Here’s the story. My current employer decided to downsize our Buffalo office and move everything to our Florida office. For lots of personal reasons I decided not to go so my termination date is 12/31. I have a new job starting 1/9 so all is good.
Recently management started to realize exactly how much I do here and sent me over an independent contractor contract. Due to the specifics of the contract I can say how much I’ll be making, but lets just say independent contractor software engineering is pretty damn expensive :).
So, should I get a DBA? I’m going to be working from a home office so I know there are some tax breaks if I can show that my home office is a “sole business use” space. I’m going to be talking to a tax consultant soon but I thought I’d throw it up here as well.
Yes. For the small DBA fee, all of your office supplies, the space you work in (assuming it is 100% work space) The computer you use, etc… are all tax write offs. The only thing with that is the IRS likes to see income statements, and they make you pay your taxes monthly (unless your employer is still dealing with that)
schedule C is the way to go, it is a form for small business/self employment. just keep VERY good records of your income and expenditures and write off all you possibly can. go ahead and buy the best computer you can for your job and write it off. things like that. you could even rent a small business space, furnish it, and claim all of that as well.