DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Palus Politicus GOP wants to end coverage for pre-existing positions? Say what?

How many contractors or employees does your "business" employ?
Please describe the types of expenses your "business" has.

When I worked at Delta we had some programmer contractors that registered themselves as a business.

But they were business in name only. Getting paid as a contractor.

They werent an actual functional business in the traditional sense.

They had no employees.
They produced nothing that could be sold.
They provided no service to the public at large.

They were gaming the system.

Not that anything is wrong with that. But to compare yourself to a traditional business is laughable.

I haven't made any 'contributions', other than stating I know exactly what I pay in taxes.

Sigh. I love how this is starting on the right foot, because I think no matter what I say you won't think I have any idea on what it's like to run a business, since you already placed my business in quotes. But sure, I'll play for a bit.

When I was actively managing my business I had 2 subcontractors I routinely sent work to for artwork and other assets that's outside of my wheelhouse. As a software developer my expenses thankfully weren't crazy, plus I ran the business from my home office. I set up a dedicated space, expensed all of my equipment needed for the business as well as payouts needed for my subs.

These days I run an office here as a W2 employee for a mid sized multinational firm. I handle payroll/expenses for over half a dozen employees, including commercial floor space, monthly recurring business expenditures, computer equipment, etc. This is on top of my existing software development work, mentoring, etc. Yes I have a boss, but he leaves all the long term business decisions on this area to me. For instance when it came to finding office space, I handled the entire process: finding a space, negotiating a lease agreement, getting movers to move equipment in, etc. As the first employee in the US for my firm I advised and set up 401k and medical. Every dollar that comes into this office is a dollar I deal with.

Demanding we pull our pants down and grab a ruler is a bit juvenile, no? I mean, by definition a business entity needs neither subs nor employees to be a valid business entity. Are you satisfied, or do you wish to move the goalposts again? I think you're a smart person so for you to assume I'm not is a bit of a bummer. Oh well.

She injected you in the conversation, so I didn't really have anything to send your way. She just included you in her small club or "ELITE LEGITIMATE BUSINESSS ONWERHIPS LLC (C) (S) (TM) (LLP)" and not me, and I found that interesting.

No, I can agree with that being a business. You had made it sound like youre a simple contractor hired by someone else.

And I'm not grabbing a ruler. I have opinions because I know there is a difference between being a LLC Consultant, and an actual business.

Well, I'm certainly not an 'elite' business.

But, I'm still curious. As a self employed person, with no employees other than me..........what's the difference between 1099 income and W2 income?

You seemed to make it appear there is a difference.

I'm no CPA, but the only thing I can come up with is I pay 100% of FICA, as opposed to w2'ing it, where my employer would pay half.

Just trying to clarify, and see if my CPA is screwing me.

My income is my income. My business expenses are just that. And I pay taxes on what is left.

What am I, and my CPA, missing?

Ok. I had a feeling it was something like that. I did mean that, I think you're a smart person and was a bit bummed you took a run at me

This forum makes it easy to get riled up (I'm a bit too guilty of that) so my bad. I do agree it's a different animal dealing with employees than being a sole proprietor (even if one veils that behind a single owner LLC.) I just think it's easier dealing with the accounting and legal crap than it is writing code. I still want to end my life sometimes reading legal documents due to the boredom (JOKE!), but I don't personally consider it difficult work.

There might be a misunderstanding here. Did I say anything that indicated otherwise?

Its my mistake because I had always been under the impression you were a game dev (programmer). You hadnt ever mentioned the rest of it before.

So thats cool.

Yes, there was a misunderstanding. On my part. Sorry.

It was tee that said this: "If you dont handle your 1099s as if you are a business owner then that is your problem because you should. You are a self employed business owner/contractor and should take advantage of that lose definition."


Sorry. My bad.

No worries. We accomplished the (near) impossible on palus politicus: peaceful resolution and understanding.

I stopped being a game dev 5 years ago but yea, I don't talk about that much these days. To be honest I didn't ask for managing the office (nearly) full stack, but I guess the veep trusts me enough to deal with it. We're actually trying to hire people to free me up from some of this, it's taking up alot of my workday now that we have half a dozen people working under me (and looking to nearly double that over the next year.) Still, my guiding light in life has been that if people wish to entrust you with responsibility, you should in all cases try to deliver. You don't get many opportunities in life to progress your career in interesting ways.

It sounds like we should talk more

I believe the narrative is W2 people don't pay attention to their taxes because it's all done for them. With direct deposit, how many people look at their paystub beyond the amount getting deposited. Then there are some at the end of the year that get a refund and think they didn't pay any taxes because they got a refund.

Its mainly that when you have w2's you dont notice the taxes as much.
It is a little amount every other week and you are trained to be used to it.

When you are self employed you dont have this. You pay quarterly estimated taxes where a very LARGE amount is taken from you all at once 4 times a year.

Its a huge difference. Not monetarily, but psychologically because you suddenly see how much is taken from you in large amounts.

I guess I’m doing it wrong. I don’t trip about what’s being taken out on my rental income when I fill out the 1099 last tax season.

Thought it would’ve been a lot more, to be honest.

I think that's the biggest reason W2ers don't know. It's just gone. They don't write a check.

And, trust me, I know of many people that say "I got a $5000 refund last year." And I just think "That means you paid too much bi weekly, but you go ahead and enjoy your 'savings' account.

Talk when your apartments are paid for. You have deductions now.

1 of them already is. Remember I paid cash for the first one. I guess I trip less about the expenses and taxes, and spend more time impressed my tenants actually pay their rent on time.

If you have tenants that pay rent on time, good for you. (on a side note, most tenants DO pay on time)

Timely tenants is a huge blessing !

As for debt, I believe many business owners would say leveraging debt wisely is not only smart, but in some cases the best way to grow quickly. If you can get the bank to get you a loan for 4 SFHs, and one tenant pays the mortgage on all 3 (or close to it) while the others go in your bank account, is it better to say "no, I'll wait for years to build the cash"? It doesn't seem to make sense to me.

I think he has 3 apartments. 1 paid for.

If that tenant is paying the mortgage for the other 2 apartments? And the rent for the other 2 is going in his pocket? Dang......FANTASTIC investment. I doubt that's happening though.

if i was trying to go knee deep and make this a full time dream, i could certainly do it. the market is actually really good, with the cost of housing going up, as well as mortgage rates going up as well, a lot of people are looking to rent, and the market was already there even before the feds raised their rates, which caused the market rates to go up.

but as i've said previously a while back, i admittedly got cold feet when it came to crunch time. i told myself that if i get a 4th spot, then im going all in.

i dunno about all that yet. right now, even with expenses, the extra cash is cool. its not taxes or anything like that for why i dont wanna push.

i state this because i get this is a discussion about health care cost and such, so for the self-employed guys like Eve and Arch, its an issue for sure, and i get it.

but i got healthcare for life since i'm 100% soooooooo....

Nuff said.

It also exemplies an example that differentiates us from the countries with nationalized health care. Entrepreneurs have more freedom to take risks if healthcare is universal.

It's entirely possible Swish does not become a landlord without those medical benefits. Likely, perhaps. I won't speak for swish, just speaking in generalities here. But the risk of entrepreneurship is bad enough without adding healthcare on top.

That’s actually a really solid point that I never considered, mainly because I never had to worry about it.

100% what?

You say that like most people who don’t know are the vast majority. Pfft.

Trump Administration Launches New Attack On ACA’s Pre-existing Protections

Yet another reminder that the GOP hasn’t given up on trying to kill Obamacare.

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/pre-existing-protections-trump-aca_us_5bcdfa8de4b055bc94834521

Wow just changed a rule and gutted the ACA by allowing lesser coverage and zero coverage in some instances via waivers. Good luck with explaining this in two years GOP.