I am unemployed but I haul junk for $50 average $50 a week I have a minor child I can claim I was wondering if I could file taxes

[VolvoGirl · Accepted solution]

That is self employment income.  You are suppose to report all your income.  So yes you need to file it.  Have you been keeping records of your income and expenses like truck and gas?  Then what do you do with it?  Do you take it to the dump and pay a dump fee?  You can expense everything.

To report your self employment income you will fill out schedule C in your personal 1040 tax return and pay SE self employment Tax.  You will need to use the Online Self Employed version or any Desktop program but the Desktop Home & Business version will have the most help.

For the future, There is also QuickBooks Self Employment bundle you can check out which includes one Turbo Tax Online Self Employed  return....
http://quickbooks.intuit.com/self-employed

You need to report all your income even if you don't get a 1099Misc. You use your own records.  You are considered self employed and have to fill out a schedule C for business income.   You use your own name, address and ssn or business name and EIN if you have one.   You should say you use the Cash Accounting Method and all income is At Risk.   

After it asks if you received any 1099Misc it will ask if you had any income not reported on a 1099Misc. You should be keeping your own records.  Just go through the interview and answer the questions.   Then you will enter your expenses.

Self Employment tax (Scheduled SE) is automatically generated if a person has $400 or more of net profit from self-employment.  You pay 15.3% SE tax on 92.35% of your Net Profit greater than $400.  The 15.3% self employed SE Tax is to pay both the employer part and employee part of Social Security and Medicare.  So you get social security credit for it when you retire.  You do get to take off the 50% ER portion of the SE tax as an adjustment on 1040 Schedule 1 line 27.   The SE tax is already included in your tax due or reduced your refund.  It is on the 1040 Schedule 4 line 57.  The SE tax is in addition to your regular income tax on the net profit.

Here is some IRS reading material……

IRS information on Self Employment
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Self-Employed-Individuals-Tax-Center

Pulication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p334.pdf

Publication 535 Business Expenses
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p535.pdf

You can enter Self Employment Income into Online Deluxe or Premier but if you have any expenses you will have to upgrade to the Self Employed version.  How to enter self employment income
https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/4801198

[xmasbaby0]

SuperUser VolvoGirl did a great job of explaining self-employment income to you.  As for claiming your child with the very small amount of income you earned--you could possibly get a small amount of earned income credit, but it would be small.  Since it is impossible to support yourself and a child on less than $3000 a year, how have you been supporting yourself--or is there another adult who is supporting you and the child who can be claiming you as dependents?  If so, you cannot claim your child, since a dependent cannot claim a dependent of their own.

[VolvoGirl]

@xmasbaby0  Thanks!  And glad you added about the child and credits.