Since you are an Independent Contractor, you are responsible for all taxes; Federal, Social Security and Medicare. Expect to pay at the minimum 15.3% of SE taxes on your gain. Take as many expenses as you can. You can deduct uniforms, continuing education, supplies, and basically anything you spend money on to produce your income. Keep good records and receipts. Your biggest expense will probably be your car.
If you're
self-employed, your deductible miles depend on where your self-employed
business is located. If you maintain an office at home, all your miles are
typically deductible from your "office" to anyplace business related.
You have no commuting in this instance.
If you operate your business from somewhere other
than your home, you can't deduct the miles you drive from home to your first
business-related stop. They are commuting
miles and therefore, not deductible. Of course, you can deduct driving
costs from your business location to the bank, a client's office, etc.
Here's some info
about having a home office for your self-employed business:
The home office
deduction lets you deduct things like rent, mortgage interest, insurance,
utilities, repairs, and depreciation for the portion of your home used for
business. It's available to homeowners and renters alike.
You may be able to
claim the home office deduction if your office is used regularly
and exclusively for your business and is your principal
place of business.
When you enter your
home office information in TurboTax, we'll determine if you can claim the
deduction and how much the deduction is worth.
This doesn't
necessarily mean that the majority of your business activities need to take
place in your home office.
What it means is
that you use your home office regularly
and exclusively to administer or manage your business, and that
substantial administration or management activities for your business are not
conducted at any other fixed location.
Here's an example:
Larry just started a new consulting business, and has set aside a spare bedroom
as his office which he only uses for business purposes. Currently about 85% of
his time is spent outside the home, meeting potential clients in various restaurants
and coffee shops. However, he does all his scheduling, planning, bookkeeping,
etc. from his home office. These administrative and managerial activities
qualify his home office as his principal place of business, even though he's
spending the majority of his time outside of his home office.
