Free tax advice from your anarchist accountant:
(USA federal income tax)(1099 NEC) If you are self employed and work from home, measure the square footage of your 'home office' (or whatever your workspace is), find out what percentage it is of the square footage of your house, and deduct that percentage of your annual rent and all of your utility bills for the year from your taxes as a work expense.
(USA federal income tax) If you are taking classes check and see if you qualify for the AOTC tax credit. You don't need a form 1098T from your school necessarily, (most schools will not make these available to you until Jan 31st), but you can claim up to a $2,500 deduction on tuition expenses, text book expenses, and other school supplies like computers.
(USA general advice) If you are paying someone for a product on venmo, no you're not. Use like a pizza emoji or something in the description and never check the box that says you're purchasing a product. That's extremely rude and tells venmo to report the money you gave that person as taxable income. So rude, don't do it, especially at like fundraisers, bake sales and shit like that.
Fuck turbo tax. Use Freetaxusa if doing your own taxes. (free USA federal income tax filing and state tax filing for like $20)
Every tax dollar you manage to get back in refunds is a dollar you took away from the American war machine.
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More free advice from your anarchist accountant:
Use cash. The government doesn't need to know about your purchases, especially on money spent in local economies, at farmers markets, craft fairs and stuff. Tip in cash as often as possible. Your waitress would rather stick cash in her pocket than get her tips on her paycheck anyways, and tips given in cash are usually not reported on taxes so more of the money makes it to the employee and not to the government.
It is worth the extra time to remember to pull out cash before going to bookfairs, conventions, farmers markets, art walks and fundraisers. Your community will appreciate you for making the effort to pay in cash.
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I know it's not a very common form of mutual aid but I do taxes for free for radicals and anarchists in California. Usually income taxes but I'll also help with small businesses too if they aren't ethically shitty.
Taxes are scary and complicated on purpose and I want you to get your money back. Feel free to tag me on questions or send me a private toot for my email if you're confused and need help.
It's gross that taxes have been made so complicated as to create an entire industry of tax professionals that wouldn't exist otherwise. I enjoy undermining that industry by making tax knowledge free.
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Another great reason to use cash as often as possible in your local economy:
-Cash doesn't ask about your legal status in the United States.
-Cash can be received and then spent by individuals without a SSN or ITIN (social security number or individual taxpayer identification number)
-Cash creates less or no paper trail on immigration investigations
This is not legal advice, I am not a lawyer. I am a person who detests the government and wishes to undermine it's efforts to track and investigate people.
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@temerity
I assume you do not German tax support?
For me they are quite hard, but I am also lazy
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@askans unfortunately I have zero experience doing taxes outside of the US so I would not be able to provide any advice with any level of confidence on German taxes.
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@temerity
That would have also been a rather super-human capability
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@temerity I’m feeling suddenly squiffy about using commercial tax filing systems.
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@temerity for online purchases, where you're able, using cashs to buy disposable credit cards in convenience stores or wherever to use online is a good way to reduce tracking. Like, not perfect but it doesn't tie your name to everything.
Also works for small biz and indie ppl who don't take cashs.
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@tiefling was just talking about this with a friend! Visa gift cards and stuff like that are good ways to pay cash but make digital purchases. I'm curious if anyone here has tried to use a cash bought gift card to pay for VPN services.
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@temerity I can let you know when I leave @protonprivacy for something else? Goal is to always use not real cards online.
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@temerity Another reason to use cash that vendors who do accept credit will appreciate - there's no merchant fee & vendors keep everything you pay w/o giving a percentage to banks.
I've been trying to convince people to withdraw their cash down to the minimum required to keep the account open. Banks are making millions on deposits & giving nothing back to depositors. Use money orders. They cost less than $2 each.
When the government collapses, and it will, FDIC insurance will mean nothing.
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@temerity tax question i donated a kidney last year and did not claim it as a charitable gift. I'm told I could have. Is this true? Do you think it would be worth the trouble / possible to go back and adjust last year's return? Could I claim it this year instead?
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@dendari I've not encountered this scenario before but doing some reading it looks like the organ donation itself is not considered a charitable contribution but any expenses related to the donation such as lodging or travel (but not lost wages from missing work) are deductible using schedule A form 1040, IF the total deductible medical expenses exceed 7.5% of adjusted gross income and IF the total deductible medical expenses exceed the standard deduction. Now if this happened in a prior year you can file a 1040 X amended tax return to still claim the qualifying benefits according to the IRS.
There was legislation introduced federally that would offer up to $5000 tax credit for living donors but at this point it has not progressed passed introduction to the house.
Hope this was helpful! The sources I checked were the IRS, the American Society of Transplantation, the National Kidney Foundation plus a few others, and I reviewed the introduced bill on congress. gov website.
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@temerity
Very helpful thanks.
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@temerity Are you willing to share professional contact information? I (CA resident) need someone to fix a tax filing problem I got myself into that is probably really easy for a pro and I'd rather pay a person than one of the big corporations. If the money partially goes to you having time to do some mutual aid for people more radical than myself that's a super bonus. Happy to switch this conversation to email if you'd like.
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@temerity
Holy crap! Are you telling me tips are still taxed even after it was promised they wouldnt be “if you vote MAGA”?!! Shocked. I need to lie down.
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@temerity I thought I was old fashioned to mainly pay for things in cash at the farmers market, neighborhood restaurants, etc. Everything old is new again.
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@TracyTThomas hey we live in an increasingly invasive techno hell and sometimes the low tech solutions are the most secure ones. You can't hack cash.
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@temerity following your lead of trying to be helpful, I'd just remind people to check that the tax rules are the same in the place where tax returns are to be filed.
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@LornaWoods yes, I should be specific that these tips are for United States federal income taxes. US states vary in their rules.
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@temerity
more anarchist tax advice:
don't pay. claim maximum dependents.
i haven't paid income taxes since 1983.
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@temerity
not an accountant but can confirm the advice on claiming a portion of your rent, laptop, mobile, utilities, etc as business expense is good for the UK. Here if you don't take the piss you have a great deal of leeway in how you calculate the percentage. don't worry about starving the NHS of your taxes. the UKs discretionary tax spend is all cops, military and grants for big data firms.
Venmo advice also good.
Use cash, you have a gifting limit in the uk you are not likely to reach and it is disgusting your gifts to waiting staff are taxed as income if the uk tax authorities know about it.
another reason to circulate cash in your community. cash doesn't care what it is spent on, telephone calls to translation services and immigration lawyers for example.
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@temerity Q: I work from home for an employer, can I deduct a portion of my rent and Internet bills?
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@JizzelEtBass unfortunately no. If you are a w2 employee you will not qualify. There are a few exceptions for military personnel and people with disabilities. I can look into that if those apply to you.
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@temerity I am permanently disabled.
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@JizzelEtBass apologies for the delayed response, had to research a little to get a clear answer on the exceptions.
according to the IRS:
Impairment-Related Work Expenses: If you are an employee and have a physical or mental disability that functionally limits your employment, you may be able to claim business expenses for attendant care at your workplace and other expenses in connection with your workplace that are necessary for you to work.
IRS Publication 529 defines this as:
"Impairment-related work expenses are ordinary and necessary business expenses for attendant care services at your place of work and other expenses in connection with your place of work that are necessary for you to be able to work."
This is listed as an exception to W2 employees not being able to claim home office expenses as deduction to their gross income. My reading of this is that if your disability prevents you from working without certain equipment, services, and modifications, and the expenses for these are not reimbursed by your employer, you can claim them on your taxes even though current law prohibits abled w2 employees from claiming work from home expenses. If working from home is necessary for you to be able to work with your disability, some expenses related to working from home can be deductible.
A portion of you rent and utilities constituting your home office does not count as an Impairment-Related Work Expense according to the SSA website, but other modifications to your home or expenses that allow you to work will qualify.
Sorry if this is complicated, hope it was helpful!
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@temerity I was about to respond with, "but what if I work in my living room, isn't overlap with recreation a problem?" And then I thought for a second and realized, "wait, when was the last time I did something recreational?"
This is a good reminder because I definitely was not going to do this, and thinking about it more I definitely am because I do think this is just a work area and it would have a huge impact on my taxes.
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@foxyoreos yeah if you're a 1099 independent contractor self employed you should definitely do this. Don't try to like, claim your whole rent, if you get audited (which is unlikely) you will have to prove that it's work space but if you claim a reasonable percentage of the rent and bills you can deduct that.
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@temerity
What I've been told about deductions based on the square footage of the home office is that freelancers are already the most likely to get audited, and that you have to be really careful about how much square footage you include, calculate whether you use that space for things other than work, etc., or risk serious problems if that audit ever happens.
Are those concerns reasonable or just paranoid?
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@ThatWeltschmerz it's always reasonable to be concerned about auditing but I know several independent contractors who have never had an issue. The key is not to get blatant and claim more than a reasonable area of your home. Like if I have a home office in part of my living room, I might also play video games at that desk but if I were to be audited there'd still be a work desk, a work computer and a work printer there. Does that make sense?
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@temerity It does, thanks!
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@temerity The company I currently work for is fully remote, so I work from home. Am I also able to write off my home office area?
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@kevingamin unfortunately if you are a w2 employee you cannot. This deduction is available for 1099 self employed independent contractors.
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@temerity Got it. Thanks.
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