• Home
  • Bankruptcy in Brief
  • ABC’s of Bankruptcy
  • Considering Bankruptcy
  • True Stories
  • Chapter 13
  • Blog
  • About Us

Northern California Bankruptcy Lawyer

On The Bankruptcy Soapbox

The Soap Box
  • How bankruptcy works
  • Mortgage Matters
  • Consumer Rights
  • Newsworthy
  • You & Your Lawyer
  • Small Business
  • Family Law

Stop Making Quarterly Tax Payments

By Cathy Moran

quarterly tax paymentUncle Sam expects a quarterly tax payment from the self employed.  Since you don’t get a paycheck with regular tax withholding, the burden’s on you.

Lighten the burden. Make this the last quarterly tax payment you pay.

Seriously.  Don’t make any quarterly payments for this coming year.

Think I’m advocating tax resistance?  No way.

The tax collectors  have more weapons than you want to encounter.  It’s like the advice from the era of newspapers:  don’t pick a fight with someone who buys ink by the barrel;  

Don’t spit in the face of the tax man.

Give up making them quarterly, I say.

Pay taxes monthly, just like every other recurring bill in your life.

Why quarterly tax payments invite trouble

Folks who get a paycheck have their income tax liability, or at least some estimate of that liability, deducted from each paycheck.  No fuss, and, well,  only some bother.

Their take home pay has already paid the taxes.  The paycheck is what is available to pay the bills.

Not so the self employed.

We are expected to make quarterly estimated tax payments in January, April, July, and October.

I’m sure the quarterly arrangement was seen as a convenience when instituted.

But it’s not necessarily convenient.  You have to set aside money regularly so you have a fistful come quarter day.

If you free lance or run a small business, budgeting may be the hardest think you do.  Who knows, in this economy, how much you’ll make this quarter, or how you’re going to pay the bills?

Quarterly payments invite us to fudge.

Get caught not having prepaid enough and you get  hit with penalties.

Get really behind, and it’s tax liens and levies.

Pay this year’s taxes monthly

My charge?  Add Uncle Sam to your list of creditors that you pay monthly.

Most creditors expect monthly payment:  the rent, the car payment, the credit card.  Add your estimated taxes to that list.

Income taxes are a cost of doing business.  No reason not to pay them as you go, just like the folks on salary do.

  • You avoid the need to set up a separate savings account in which to accumulate the taxes to be paid quarterly.
  • You resist the temptation to use those savings for some intervening crisis.
  • You escape the urge to make no provision “just this month”.

Making regular and smaller payments makes it easier to get the total bill paid in a manner that avoids penalties for not paying regularly.

Send your monthly income tax prepayment to the same place the quarterlies were headed.  Write on your check your Social Security number and “estimated 2017  tax liability”.

Take care of taxes monthly and you don’t find yourself in a tax hole come next April.

Here’s the IRS  on making estimated tax payments.

More on taxes

Unfiled taxes live forever

Dig out of payroll tax trouble

  Getting rid of tax liens

Find the mortgage interest deduction in Chapter 13

Image courtesy of Wikimedia.

More from the Soapbox

  • Which Creditors Should You Really Fear?Which Creditors Should You Really Fear?
  • Vince Lombardi Is To BlameVince Lombardi Is To Blame
  • Small businesses increasingly seek bankruptcy reliefSmall businesses increasingly seek bankruptcy relief
  • The Essential Step To Get Your Day In CourtThe Essential Step To Get Your Day In Court
  • Bankruptcy Alphabet:  M Is For ModifyBankruptcy Alphabet: M Is For Modify

Filed Under: Consumer Rights, Taxes Tagged With: self employed taxes

About Cathy Moran

I'm a veteran bankruptcy lawyer and consumer advocate in California's Silicon Valley. I write, teach, and speak in the hopes of expanding understanding of how bankruptcy can make life better in a family's future.

Coronavirus & Your Finances

About The Soapbox

You've arrived at the Bankruptcy Soapbox, a resource of bankruptcy information and consumer law.

Soapbox is a companion site to Bankruptcy in Brief, where I try to be largely explanatory and even handed (Note I said "try").

Here, I allow myself to tell stories and express strong opinions on how I think law should work for the consumer and small businesses when it comes to debt.

Moran Law Group
Bankruptcy specialists for individuals and small businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area

How Bankruptcy Works

What Everyone Knows About Bankruptcy: Not

Lots of people profess to know all about bankruptcy. Whether they have good information or not. But other professionals should know better than to advise people about the workings of bankruptcy. And if they don't know better, they should be made to pay, in some exquisitely painful way, for the harm they … Read more

More Posts from this Category

643 Bair Island Road
Suite 403
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (650) 694-4700

Categories

All content copyright © Moran Law Group. All rights reserved.