I am a freelance writer, and this is the first year I'll be claiming income or losses. My losses are approximately 3 times my income (I know, that doesn't say much for my writing ). Another self employed person told me that, unless I'm going to owe, I don't need to file quarterly as is generally advised. Is this true? Can I just wait until I file our income taxes, and put it on that?

TYIA

You do not need to file quarterly as long as you have a loss. The reason to pay quarterly taxes is so your "income" taxes are paid in a timely fashion. Since you have a loss, you have no income. I am self employed, and make a profit, but I have extra taxes taken out of my husbands weekly paycheck instead of paying quarterly. This works fine as long as you are filing a joint return.

As a writer, I honestly have no way to predict what my income will be for a given year. For instance, I'm writing a book. It could not sell, or it could sell for an advance of $3 000, or it could sell for an advance of $1 000 000. How can I figure out what I should do with my taxes with that?

If you are filing a joint return, then I think that you should file a Schedule C and show a loss. However, you would have to have a publishing company. This would not be too difficult to set up, but you would have to be able to honestly show that you have a book which you manage to sell, if only a few copies. You need to read about the numerous differences between a business and a hobby to make your publishing business legit. By the way, I have been an author/publisher since 1981. Visit my website. Estimated taxes are paid quarterly to the feds and to the state/city as soon as you know that you will be having a sufficiently large extra income coming in. Whatever you do, I think that you should continue to file a joint return--and that you should ask an accountant about how to proceed. Remember: even a loss can result in a gain as an offset to taxable income.

Ts

I'm working as a freelance magazine writer, not a book publisher. I would not need to start a publishing company!