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Show HN: Painless1099 – automated self-employment taxes

painless1099.com

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Re: Show HN: Painless1099 – automated self-employment taxes

#11

Post by acallwood »

bitdeveloper wrote: post #9

This looks interesting. Can you go into a little detail about how well you currently cover state taxes vs. federal, quarterly payments, etc? The service I currently use doesn't really help much on the state level.

Totally - We handle withholding for your Federal AND State obligations. We collect a bit of information from you when you sign up and then our algorithm crunches based on your income and location.

As far as quarterlies go, we pass along reminders and quarterly filing instructions currently. In the near future, you'll be able to remit payment directly from our platform.

Re: Show HN: Painless1099 – automated self-employment taxes

#12

Post by acallwood »

buckbova wrote: post #10
bubbleRefuge wrote: post #6

Take down that monopoly that is turbo tax!!!!!

Been using free tax usa (www.freetaxusa.com) for a decade now. Just works.

We're fans of Free Tax USA. They have a pretty solid self-employment offering, but we found that we still run into the issue of having to manually save throughout the year for our tax obligation. If anything, we've always thought of our product as a compliment to some of the existing platforms out there for filing.

Re: Show HN: Painless1099 – automated self-employment taxes

#13

Post by meesterdude »

First off, let me echo what an amazing pain in the ass it is to be a 1099er, and how big a deal this can be for people. Kudos there. I'd ask for a little more transparency on how you guys make money and all - a $5 monthly fee for example, wouldn't be insulting. If you start talking about percentages, GTFO. And also data privacy and being clear that you do not profit off my data would also be important. Really just a clear alignment of business interests.

If I wasn't switching into a FT role, i'd be all over this.

But I always got paid via check, which went into my bank account. I think the thing that would make the most sense is to be able to setup a separate account with your own bank, so you can still direct deposit without worrying about ATM fees or what have you, and still be able to keep painless1099 in the loop of money by giving them access. Anything else introduces friction / fees that would deter usage; and i really really hate fees. (a reason i dont do paypal, for example)

Anyway, great idea. I hope you can make it work.

Re: Show HN: Painless1099 – automated self-employment taxes

#16

Post by toomuchtodo »

meesterdude wrote: post #13

First off, let me echo what an amazing pain in the ass it is to be a 1099er, and how big a deal this can be for people. Kudos there. I'd ask for a little more transparency on how you guys make money and all - a $5 monthly fee for example, wouldn't be insulting. If you start talking about percentages, GTFO. And also data privacy and being clear that you do not profit off my data would also be important. Really just a…

> But I always got paid via check, which went into my bank account. I think the thing that would make the most sense is to be able to setup a separate account with your own bank, so you can still direct deposit without worrying about ATM fees or what have you, and still be able to keep painless1099 in the loop of money by giving them access. Anything else introduces friction / fees that would deter usage; and i really really hate fees. (a reason i dont do paypal, for example)

Sounds like they could make some referral cash off of referring people to checking accounts.

Re: Show HN: Painless1099 – automated self-employment taxes

#17

Post by acallwood »

meesterdude wrote: post #13

First off, let me echo what an amazing pain in the ass it is to be a 1099er, and how big a deal this can be for people. Kudos there. I'd ask for a little more transparency on how you guys make money and all - a $5 monthly fee for example, wouldn't be insulting. If you start talking about percentages, GTFO. And also data privacy and being clear that you do not profit off my data would also be important. Really just a…

Thanks for the feedback! We're going to be charging a subscription fee down the road, but right now we're just stoked to be sharing our build with the world. Anyone singing up in Beta will get free withholding for life, which is a solid perk if you ask me. I'm a little biased though. =)

Re: Show HN: Painless1099 – automated self-employment taxes

#18

Post by acallwood »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #16
meesterdude wrote: post #13

First off, let me echo what an amazing pain in the ass it is to be a 1099er, and how big a deal this can be for people. Kudos there. I'd ask for a little more transparency on how you guys make money and all - a $5 monthly fee for example, wouldn't be insulting. If you start talking about percentages, GTFO. And also data privacy and being clear that you do not profit off my data would also be important. Really just a…

> But I always got paid via check, which went into my bank account. I think the thing that would make the most sense is to be able to setup a separate account with your own bank, so you can still direct deposit without worrying about ATM fees or what have you, and still be able to keep painless1099 in the loop of money by giving them access. Anything else introduces friction / fees that would deter usage; and i reall…

Connecting two existing personal accounts is something we've considered, but we've found that this doesn't necessarily help saving from a user perspective. The majority of our users love that they now have an account that is out of sight and out of mind. We haven't ruled out other options, but the current setup has been pretty well received by our current our user base.

Re: Show HN: Painless1099 – automated self-employment taxes

#19

Post by melvinmt »

I'm a 1099-consultant and whenever a payment comes in, I just update a spreadsheet and transfer the amount to a separate savings account. It's not that big of a pain really, just takes a couple of minutes, but it would be nice to automate this with your service.

The only reason I'm hesitant to switch is because you're offering this for free. How do I know you're still going to be in business in a year from now? In other words, what is your business model?

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