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Votes
Answer by John Murdoch
Posted
February 17, 2012 at 10:02pm
Self-Employment Tax is similar to the employer's portion of Social Security and Medicare taxes. If you were a cubicle-dwelling wage slave you would have SSI and Medicare deducted from your paycheck--and your employer would be taxed an equal amount. Since you're the employer and the employee, you pay both halves.
For more information, look here:
http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=98846,00.html
If this is news to you, and you have been filing as self-employed for the past five years, you should most definitely see a tax professional.
J.Voss: I have definitely been paying the ss and Medicare taxes (sadly I have the very large cancelled checks). This seemed to be something additional to that. I'll ask our accountant anyway, thanks for the answers!
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