Tax season is a huge source of stress for people with traditional full-time jobs, and it’s even worse for freelancers. Juggling multiple revenue streams and calculating the amount of taxes owed is time-consuming and prone to error if you’re not used to best practices for tracking your finances.
In recent years, improvements in technology have removed some of the guesswork and made it easier than ever to do your taxes. Even if you have unusual combinations of income and residency factors, you can gather your information quickly when using freelancing hub Indy.
Indy offers digital tools such as invoice and contract templates and a time tracker, so you have all the information you need when using a tax filing app to fill out your yearly taxes.
Here are some of the best tax filing apps for 2021.
TurboTax
TurboTax is widely regarded as the gold standard for tax filing and is designed to accommodate a vast range of financial situations. The clear and easy-to-understand explanations of different rules and terms are great for tax novices in particular, but even more experienced freelancers can find useful knowledge inside. You can call their staff for additional support if needed for an additional fee.
The mobile version of the software is simplified, and many freelancers need to use the full version to accurately plug in their various income sources. Even freelancers with unusual tax situations, like people who moved mid-year, will find TurboTax’s full version to be a good fit.
H&R Block
H&R Block may be best known for its human tax specialists, but their app is also excellent. It has the best visual interface on this list, and its staff is on-call to support self-filing app users for an additional fee.
H&R Block may be the best choice for freelancers with highly unusual situations, such as large amounts of foreign income already taxed by another country. Their interface for unique situations works more smoothly than TurboTax’s, so they’re worth trying if you’ve struggled with TurboTax in the past.
TaxAct Express
TaxAct is a lesser-known alternative that is less expensive for some users than TurboTax and H&R Block. If you already use one of the other two filing programs, you’ll still find TaxAct to be intuitive and familiar overall.
Although freelancers usually have to pay for an upgraded version of the suite in order to file everything they need, the total cost is still significantly cheaper than the full suite of features for other apps.
TaxAct’s mobile app has improved significantly in recent years, making it much easier to file a broader range of tax forms from your phone or tablet. You can get similar live support to other apps for an additional fee.
Keeper Tax
Keeper Tax automatically scans your credit card statements for potentially tax-deductible expenses. Their software is surprisingly smart and can find expenses you wouldn’t think of otherwise. At tax time, the tax-deductible expenses are listed and ready to go.
Keeper Tax also recently introduced a function for filing your taxes yourself directly from their app. This may be the fastest and easiest option for you if you have a lot of tax-deductible expenses each year, but it may not have broad enough functionality for all unusual tax situations.
Shoeboxed
Shoeboxed lets you scan and keep all your receipts in one place and sort them based on tax deductibility. It also allows organization based on who will be reimbursing expenses and a separate category for personal expenses.
Shoeboxed is not as specifically designed for taxes as Keeper Tax, but some users prefer its sorting functionality. It may be a better choice for you if you frequently send expenses to clients for reimbursement instead of claiming them on your taxes.
Indy Invoice
Keeping all your income information in the same place helps simplify your tax filings every year. Indy Invoices lets you send invoices and collect payment via Paypal, Stripe, direct deposit, and more.
Using Indy’s Stripe Fee calculator or PayPal Fee Calculator enables you to easily determine how much the payment app charges you as a processing fee when using their service.
Using this information, you can complete tax forms more accurately because you’ll know how much of your payment is a business expense rather than income.
Indy is designed to be used year-round for invoicing, but tax time is the perfect opportunity to make the switch. You’ll find everything you need to successfully freelance in one convenient hub, with lead forms, contract templates, and time tracking all under the same login.
Beating Deadlines
Many people procrastinate on taxes, but these apps make it even easier to get them done ahead of time.
Good year-round expense and income tracking set the basis for a headache-free tax season, so take the time to re-examine your practices and try a new platform this spring.
Every freelancer is different, but the commonalities in tax forms and prevailing laws mean that a system that works for you is within reach.
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