My Refund

[JeepGirl6]

This year I made $14,075 for my child care. With all my deductions/ house interest, school loan interest, supplies and food etc...It is saying I am getting a refund of $27.00. I have all my receipts for 2010, but I did not pay into my taxes quarterly...Will this be a risk of an audit getting a refund of $27.00? Thanks

Do I have to do my state taxes if it said I made $0?

Do I still have to pay into Social Security?

[MyAngels]

I believe it's something like 2% of all returns get audited, do there's not a big risk there. Just make sure you keep all your receipts, etc. in case you are one of the 2%.

Self-employment tax is how you pay into social security, so if that was figured into your calculations then you're all good.

[JeepGirl6]

Tom?

I don't understand the whole self employment tax???? I already have my taxes done on turbo tax but have not sent them in yet because I wanted to make sure I wasn't forgetting anything... If I am in the negative do I still pay into S.S?

[kendallina]

To pay self employment tax, you have to file schedule SE (link below). Also, 1/2 of your SE tax that you pay is deductible (line 27 of your 1040).

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f1040sse.pdf

[TomCopeland]

Tax refund

You can't deduct school loan interest as a business expense unless the school classes were specifically for family child care. Getting a refund of $27 is not a red flag for an audit. If your only household income was family child care and you had a zero profit then you won't owe any state income tax. You won't owe social security taxes if your business profit was less than $400.

[JeepGirl6]

Tom

My school interest was for my Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education...so it is okay for me to deduct this right?

[TomCopeland]

Associates Degree

Your Associates Degree in Early Childhood Education would only be deductible if you already have a post secondary degree (college, community college, university, technical school, etc.). The cost to obtain your first post secondary degree is not deductible because it qualifies you to take a job in another industry besides child care.