For a lot of freelancers, consultants, and LLC owners, success comes with a nasty surprise: self-employment tax.
You finally build a profitable business, hit a strong year, and then realize a huge chunk of your profit is getting eaten up by that extra 15.3% tax. It can feel like a success penalty.
That is why…
Here is the cycle too many taxpayers live through every year.
It is spring. You scramble to gather documents. You send them to your CPA or tax preparer. You wait. Then the return comes back and you hear the sentence nobody wants to hear: “You owe more than expected.”
At that point, most people ask…