Live in the US and have questions about taxes

[Trymester3 6]

I work as an independent contractor. I am supposed to pay taxes on my own. They are not automatically deducted from my paychecks.

I just filed some late taxes last month, and I'm actually paying more than I should because I didn't claim rent, phone, internet, transportation, etc. as expenses.

I didn't claim them as expenses, because I wanted my income earned # on my tax returns to look higher. I did this because I feel that the higher the # I have, the less chance that they'll deny my fiancee, and eventual wife, from staying in the US with me.

Unfortunately this means that I had to pay more money. Am I completely wrong about the way things work? Please let me know if you understand what I was trying to do. I live in New York, and I know that I'll eventually be asked for the last 3 years of tax returns, so I just wanted to look as strong as possible there. I plan on having a sponsor also, but I just wanted to try to make things look good.

Thanks for reading

[X Factor 1,110]

When you are an independent contractor you fill out a FORM Schedule C along with your 1040. If you claim less expenses, such as rent, internet, phone etc you will usually show a higher income, which means more taxes to be paid. So you are correct. If you earn 125% above the poverty rate for 2 then you should be fine. A tax planner could help you because you don't want to go way above what is required and pay unnecessary taxes.

[Darnell 8,478]

to the OP -

yup - that's how things work.

[Gaijinsan 3]

I work as an independent contractor. I am supposed to pay taxes on my own. They are not automatically deducted from my paychecks.

I just filed some late taxes last month, and I'm actually paying more than I should because I didn't claim rent, phone, internet, transportation, etc. as expenses.

I didn't claim them as expenses, because I wanted my income earned # on my tax returns to look higher. I did this because I feel that the higher the # I have, the less chance that they'll deny my fiancee, and eventual wife, from staying in the US with me.

Unfortunately this means that I had to pay more money. Am I completely wrong about the way things work? Please let me know if you understand what I was trying to do. I live in New York, and I know that I'll eventually be asked for the last 3 years of tax returns, so I just wanted to look as strong as possible there. I plan on having a sponsor also, but I just wanted to try to make things look good.

Thanks for reading

Well, it depends on what your taxable income would have been if you had claimed all of the deductions. If it's still over the support threshold, it won't really matter -- especially if it is comfortably over.

[Trymester3 6]

Well, it depends on what your taxable income would have been if you had claimed all of the deductions. If it's still over the support threshold, it won't really matter -- especially if it is comfortably over.

Thanks for confirming that for me guys. I think for the year 2011, it would have only been about $1000-$1500 above the minimum requirement. Since I din't put expenses, it ended up being almost $5000 over the minimum requirement.

Edited December 28, 2012 by Trymester3