IANA tax accountant or attorney, but are you sure this is true? My understanding is that, if it is reasonably obvious that you will owe the IRS at tax time next year, you are obligated to pay estimated taxes in advance, every quarter. You do NOT just get to keep all that money for a year and settle up at tax time.
Yup - and pay heavy penalties if you don’t (with interest).
The idea that you only owe tax at the end of the year is a fiction the federal gov’t and IRS is more than happy to continue supporting for the majority of tax payers, as it reduces resistance to the income tax. Tools like paycheck withholding were built to support that fiction and lower resistance as well. People fight less when they don’t see the total amount of money they are actually paying in one lump sum. When they get a lump sum ‘payout’ (yearly tax refund), it helps when it is larger and less frequent. They don’t connect the dots that it is their money they’ve been paying into the system every week as easily.
Every business (including all businesses paying out wages, and any receiving 1099 income) need to pay quarterly taxes and pay the IRS. Individuals who need to pay estimated taxes (did not do sufficient withholding), need to do the same.
The yearly tax return is doing the final audit/complete analysis and trueing up any amounts paid for the year, and certifying it. It isn’t when you’re taxes are ‘due’ - rather when they need to be completely correct or else. They actually needed to be paid quarterly.
not sure you are aware of this but you can contribute to a SEP IRA[0]. this has a lot of advantages over contributing to a normal ira. in my experience you can contribute more than you usually can in a 401k since most employers do not let you contribute after tax.
it absolutely does...
I learned this the hard way as a 16 year old, I was absolutely infuriated they could fine me 1000s as a kid when government schools taught me "taxes are due April 14, end."
(Yeah I never fell for the government's trick to always evade responsibility for everything by claiming they're multiple distinct unrelated entites "oh we are XYZ, so ya know we pretend we have no responsibility for the actions of PQR when in fact both are The Government, one coherent whole")
Wow this is insanely inaccurate and downright dangerous advice. If you listen to this comment and things go sideways you can literally lose major assets or even be imprisoned.
1. You must pay estimated taxes if you earn more than a certain percentage of last year's income without taxes withheld. You emphatically do not have until the next year's tax filing deadline to pay your taxes. Estimated taxes are due quarterly.
2. If you invest the tax portion of your income and it loses value, you still owe the original amount. So now not only do you need to liquidate that investment but you also need to pull money out of other areas to cover the loss.
3. Despite pseudo-libertarian propaganda to the contrary, money you owe in taxes does not magically become "your money" just because you haven't written the check yet. You shouldn't invest money you can't afford to lose (especially in crypto of all things) and you can't afford to lose Uncle Sam's money.
4. One of the only things the IRS won't take from you is your primary residence (but they will put a levy on it, making it impossible to sell or refinance until the debt is paid in full), so using tax money to buy down home equity is one the stupidest things you can do.
Talk to a CPA before making huge financial changes, especially if the entire reason for the changes is trying to make money by arbitraging tax funds.
NB: "large enough" here is less than what most full-time 1099 software workers will make. $8K I think? For the whole year. I remember hitting it more than once in grad school when I was doing contracting on the side.
That is not quite true. You do need to pay quarterly taxes, and there is a late fee if you don't make that tax payment every quarter.