedule C profit. If the schedule C business is your only income you will also need to pay quarterly estimates to both the irs and your state (if you have a state income tax).

Answer 3

You'd be wise to pay a CPA for a couple hours of his or her time to explain to you what records you need to keep for your business, and what you have to do for taxes.

Basically, you have to record all of your income, and should record any associated expenses. At the end of the year, you'll show the income and expenses on your tax return, and pay taxes on the net income after the allowable business expenses are subtracted.