Freelancers and Finance: Keeping Your Sanity At Tax Time

Since freelancers have a unique situation come tax time, Catherine Price at Salon has assembled a slightly tongue-in-cheek (what freelancers aren't?) guide to planning out taxes for freelancers and keeping one's sanity in the meantime. Some of The Ed's favorites:

1. Get a tax advisor. "Not only can they save you more money in taxes than they charge in fees, but hiring one means you will never, ever have to figure out the part of the 4562 Depreciation and Amortization form."

2. Set up a different bank account for your business earnings. And use a separate credit card -- which you pay for with your business account -- for business and healthcare expenses. "This makes it much easier to keep track of your cash flow."

3. Pay your taxes quarterly. "The bastards charge interest."

6. Build in rewards. "To quote a friend: 'Do not get into the habit of drinking beer with lunch.' "

7. Exercise. "Friday morning cardio hip-hop has changed my life."

9. Get health insurance. "I am a Type 1 diabetic, and trying to find health insurance reduced me to tears."

11. Do not own a coffeemaker. "Compared to a $100 therapy session in which you talk about how lonely and depressed you are, [occasional coffee at Starbucks] is a bargain."

Sage advice, indeed. Tell me, freelance readers: what are some of your methods to stay sane?

Mitchel Stevens’ Guide to Employment and Questions

Editor's Note: The following column is part of an anonymous weekly humor column chronicling the struggle of a new, young journalist out in the working world. You may find the author's previous posts in the archives. --The Ed.

A while back I was sitting at one of those circular conference tables for an interview with the HR woman reading over my impeccable, single-spaced resume.

“I like what I see here, Mitchel,” she said.

After all, who wouldn’t? I read through all the tips. I scoured pages from Lifehacker and Mediabistro. I practice in front of a mirror. I’ve done interviews with politicians, writers, former bosses, phone calls, voice chats, telegrams and even pitches over drinks. I’ve been screamed at, shouted at and can usually turn most conversations around over 20 minutes.

“But I can’t help but notice, you’re a writer.”

Except for this. I looked across the table at HR woman and nodded. Her eyes lifted from my spectacular, god-like resume and settled on me. And we waited. To give you an idea, I just took a break from writing this. I went and got some coffee. Scratched my hand. Leafed through a few spare pages of newspaper I have laying around. Then I came back to this.

“That’s right,” I said. After all, this interview was for an assistant editorial position. The job promised plenty of opportunities for copious busywork, editing, coding, writing minor copy and cleaning up other writers’ pieces, as they’d file in. Nothing too awful for an entry-level position and exactly what I had went to college for.

HR woman sucked in her teeth and then let out a tiny sigh.

“Well, what we’re looking for is an editor. Someone who can pay strict attention to details and sentence structure. Someone who isn’t so concerned with the writing side, but who wants to work in the production side.”

I semi-followed everything she said. After all, don’t you need to start writing in order to learn how to edit? Wouldn’t you need to be concerned with how pieces flow in order to understand individual traits? C’mon, not everything can be as soul-crushingly boring as a Washington Times article.

“Well,” I said, “I was an editor at [UNNAMED COLLEGE PAPER] and I do proof my own work before sending it in, you know.”

“Oh, I do, but you need to understand. We’re looking for someone who is very detail oriented. And you? Well, Mitchel, you’re just a writer. You’re concerned with how the story is just written. We’re looking for someone to be concerned with how the story’s made.”

Mind you, one of the other provisions for this job was to come in weekends, sit at a computer and monitor weather reports. God forbid if my strict attention to detail failed me while glued to a self-refreshing screen every ten minutes.

Suffice to say, I didn’t get the job. But it’s odd, since I’ve run into this same question while interviewing with two other extremely different organizations than the first. I’m not sure if this is an HR ploy used to knock candidates on their ass, or if they’re all so mildly retarded that HR across the land use a hive mind. This is, as my father tells me, a simple get. It’s used to irk a candidate, unease them and force them into an awkward silence. To see if they can think on their feet.

It’s this same get that inspired a generation of do-it-yourselfers who got tired of being pissed on by the same question from HR or dot-coms who realized that there are thousands of writers hungry for work and they can be cannibalized for sub-minimum wage in major cities.

The commercials lie: I hate working from home.

I hate having to bow to companies that can get away with paying me $4.50 to $5 an hour for my words. I hate hearing about stringers and how to get such a position I have to intern at the Times before sending in countless e-mails to deputy editors that purposely pick and choose their favorites to see who’ll jump through the most hoops. I hate having to spend weeks begging for an invoice to pay my bills.

I hate having to be a writer sometimes. Funny enough, people can’t help but notice that about me.

-MS

'Blog Law' Makes Upholding Ethics Bleak For Bloggers

How could I discuss the balance between citizen journalism and classic journalism without mentioning Joshua Wolf?

For those of you who haven't been up on the news, Wolf is a 24-year-old freelancer and video blogger who spent a "record-setting" 226 days in jail for refusing to turn over his footage of a 2005 street protest to authorities. He was recently released after cutting a deal to turn over the footage.

Wolf's time surpassed the previous record set by Vanessa Leggett, a freelancer from Houston who served 168 days in 2001 and 2002 for refusing to reveal unpublished material about a murder case.

Now I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure most journalism students aren't thinking, "hey, I'd love to be an example for why the law and journalism ethics are at odds" when they read this story.

And who says Wolf's a journalist? After all, isn't he a blogger?

Is there a difference? Does it matter, especially in the eyes of the law?

When journalism ethics and the law collide, the perceived line between being a "real journalist" freelancer and being a "citizen journalist blogger" fades: both, it seems, are equally susceptible to the law. Each's accrued time means that they're more likely to get hit harder for longer than someone backed by a company or "mainstream media." And as a freelancer - blogger or not - neither one has the same leverage as a journalist with a masthead.

And we all know how well journalists under mastheads are impervious to the threat of legal wrangling in this age.

So what to do in an era where the ethics of journalism combat those of the law? What role exactly does the First Amendment play in the new millenium?

Not a strong one, apparently. Because even if you disagree with Wolf's actions - he did sell some footage to San Francisco TV stations and put some on his web site - you can at least recognize that the Fourth Estate is especially threatened by at least one of the other three.

But what about those bloggers? Those citizen reporters with conviction? Just last week, I was contacted by American Society of Newspaper Editors (ASNE) reporter Tiffany Hsu, who wanted to know a whole lot about "blogging law."

"Blogging" law? Does such a thing exist? Apparently not yet, says Hsu's error-ridden article, but who knows. The National Writer's Union can say all they want that Wolf should never have been jailed, but the bottom line is he was. For two-thirds of a year.

Can journalism ethics be upheld without the legal power of a backing corporation? On only the principle of the law?

I don't know. But it looks pretty bleak for bloggers.