With just under a month left to file taxes, Cheddar News is keying in on freelance workers and wants to provide some tips so those Americans maximize either their refunds or what they have to pay back to the IRS.
Matthew Frankel, CFP and writer at the Motley Fool, joined Cheddar News to dish some insight into what freelancers can expect at filing time and how they can better plan in future filing years to avoid paying huge sums to the government.
"Freelancers are more responsible than the average person for keeping track of their own taxes and part of that requires putting money aside," he said. "It's important to know that you need to set money aside if you're just starting out as a freelancer or you will possibly get caught owing money."
The landscape of the U.S. labor market has shifted since the onset of the pandemic. 39 percent of Americans were freelance workers last year, which was a three percent jump from 2021.
Frankel noted that there are some breaks available to freelance workers that the general public is not allowed to take advantage of. Some of those include home office deductions, retirement accounts, self-employed health insurance and using your own vehicle for work can also be deducted.
"Honestly, the biggest mistake I see is people not asking for help when they need it. Not everyone is certified financial planner or tax attorney or anything like that," he said. "Being disorganized is definitely a big problem. I found this out the hard way early on in my career: to keep important records."
Gov. Ron DeSantis is asking that a federal judge be disqualified from the First Amendment lawsuit filed by Disney against the Florida governor and his appointees, claiming the jurist's prior statements in other cases have raised questions about his impartiality on the state's efforts to take over Disney World's governing body.
Ford CEO Jim Farley says the company will stop competing in over-served market segments and instead will place big bets on connected vehicles and digital services. The days of Ford being all things to all people are over, Farley said at the company's capital markets day event Monday.
The European Union slapped Meta with a record $1.3 billion privacy fine Monday and ordered it to stop transferring users personal information across the Atlantic by October, the latest salvo in a decadelong case sparked by U.S. cybersnooping fears.
Joanne Rodriguez, founder and CEO of Mycocycle Inc., joined Cheddar News to discuss how her company uses mushrooms to decarbonize construction waste. "Mycocycle was started to address the waste mismanagement issue we have," she said. "Globally, we've got overflowing landfills that are creating human and environmental health issues."
The World Economic Forum recently released its future of jobs report and broke down what abilities employers are looking for. Julia Pollak, chief labor economist at ZipRecruiter, joined Cheddar News to discuss what top, in-demand job skills are needed in the rapidly-changing economy.
James Demmert, founder and chief investment officer of Main Street Research, joined Cheddar News to discuss market trends as investors digest mixed trading sessions with debt ceiling talks stalling.
This year's upfront presentations to advertisers happened against the backdrop of a massive writers' strike. Cheddar News broke down the big takeaways from how networks proceeded with their events and what upcoming TV and streaming shows were presented.
