Bootstrap

Ok all you entrepreneurs out there, time to give the government it’s cut of the action.  Third quarter estimated taxes are due this Monday, September 15.  This payment is for earnings through August 31, 2008.  And remember, if you’re self employed or run a business, you need to be paying self employment tax in addition to income tax.  For those who may not be familiar with self-employment taxes, you need to pay 12.4% of the first $102,000 of self employment income into Social Security and 2.9% to Medicare (which has no upper income limit.)

If you use Bootstrap to track your income and expenses, you can get a conservative estimate of what to pay for Federal estimated taxes by clicking on the “Taxes” tab.

Don’t forget to also make your state payments (which vary by state of course, so make sure to look up your requirements.)  We plan to offer help on estimated State taxes in the future, but won’t have it for this tax year.

To learn more about making Federal estimated tax payments, go to http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=110413,00.html 

For those who lost their IRS payment vouchers, you can print them out at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040es.pdf 

Now, if you don’t expect to owe more than $1,000 in taxes for the whole year, then you don’t need to make estimated tax payments.  But we’re hoping everyone out there is making lots of money, which would mean footing some of Uncle Sam’s bills.

Cheers and may you have a profitable fourth quarter!