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this is another thing that I messed up when I became a signing agent I messed up so much seriously hey guys this is Kendra with signing agent basics and in this video I'm gonna talk to you about everyone's favorite subject taxes now let me start off by saying that I am NOT a tax professional or a tax advisor in this video I'm just sharing with you my experiences as a self-employed signing agent and what I've learned about taxes from being in this position now many people start their career as a signing agent after having what I call a regular job for most of their life you are either paid hourly or an annual salary your employer withheld taxes from every paycheck so then the money that you got was already after taxes your employer then gave you a w-2 at the end of the year you would file your taxes and you would normally get money back because you had overpaid well that is not how things work when you become a signing agent as a signing agent you are an independent contractor the signing companies and title companies that you work for do not withhold taxes so when you get your checks from them you are responsible for paying your taxes on your own now needless to say going from having an employer withhold your taxes and getting a refund every year to having be disciplined to pay taxes on your own as a self-employed person can be very confusing and it can come with a lot of misconceptions now again I am NOT a tax professional or advisor but I can't give you some advice about what I've learned about taxes since I first became self-employed now guys look I learned these things by trial and error from messing it up big time I did a lot of things wrong in the beginning of my signing agent career so I hope that you take the information in this video and start your signing agent business off right when it comes to taxes so my first and most important piece of advice and I'm going to tell you this over and over and over again in this is to talk with a tax professional as soon as you become a signing agent so that they can look at your individual tax situation and tell you what you need to do how much money you need to set aside for taxes and how to keep your records and then also have a tax professional prepare your tax returns specifically a tax professional who has experience with doing taxes for self-employed people more than likely you are not qualified to handle this properly your cousin ray-ray who does taxes on the side is not qualified to handle this properly tax guidelines can change drastically from year to year especially for self-employed people so unless you are just a financial wizard who studies tax law for fun chances are a licensed preparer is going to know way more about taxes and how to save you the most money legally again guys please learn from my mistake when I first started I did not do this I basically just put my head in the sand and I ignored my tax obligations for the first two years as a signing agent because it just it felt very overwhelming and honestly I was a little bit scared then I had to spend years catching up on getting my records together and paying past due taxes trust me when I say you do not want to do that and guys I know it costs money to have a tax professional do your taxes especially for the self-employed but look trust me again in my experience it is money well spent alright my next piece of advice don't think that just because you're self-employed that your expenses will outweigh your taxes so that you won't have to pay anything you can deduct quite a few business expenses but don't get carried away it's important to work with a tax professional to ensure that you take every deduction that you're entitled to but don't take too many and set yourself up for an audit and don't think that the IRS won't know how much money you make the signing companies you work with if they pay you over 600 in a year they are required to tell the IRS how much money they paid you and they provide you with a form 1099 saying how much they paid you so yeah the IRS knows and on that note I would suggest that you get an e i-- in an employer identification number when you sign up to work with signing companies they will need a tax ID number from you in order to pay you now normally you would just use your social security number but do you really want to give your social to 20-30-40 random companies that you've never worked with before I found that it's safer for you to give signing companies your employer ID number instead of your social security number and you can get an employer ID number instantly online on the IRS website I've got the link for you down below in the description box so guys were about halfway through the video and I'm just a little bit curious all of this stuff was news to me when I became a signing agent so new signing agents did you guys already know this stuff or is this helping you out veteran signing agents is any of this information new to you do me a favor go down into the comments section and let me know all right the next piece of advice I have for you is that you will probably need to pay quarterly taxes now you may not even realize that a self-employed person or a small business owner should be paying taxes on the 15th of January April June and September even if you pay your full taxes at the end of the year failing to pay quarterly could possibly result in fines and penalties so how much should you pay well your tax professional can advise you on how much to set aside based upon your individual tax situation but usually 25 to 30 percent is a safe starting point so for example if you get paid $100 for a signing you need to set aside 20 to 30 dollars aback for taxes now I usually choose to pay my taxes every week for me it's just easier to pay a little bit weekly than it is to pay a big chunk quarterly and the IRS actually has a website where you can make payments getting set up does take a little bit of work but you only have to do it once and then after that it's easy to make payments whenever you like and you know I got you I'm gonna put a link to the IRS tax payment website down in the description box below ok guys next thing look you cannot just throw your receipts bank statements and other random documents in a box and think that your accountant will just sort it all out for you if you do this your accountant will hate you and they're gonna charge you a lot of money to do your taxes so you'll need to learn to organize things you'll need to track your income and log all of your expenses again from the school of hard knocks I learned that this is much easier to do as you go instead of waiting until the end of the year to try to go through a year's worth of information I personally use a combination of Excel worksheets and QuickBooks Online now look honestly I could probably phase out the Excel worksheets and do everything in QuickBooks but I'm a creature of habit and I've been doing things this way for a long time and it just works for me so you'll need to find a system that works for you and your tax professional and then stay consistent with it I personally love QuickBooks Online it connects and syncs directly to my bank account it downloads all of my transactions automatically I just sign into QuickBooks once or twice a week make sure that all of my income and expenses get logged properly and then at the end of the year I'm all caught up I can quickly print out my profit and loss sheet and any other information that my accountant needs now I do have a link for you for QuickBooks down in the description box with actually an awesome discount for you you will get 50% off QuickBooks small business or 50% off QuickBooks self-employed now of course QuickBooks has different plan levels and in case anyone is curious I use their simple start small business plans now depending on which plan you use this discount will save you up to $200 so again the link is down in the description box make sure you check QuickBooks out alright last thing I want to let you know you cannot ignore health insurance this is another thing that I messed up when I became a signing a Giunta messed up so much seriously in case you didn't know you can possibly get charged penalties if you don't have health insurance again if you had a regular job you would just select one of the health insurance plans that your employer offered and they would just take the money straight out of your paycheck to pay for it so if you're not able to get on an employer supplied health insurance program through maybe your spouse or another family member then you will need to get individual health insurance on your own I suggest that you talk to a health insurance professional for more information but I personally get my insurance through the government health insurance marketplace at healthcare.gov it's really simple you fill out the information you select a plan and then you pay your monthly premiums again I'm gonna put the link to the government health insurance marketplace down in the description box below so that's it guys was this video helpful new signing agents go down into the comments section and let me know if this video helps you out veteran signing agents was there anything that I left out that's important that these newbies need to know about taxes you guys go down into the comments section and let me know as well also if you are not already following me on Instagram why not like seriously I could give you even more daily tips tricks and inspiration so go to IG and follow me right now and if you've been watching and enjoying my videos here on YouTube and you're not a subscriber again what are you waiting for click that subscribe button hit the notification bell so that you will be notified every week when a new video comes out this is Kendra with signing agent basics I hope that you have a productive and profitable day [Music] [Applause] [Music]