Start a Side Hustle for your survival
- Details
- Category: Business
- Published: Sunday, 29 September 2019 19:48
- Written by Lawrence A Robinson
The expression side hustle was first used in 1950, which makes the term much older than many realize. The term became popular during and after the last recession, when traditional jobs disappeared and enterprising people had to make ends meet. Well, here we go again.
Many who are employed have the need to be enterprising enough to find a side hustle in order to make ends meet. No-where in the United States can minimum wage workers afford an apartment and live comfortably on one W2 income. When you consider the recent changes to the tax code which seems to benefit corporations, then you realize that the W2 workers takes another financial hit.
Tax loopholes allow the wealthy and the corporations to protect their money through special deductions, tax advantages and other considerations not allowed to W2 workers. The advantage of ‘Itemized Deductions’ awarded to the W2 worker has been removed or lessened to the point that there is little benefit in it.
In order for the W2 worker to receive equivalent treatment as corporations do in their tax filings to the IRS, they must own a side hustle. The benefits of submitting your side hustle’s ‘profit and lost’ form, out weights depending solely on standard deductions when filing for your tax refund.
Side Hustles can come in many forms, from hawking perfumes, jewelry and soaps on the street corner, to signing up with a ‘Direct Sales’ organization and more. Even if you don’t make a profit, the tax benefits, in the form of deductions, credits and write offs will usually be greater and you will keep more money in your pocket at tax time.
In other words, the overall tax advantages received from owning a side hustle is greater than not owning one.
Do it now. The Tax Code allows you to write off your side hustle expenses for the entire year no matter when you started your business.
If our community is going to move from surviving into thriving, we most gain control of our economics. Our tax burden is a very large percentage of our existence. We must learn how the tax system works so that we can work the tax system.