# Income from Online Source - Need Future Income Tax Advice



## needadvice (Jul 18, 2013)

Alright I have a small dilemma. I didn't know where to ask for help until I found this place. I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice.

This past spring I made some money online. But I made the money without thinking about the tax repercussions.

I'm an 19 year old and still a dependent. The money comes in cheques from a U.S. company and I already deposited my first cheque which was $452. I haven't deposited my second cheque which amounts to $406. I have about a month to deposit it before it expires. 

The problem is that I'm not sure how to report this income. From my research I have found that I could report it as an independent contractor or from self-employment. I'm not sure how to go about either of these methods. Furthermore, it seems like self-employment is a hassle and it has a high tax percentage. Should I even deposit the second cheque? Is there a certain sum of money that doesn't get taxed at all? This is under $1000 which is very insignificant. I'm really not sure what to do. 

Last spring I did my income taxes with an accountant and with my mom at my side. For personal reasons, I don't want to let her know about my online income. The other problem is that I have no other source of income other than the online income and around $3,000 in government cheques. Is it inevitable she finds out? Should I just speak privately with the account in spring 2014? 

Thanks in advance for the help.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

needadvice said:


> Alright I have a small dilemma. I didn't know where to ask for help until I found this place. I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice.
> 
> This past spring I made some money online. But I made the money without thinking about the tax repercussions.
> 
> ...


You mom should be proud you have embraces technology and found a way to make money online.I met a young guy a few years ago who started out as a amazon affiliate and he now earns over $400,000 a year online.If you are earning money online you can legitimately write off expenses such as internet costs etc.


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## MoreMiles (Apr 20, 2011)

marina628 said:


> You mom should be proud you have embraces technology and found a way to make money online.I met a young guy a few years ago who started out as a amazon affiliate and he now earns over $400,000 a year online.If you are earning money online you can legitimately write off expenses such as internet costs etc.


It really depends... the key is not "technology". It's the "content". If that money is from online poker or warez download, no parent would be thrilled to hear that.

Anyway, back to the OP... the basic personal amount is about $10,000. If your income does not exceed that, you likely has no tax to file anyway. So it's no big deal.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

Careful there regarding the Online Poker


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## stardancer (Apr 26, 2009)

needadvice said:


> Alright I have a small dilemma. I didn't know where to ask for help until I found this place. I'm hoping someone here can give me some advice.
> 
> This past spring I made some money online. But I made the money without thinking about the tax repercussions.
> 
> ...


See above


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## oedema (Jan 1, 2012)

You're 19 years old... Take the money and report it as self employment income on your taxes. Simple


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## needadvice (Jul 18, 2013)

MoreMiles said:


> Anyway, back to the OP... the basic personal amount is about $10,000. If your income does not exceed that, you likely has no tax to file anyway. So it's no big deal.


Is this true? If this were right then it wouldn't be such a hassle but I feel the need to report this income just to avoid any problems.



stardancer said:


> See above


Thank you for your advice! I really appreciate it. I made a mistake when I said I'm still a dependant, I just turned 19 in July. Is sub $850 the strict limit for reporting my taxes on 104/103? It would be a lot easier to report it on these than filling out the self-employment forms. And also while someone else in my family used TurboTax this year I'm pretty sure I will be going back to the accountant. I will probably just set-up a separate appointment this year. 



oedema said:


> You're 19 years old... Take the money and report it as self employment income on your taxes. Simple


Is this the self-employment form stardancer mentioned or is there another method of reporting self-employment?

Thanks for the help again everyone, I really appreciate it. I know this isn't a big problem or deal but I just want to get it right when I go to file taxes on this amount of money.


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## oedema (Jan 1, 2012)

needadvice said:


> Is this true? If this were right then it wouldn't be such a hassle but I feel the need to report this income just to avoid any problems.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Forget the accountant, your tax situation is super simple, do the taxes yourself, you will learn SO much just going through that simple exercise. 

There's nothing special about reporting self employment income, you'll learn all the details simply by doing your taxes.


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## Toronto.gal (Jan 8, 2010)

needadvice said:


> 1. I just turned 19 in July
> 2. For personal reasons, I don't want to let her know about my online income.


1. Happy b'day!
2. You're an adult! But I hope you're not doing anything......... shall we say, that your mom would not be proud of?

Welcome to the forum!

*Marina:* given the age of the internet/www, do you know any teenager [or younger for that matter], that has not 'embraced technology' yet?.


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## needadvice (Jul 18, 2013)

Toronto.gal said:


> 1. Happy b'day!
> 2. You're an adult! But I hope you're not doing anything......... shall we say, that your mom would not be proud of?
> 
> Welcome to the forum!
> ...


Thank you 

I knew many would ask so to clear the record up I'm not obtaining income online in any immoral or frowned upon method that my mom would not be proud of. I simply want to keep this income private as an adult and due to personal issues.

I just came here to see how to file these taxes. I couldn't find much about income from online. It's relatively new so hopefully someone in the future can search this thread up if they have a problem like this.

Also thanks oedema. I read somewhere that filing self-employment income was complicated for some reason. I also read you can get charged a large percent for self-employment. I realize my tax problem isn't that complicated, I'll definitely look into doing them myself.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

marina628 said:


> I met a young guy a few years ago who started out as a amazon affiliate and he now earns over $400,000 a year online.


I've gotta look more seriously into this whole internet marketing thing. Reporting to someone's office at the same time everyday is just not that great... No matter how interesting the work is or how much they pay me!

How did you go about making this money, needadvice?


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## needadvice (Jul 18, 2013)

peterk said:


> How did you go about making this money, needadvice?


I didn't want to share this but you guys have been nice with your advice so I'll give you a small vague hint of what I do and that's all!

I don't know about much about how to make good money online. The only other way I know how to make money other than what I do is through immoral methods and Amazon's 'turking' which is hard to even make minimum wage with and isn't available to Canada anymore. What I do only made me a small amount of money on the side as a student. My online income could not sustain living costs in any way. I'm still going to pick up a part-time job. It's a mystery to me how people make good income online (like marina's example). 

What I did was business marketing online and fulfilling online questionnaires, surveys, quizzes, etc. It was similar to Amazon's turking; I essentially provided human intelligence to work that couldn't be done by computers. 

I'm sorry it's really vague but I can't give out much more than that. As I said I don't know how to make significant money online but this source did as a student. You really have to be careful with scams and other dangerous advertisements. I have no knowledge about computer coding/computer science but I do know that if you have skills in that you can work online and make money.


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

That's cool. Is that something you make minimum wage out of or is it less?

I'm looking into content/article writing. From some experienced people I've chatted with it sounds like a $3-5/page entry barrior is the thing that keeps most people from persuing this line of work. But once you establish that you're a professional who can type a coherent sentence, in English, and create a reputation for yourself, you can start building clients that will pay in the $20-40/page range. 

I too don't have any coding/advanced computers knowledge, so this is where I'm trying to head for side income.


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## marina628 (Dec 14, 2010)

I don't want to make it seem easy to be as successful as I am with internet businesses.Although i first got into this after my life was turned upside down in a serious car accident and my original goal was to keep my brain busy and make $1000 a month if i was lucky.Once I peeled the layers back into internet marketing and affiliate marketing in general I invested $130,000 of my insurance settlement buying semi successful websites .Back when I started it was probably easier than it is today and I don't know of anyone personally who got in after 2010 and is earning full time wages on it. In all seriousness after selling my 'money maker ' for a good price this year I have more time and some people would probably throw in the towel and retire I am finding myself in the acquiring mode and looking for a new Project.Currently I am looking at a website for $200,000 that was started 13 years ago ,the net revenue is $60,000 a year but as soon as I looked at it I could see all the stupid stuff being done and I know I can double the money easily. If you have time and motivation you can make a coupon /discount site in practically any niche and earn money from it.Insurance , credit cards ,web hosting ,car rental discounts ,hotel discounts just to name a few .I still have 300 + websites and they all make at least $100 a month each from google adsense .


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## kcowan (Jul 1, 2010)

marina628 said:


> I still have 300 + websites and they all make at least $100 a month each from google adsense .


You amaze me! $30,000+ a month from what is left after selling the big one!

I am thinking that the car accident turned out to be a life-changing event in more than one way?


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## peterk (May 16, 2010)

Quite impressive marina!

Could you give me the laymays version of why it was easier several years ago than it is today?

Is this a field that requires advanced computer skills, or something that can be learned in a month or two? Whenever I contemplate trying to figure out how to make money from a computer I think "There are a million guys out there who are under employed with IT/CS/Programming degrees that are trying to do the exact same thing. I can't compete."

Furthermore, from what I've gathered, a lot of these folks are both extremely smart, and extremely passionate/obsessed about all things computers. Certainly not a low competition field...


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## needadvice (Jul 18, 2013)

peterk said:


> That's cool. Is that something you make minimum wage out of or is it less?


I made more than minimum wage in the time I spent doing it but I have stopped for a while so now I do not make as much. I find most jobs like this on the internet are productivity based. For this job I was paid for piece work in different sums of money under minimum wage. 

Also wow Marina, good for you! You should hire Peter as an assistant :tongue-new:


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