All they need to do is file a 1099. Their write offs would most likely negate their
Tax burden.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Entrepreneurial Teenagers Earning Upwards of $20K Over Their Summer Breaks to Fix Broken iPhones
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
All they need to do is file a 1099. Their write offs would most likely negate their
Tax burden.
Really? Go leech your sustenance from some other host. Like you gain a claim on someone else life because they chose to produce something of value, or like you have a right to tell someone else under which, licensed, conditions they're permitted to produce their sustenance. and then you take your cut anyway. I think yours is a very fitting avatar.
Sure you can. Say the "summer" is 75 days of working and you charge on average $60 a lawn. Cut 5-6 a day and there is your 24k. This is assuming you start cutting in May and quit sometime in August, so its weekends for a while until school is out. Not a easy thing to do, but it can be done with a decent riding mower and whipper snipper. Of course you would need a lot of clients to cut 36 lawns a week or hope you are in a wet environment so you can hit the same lawn 2x a week on occasion.
I'm sorry you're having such a hard time being self employed, but since I'm also self employed and I've been dealing with what you're talking about, there's a few misconceptions that I thought should be straightened out.
You're not actually paying 2x on those things. You're paying the employer share and the employee share because you are both the employee and the employer. If you were working for someone else, you only THINK you're paying half, but if your employer is paying the other half, it's still affecting your paycheck. If your employer didn't have to pay that half, that money could very well end up in your bank account. If you didn't account for having to cover the employer part of your self employment tax and you charged too little, you'll need to adjust your rates. It's a learning experience. Everyone makes this mistake, but if you're savvy, you've figured out how to charge proper rates by your third year.
Self employed people don't pay unemployment taxes... at least not in any common situation. Self employment tax is not unemployment tax. It's Social Security and Medicare. In some states there are sales taxes on repairs, but if you're doing it right, that should be charged to the customer anyway.
Unless you're selling physical goods, you're not likely to face sales tax anyway and you're just dealing with income tax. With income tax, your taxes are actually pretty low if you didn't make much. I've been there.
At any rate, do we really know that none of those kids are not filing? I sure hope they're doing the right thing and are being good citizens, but we shouldn't assume one way or another.
Last edited:
Thanks! I'm Joseph, the "kid" in the picture and in the article. Yeah you're right it will only get worse, and now that the deductible for AppleCare is so low, it's going to get difficult. However, I'm starting college in the fall, so I guess I'll be moving on anyways.
No way he MADE 24k, revenue is not profit. I used to make a lot of money cutting lawns and fixing cars before I got a real job. My point is that the market is saturated for repairs and that drives margins way down. More power to this kid, but he's not making a killing.
Why so sour on some very enterprising young people, who rather than work a menial service job, or worse, just hang around in the mall with their friends, choose to do something constructive with their lives, something that teaches them valuable Tech skills in the process? We also can't just assume they're not paying their taxes either.
More repair specialists will likely be needed with the ongoing explosion of personal electronics and I say kudos to these industrious and dedicated teens!
