I've only been dancing for a few months, but tax season has rolled around and I've come to realize how working as an employee dancer (i.e. receiving a W-2 from the club) has put me in the proverbial "rock and a hard place," as Melonie has explained in her many informative posts! I ultimately do not want to come under fire by the IRS for not reporting my tip income properly due to the fact that I was unable to legally report my tip income through the club's payroll system. Therefore I feel the best course of action is to file my taxes to the best of my ability for 2014 (i.e. filling out the Form 4137 and, if necessary, providing my statement of reasonable cause for not being able to report my tips properly) and then try and make the move over to a club where I can work as an independent contractor. However, this opens up a whole new realm of taxes that I have never dealt with before as I have only ever worked as an employee at "vanilla" jobs, meaning I received a W-2 and filled out a pretty simple 1040-EZ form.
I think I have a good start on learning (via this site and its links: http://www.irs.gov/Individuals/Self-Employed) about federal taxes as a self-employed individual, and I realize that I will not need to make quarterly estimated tax payments for the year 2015 as this would be my first year operating as an IC (assuming I get hired at the club I'm interested in...), but I am so much less familiar with state-specific tax forms and requirements and am totally lost!!
Also, would I need to be a "registered business" in order to open up a business account at the bank? Do these types of accounts typically have monthly fees? This (business accounts) is another thing about which I am completely clueless!



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