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."
Retail sales saw a modest uptick in April as inflation eased somewhat as consumers look toward the summer season to spend some more. Mario Payne, financial planner for Toams Financial, joined Cheddar News to provide some guidance on how to work up a responsible summer budget plan.
Dryden Pence, chief investment officer with Pence Capital, joined Cheddar News to discuss Tuesday's market session and touched on what the Federal Reserve may decide on at its next meeting as inflation continues to play a role and consumer spending remains firm.
Stellantis is telling owners of nearly 220,000 Jeep Cherokee SUVs worldwide to park them outdoors and away from other vehicles because the power liftgates can catch fire even when the engines are off.
After years of explosive growth during the pandemic, Home Depot’s revenue during the first quarter fell short of expectations and the company cut its profit and sales outlook for the year
The head of the artificial intelligence company that makes ChatGPT told Congress on Tuesday that government intervention "will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful” AI systems.
