Foreign Freelance Income & What Does Maradona Have To Do With That?
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| Diego Maradona. PC: totalposters.com |
You may already be aware that US Citizens and Green Card holders are taxed in the United States on their worldwide income, regardless of where they live. Freelance income is reported on Schedule C, Profit or Loss from Business (Sole Proprietorship). "Ordinary & necessary" expenses related to this work can be deducted on the same Schedule C. The net income, that is gross minus the allowable expenses is then subject to tax.
You may be able to avoid some or all of the U.S. Income Tax on this income, either through foreign tax credits (taxes paid to your resident country on this same income) or the foreign-earned income exclusion (by satisfying one of two residency tests). Operating as a “business” one's net income from this source may be subject to U.S. Self Employment tax. The Self Employment tax is rate is currently set at 15.3%. The rate consists of two parts, 12.4% for Social Security and 2.9% for Medicare.
What is Self Employment Tax?:
When one operates as a freelancer, or is self-employed, one is effectively both employer and employee. So, the responsibility for the Self Employment tax {Calculated on net income on Schedule C} falls on one-self. Foreign tax credit and/ or the foreign-earned income exclusion cannot be used to offset U.S. Self Employment tax due.
The only way to exclude the self-employed income of a U.S. citizen or Green Card holder from U.S. Self Employment tax is through the application of a totalization agreement, if available.
What is a Totalization Agreement?:
The United States has entered into totalization agreements with several countries. If such an agreement exists between the U.S. and your country of residence, your business net income may not be subject to US Social Security taxes.
To avail of this exemption from U.S. Self Employment tax, you may need to be registered as self-employed in your resident country. You also will likely need to obtain a certificate of coverage from the tax authority in your resident country. This may take some time and effort in the country of residence in, hence you should give yourself time to file by either filing an extension or sending in some preemptive taxes/ estimated taxes. If there is no totalization agreement in place between the US and your resident country, then you will owe U.S. Self Employment tax on your Schedule C net income.
Here is a link to the list of countries that the US has Totalization Agreements with.
It is funny that the idea for this post came about when an old college friend and I connected through social media after a couple of decades. She needed help with her foreign free lance income & was trying to understand how it would effect her US taxes. Soon we started to talk of other (less mundane things) and how we met for the first time in college in the Principal's office since we both needed a pass for being late after a heart stopping 1986 FIFA World Cup which in India (where we were at that time) was broadcast live in the middle of the night! Diego Maradona's performance in that FIFA World Cup is unforgettable to say the least, the principal joined us in gushing over him & we believe we got off lightly!
Today also happens to be Diego Maradona's 57th birthday. So Happy Birthday Diego! Thanks to you I made a friend in college whose love of soccer kept me forever entertained in sleepy Commercial Geography lectures! And oh yeah... if you, dear reader want to talk about that some more or have foreign free lance income, do contact us.
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As always, read my disclaimer here. Please consult a qualified tax professional for your unique tax needs. More of my contact information is on my website, www.mntaxbiz.com.
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