Sorry if not allowed here.
Last year I earned $48k from a contracting gig from an overseas company that has dropped off the face of the map and doesn’t exist anymore. I saved enough for taxes but cannot get my tax forms from said company anywhere and don’t see how contacting the IRS to “help me get them” is going to work either because trust me, this company isn’t going to answer the IRS. For further context, I live in the state of MD.
8 comments
You may need to contact an accountant or a tax attorney. We’re they withholding taxes? You said contracting. So you would just need to report the full amount of income on a 1099 form. You have the deposits right?
Assuming they didn’t withhold any taxes, and you knew or can reconstruct your income, you don’t need the forms. Just follow the self-employed business path of your software. Enter the income you calculate to the best of your ability.
Expect to pay 15.3% self employment tax in addition to any income tax.
You can try r/accounting and r/tax for your other questions too. Just keep it light like the current quesiton you have and don’t ask about all of your K-1s or rental income you get or how you withdrew capital from your partnership
I really think this could be worth a couple hundred bucks (at most) to talk to a tax professional at a place like H&R Block and get some professional assistance. Sounds just complex enough to need that service but not so complex that you need many hours of time with an accountant or attorney.
You should probably have H&R Block or another tax service do your taxes this year.
Contracting usually means they paid you right out with no withholding in most cases so you’re not getting a W-2. The form they’re supposed to send you is 1099-MISC or 1099-NEC (unless the income is below a limit that you’re well above), but you should be able to get that exact value from your own records. Then you file as a self-employed person with Schedule C and can deduct your expenses against your income. You will also need to pay 15.3% self employment tax on Schedule SE, and will be able to claim half that as a deduction.
Look at Schedule C for the things you can expense. If you’ve never done this before an accountant may be a good idea to let you know what deductions you might be unaware of, but it’s a routine and fairly easy procedure.
If they withheld for various reasons, it will be harder and you will need to sum up pay stubs or something like that.
If you don’t have tax forms, do you have a copy of your last pay stub with itemized taxes, deductions? You can use that to file your taxes.
I am not a lawyer or accountant but here is my experience. My husband worked remotely as an independent contractor for a company based in the UK for a few years. They did not send a 1099 or report to the IRS. Since they’re not in the US, they aren’t required to report to the IRS, it was our responsibility to report the income on our taxes. It’s easy to calculate because as an independent contractor there are no payroll deductions so just add up all your deposits or total the cashed checks from this source. As a contractor you are required to pay estimated taxes quarterly to the IRS. You might be fined if you didn’t do that. You would probably benefit from talking to a tax professional. We would have been completely lost without professional help.