36% of Self-Employed Workers Admit to Not Paying Taxes, but it May Not Be Their Fault

Whether you’re filing for yourself or relying on an expert, taxes are complicated and confusing. So complicated, in fact, taxpayers might be tempted to roll the dice and just skip tax season altogether. Knowing the IRS is watching may be the only thing holding some people back from doing just that.

Yet, a recent independent survey of 500 freelancers by QuickBooks Self-Employed shows some 36% of self-employed workers are taking their chances. Why are more than a third of the self-employed not paying taxes?

The complications are real

It’s no secret self-employed workers face more challenges than W-2 employees in many respects. While traditional employees can count on a regular paycheck, 31% of self-employed workers say they struggle to get paid on time.

In fact, it’s their No.1 challenge, followed by:

• Self-motivation (30%)
• Finding work (26%)
• Doing taxes (20%)
• Marketing (20%).

There are good reasons why doing taxes makes the top five of anxiety inducing struggles for the self-employed. While 17% of workers worry about finding deductions, 1 in 5 says they’re concerned about saving enough money for taxes in the first place.

Meanwhile, 1 in 4 is concerned they’re not making accurate estimations regarding how much they should be paying in taxes. That makes a lot of sense since 30% of self-employed workers are worried they might not be filling out the forms correctly, perhaps because the same number report they’re bad at keeping track of paperwork.

Older workers are more tech-savvy

While self-employed workers aged 18-34 struggle more with filling out tax forms correctly, workers aged 35 and up say they’re primarily concerned with keeping track of their tax forms.

Part of this might have to do with the fact over two-thirds of self-employed workers still aren’t using a tax-filing software. They’re either still filing on paper or going through a trusted accountant.

Interestingly enough, older generations are more comfortable filing through a tax software. While 42% of taxpayers 55 and older use such programs, only 33% of self-employed workers aged 18-24 do the same.

Tax evasion (however accidental) is risky business

You might think tax audits only happen to the wealthy, but the truth is they can happen to anyone. In fact, 36% of self-employed workers have been audited by the IRS, and almost 1 in 3 of those had errors on their taxes. Part-time/occasional self-employed workers had the most errors (50%, to be exact).

You might be surprised to learn younger workers are more likely to be audited than their older counterparts. Only 11% of self-employed workers age 54 and older have been audited, but the same cannot be said for nearly half of all 18- to 24-year-olds. On average, 46% of these young taxpayers say they have been audited.

The injustice of this, to some young taxpayers, might be that older individuals are more likely to not report their income on taxes. While 7% of taxpayers aged 18-24 report none of their earnings, that number goes up to 10% for self-employed workers over the age of 45.

One reason self-employed workers are audited so frequently likely has to do with the fact it’s easy to get behind on taxes when you work for yourself. 33% of self-employed workers admit to getting behind on their taxes. Reasons include everything from underestimating how much they need to pay (42%) to forgetting to pay (16%). Other factors include not being able to afford the amount they owe (30%), not knowing they have to pay taxes (16%), and not knowing how to pay taxes (10%).

But getting behind on taxes is one thing. Not filing them at all is entirely another. So why are 36% of self-employed workers not paying taxes?

Breaking down that 36%

Of the 36% of self-employed workers who don’t pay taxes, 9% cite no reason (saying they “just don’t” pay taxes), 17% say they don’t make enough to pay taxes, and another 10% say their losses exceed their profits, so they don’t owe any taxes.

While these are likely all true, the numbers are tough to verify since only 68% of self-employed workers report all their income on their taxes. Another 6% don’t report any of their income, while 13% say they report half or less.

As it happens, part-time self-employed workers are less likely to pay taxes compared to full-time self-employed workers. That’s likely due, in part, to the fact that 31% of part-time self-employed workers say they don’t make enough to pay taxes.

Once again, it’s hard to check the math on these assertions, because part-time/occasional self-employed workers are twice as likely to underreport their income compared to full-time self-employed workers.

While 1 in 10 full-time self-employed workers will report 50% or less of their income, 1 in 5 part-time self-employed workers will do the same.

More awareness could mean better behavior

A lack of overall tax knowledge could be a contributing factor to why some self-employed workers aren’t paying taxes or reporting their income. The fact that 10% don’t know how to pay taxes suggests this is likely.


On December 22, 2017, Congress passed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which will immediately affect every American’s taxes for the 2019 tax season. While it’s understandable most people have no idea how the new law will impact their taxes, many CPAs would cringe to know 1 in 10 self-employed workers didn’t know there even was a tax reform. Of those who did know, 28% say they expect to pay more, 16% say they think they’ll pay less, and 20% say they don’t know how it will impact their taxes.

Often, a lack of understanding results in a lack of action. But what if self-employed workers understood their taxes so well, they knew what parts of the new law would affect them the most? Perhaps they’d be able to make a plan in advance, knowing, for instance, that certain deductions (including the home office deduction) were scrapped and replaced by a few new deductions (like the qualified business income deduction). Could improved awareness and comprehension help self-employed workers stay on top of their tax responsibilities?

When asked what areas of taxes they’d like to know more about, self-employed workers named “anything and everything tax-related” as their No.1 response. This was followed by deductions, write-offs, and tax breaks, then why they pay so much in taxes, industry specifics, and lastly, how to get better at estimating and saving for taxes.

In the end, the IRS might be the stick that keeps taxpayers in line, but it’s possible the best way to make taxpayers out of non-taxpayers may have more to do with education than punishment. Encourage self-employed business owners to learn more about their tax situation and the resources available to them. With more awareness, better understanding, and access to great resources and professionals who can ensure tax returns are filed correctly, getting taxes paid on time should be the least of a business owner’s worries.

Source: https://quickbooks.intuit.com



Theresa Todman, Managing Partner/CEO of B&M Financial Management Services, LLC . Theresa works with small business owners and entrepreneurs to assist them with financial management and creating organized systems and procedures. She specializes in bookkeeping, accounting, QuickBooks solutions, small business tax issues and consulting.

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