Re:Ask HN: Freelancers/self-employeds, what are your pain po...
by cbhl on Friday August 30, 2013 @02:43PM
(#6303471)
- I had a friend who did freelancing for a bit, and got caught completely unaware of the tax implications of doing so. When tax time rolled around, he had a huge bill... and then was goaded by his friends into trying to DIY his tax return using TurboTax (while the alternative he wanted was to go to a random accountant who had set up shop in a local mall).
- Something I've never understood why it's so painful and expensive it is to pay someone electronically. A paper check/cheque costs something like 10 cents (when you amortize it over the cost of the entire checkbook) and if you use the duplicate kind you get a paper record that you paid someone else. When I use Simple Finance to pay someone, they contract out some other company to snail-mail a paper check to them! If you want to use a wire transfer, the fees range in the tens of dollars. Plus, when dealing with account numbers, it's all too easy for you or your client to transpose two digits when writing it on a form.
- Something I've never understood why it's so painful and expensive it is to pay someone electronically. A paper check/cheque costs something like 10 cents (when you amortize it over the cost of the entire checkbook) and if you use the duplicate kind you get a paper record that you paid someone else. When I use Simple Finance to pay someone, they contract out some other company to snail-mail a paper check to them! If you want to use a wire transfer, the fees range in the tens of dollars. Plus, when dealing with account numbers, it's all too easy for you or your client to transpose two digits when writing it on a form.