I've been doing the full-time freelance thing since 2009, starting as a sole proprietor. In 2010 I switched to an S-Corp because of the very measurable tax savings of not having to pay SE tax on all income. Corp stuff can be a bit of a pain sometimes (get a lot of letters from state and fed, have to run payroll), but well worth the savings and my accountant/tax guy takes care of most of the issues when they come up (more on that below).
I have a health insurance broker who found great PPO plans for me, my wife, and baby girl -- totals just over $500/mo for all of us with great benefits, maternity included. As a corp you are eligible to apply for a group plan which means there is no preexisting condition stuff to deal with, but only if you can prove you have another employee (spouse or other). We haven't needed this yet, but it's nice to know it's an option in case there ever was a denial of coverage issue. Having an accountant year-round (instead of just at tax season) has been a huge win for me. I enter invoices in Quickbooks and email them out to clients and I send him bank statements monthly. He does the rest at the end of each month and runs payroll every 2 weeks. Makes tax projections for the year and tax time itself so much simpler. Dealing with accounting and taxes is just not something I want to do anymore and I've learned it's better left to those who really know what they are doing. I can easily make up the cost with billed hours in less time. The guy I use is knowledgeable, reasonable, and responsible and you can find his info in this SDRuby thread from awhile ago: https://groups.google.com/d/topic/sdruby/83fETTXZEnI/discussion James On Thursday, September 13, 2012 at 9:59 AM, Marc Leglise wrote: > I know we have a lot of current and former freelancers here, who have taken > many different approaches, so here's an open ended question: > > As a full-time freelancer, how do you deal with the "business" side? > > Legal structures (1099, sole proprietor, LLC, corp, etc.) > Health insurance > Taxes > etc. > > And do you prefer to DIY or use a professional? > > -- > SD Ruby mailing list > [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) > http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby -- SD Ruby mailing list [email protected] http://groups.google.com/group/sdruby
