Husband & Wife IT Indies: Joint Filers

Hi June,

We have been web designers and web programmers for 2 years. I would like to know the following. I am married and we both work together out of the house. How do we file our taxes - self-employed jointly???

Thanks.
Elizabeth
Las Vegas, NV


Elizabeth __

Self-employment has nothing to do with whether you file jointly or separately. If you are married you may file your personal tax return in one of two ways: Married-filing-jointly or married-filing-separately.

If you are both self-employed in different professions then you must each file various forms for each business. These forms are part of your personal tax return.

If you are both self-employed in the same profession then you have choices as to how you treat the business portion of your return. But the business portion is still filed as part of your personal return.

Read this The Many Advantages of Hiring Your Spouse to learn about the different ways to handle a husband/wife business.

-- June