3 ms·

As a chronically self-employed person, I'm curious why you believe it is so difficult to be self employed in the US. The World Bank lists the US as #4 on the E

by tomg 15y ago

As a chronically self-employed person, I'm curious why you believe it is so difficult to be self employed in the US. The World Bank lists the US as #4 on the Ease of Doing Business list [1]. Anecdotally, I've found it very easy to do the proper paperwork to become officially self-employed. For under a thousand bucks you can even have someone else do it for you if you're so inclined. Another personal example is how a man I met from Italy could not believe that I owned my own one-man business, as such a thing would be nearly impossible in his own country. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_Doing_Business_Index http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ease_of_Doing_Business_Index

SageRaven 15y ago
There's paperwork? I was independent pulling in random 1099 work for 5 years and the only extra paperwork I did was "Schedule C". I assume that owning a business proper would require a ton of forms and licensing. But just doing odd jobs for oneself? I didn't think anything special was required.
- tomg 15y ago
  > I assume that owning a business proper would require a ton of forms and licensing. But just doing odd jobs for oneself? I didn't think anything special was required. You don't need anything at all to do odd jobs under a 1099. I probably should not have said "officially self-employed" as that isn't really a thing. I meant I've gone through the hoops to become a sole-proprietor business. If you wanted to incorporate you basically just file a few forms and sign on a few lines. It does not involve a great deal of paperwork, and even that can be reduced to signing on a few lines if you use an accountant. I'm not an expert but the reason that I believe a lot of people in your position (1099-ing it for N years) incorporate is three-fold: First, liability. Your corp can get sued into bankruptcy but your personal assets are safe. If you're not incorporated someone can sue you directly with more disastrous results. I'm not a lawyer but this is what I'm lead to believe is the case. Second, tax-wise it can be in your favor to be a corp. Third, it just keeps everything separate. Having a company account that I can pay myself out of keeps my books clean.
einhverfr 15y ago
There's a difference between ease of getting into business, and the ease of making a living doing it. The debt economy ties people to jobs, particularly because of the fact that if you become self-employed, there will be a few years where you will likely not be able to cover your expenses and we have very little support for that. So unless you are already financially independent, you need financial help from someone else. A lot of the legislation is a bit of a mixed bag. On the whole PPACA makes it easier perhaps to become self-employed because you can forego health insurance during the critical starting time, only to buy it if a real need arises or once one is making more money. On the other hand, the mandate to buy it later, imposes an additional burden on top of things like high self-employment taxes. On the whole I think PPACA does more harm than good because it can be very hard to predict when downturns will be sufficient to cause one to be able to cut health insurance out of one's budget. Finally most of the ease of doing business factors are primarily about corporate business. It doesn't tell you much about being self-employed.

by tomg 15y ago

SageRaven 15y ago

There's paperwork? I was independent pulling in random 1099 work for 5 years and the only extra paperwork I did was "Schedule C". I assume that owning a business proper would require a ton of forms and licensing. But just doing odd jobs for oneself? I didn't think anything special was required.

tomg 15y ago
> I assume that owning a business proper would require a ton of forms and licensing. But just doing odd jobs for oneself? I didn't think anything special was required. You don't need anything at all to do odd jobs under a 1099. I probably should not have said "officially self-employed" as that isn't really a thing. I meant I've gone through the hoops to become a sole-proprietor business. If you wanted to incorporate you basically just file a few forms and sign on a few lines. It does not involve a great deal of paperwork, and even that can be reduced to signing on a few lines if you use an accountant. I'm not an expert but the reason that I believe a lot of people in your position (1099-ing it for N years) incorporate is three-fold: First, liability. Your corp can get sued into bankruptcy but your personal assets are safe. If you're not incorporated someone can sue you directly with more disastrous results. I'm not a lawyer but this is what I'm lead to believe is the case. Second, tax-wise it can be in your favor to be a corp. Third, it just keeps everything separate. Having a company account that I can pay myself out of keeps my books clean.

einhverfr 15y ago

There's a difference between ease of getting into business, and the ease of making a living doing it. The debt economy ties people to jobs, particularly because of the fact that if you become self-employed, there will be a few years where you will likely not be able to cover your expenses and we have very little support for that. So unless you are already financially independent, you need financial help from someone else. A lot of the legislation is a bit of a mixed bag. On the whole PPACA makes it easier perhaps to become self-employed because you can forego health insurance during the critical starting time, only to buy it if a real need arises or once one is making more money. On the other hand, the mandate to buy it later, imposes an additional burden on top of things like high self-employment taxes. On the whole I think PPACA does more harm than good because it can be very hard to predict when downturns will be sufficient to cause one to be able to cut health insurance out of one's budget. Finally most of the ease of doing business factors are primarily about corporate business. It doesn't tell you much about being self-employed.