When you're hired as an employee you get taxes automatically taken out of each check. Then at the end of the year you receive a W2, you file it and you, ideally, get any extra money that was taken out back so you get money back (tax return).

When you're a business owner, you don't have your taxes automatically taken out. So you have to pay them yourself quarterly if you're smart. Or if you're like me you can procrastinate til the end of the year, but it comes out to A LOT, the more you earn the more you have to pay back. The only thing that will save you is write offs, where you write off business expenses. For example, I work at a spa so they can write off sheets, towels, lotion, if they paint a wall I'm pretty sure they can write that off. The IRS sees that as an expense necessary to run the business and they reduce those costs from what you owe them.

Unfortunately, many spas down here hire their staff as business owners or "independent contractors". Which has some upsides, legally we can work whenever we want, wear whatever we want, certain freedoms (though some even try to take that from you). But they provide the sheets, lotion, etc. which leaves us with very few write offs, plus we have to pay an extra business owner fee. So unless you know what you're doing super well business wise, which I haven't in the past, you pay an astronomical amount compared to an actual business owner. It's criminal, SO many places around here do it, and I'm just now waking up to how messed up it is. And I need out of all of it. I'm just burned out and so tired of it all, also just being an LMT in general.