First of all, you should wait until at least the end of January in order to receive all of your 1099′s from each agency. January 31st is the deadline for agencies to have completely submitted their 1099′s to the IRS and to the Independent Contractor. …According to the IRS: As a self-employed individual, generally you are required to file an annual return and pay estimated tax quarterly. Although most people don’t pay estimates so don’t get too worried and the IRS doesn’t focus too much attention on self-employed independent contractors.

Self-employed individuals generally have to pay self-employment tax (SE tax) as well as income tax. SE tax is a Social Security and Medicare tax primarily for individuals who work for themselves. It is similar to the Social Security and Medicare taxes withheld from the pay of most wage earners. In general, anytime the wording “self-employment tax” is used, it only refers to Social Security and Medicare taxes and not any other tax (like income tax).

Again according to the IRS: Before you can determine if you are subject to self-employment tax and income tax, you must figure your net profit or net loss from your business. You do this by subtracting your business expenses from your business income. If your expenses are less than your income, the difference is net profit and becomes part of your income on page 1 of Form 1040. If your expenses are more than your income, the difference is a net loss. You usually can deduct your loss from gross income on page 1 of Form 1040. But in some situations your loss can be limited.

You should use Schedule C (Form 1040) to report income or loss from a your business you operated as an independent contractor. One of the greatest things about being a business owner is that now you can deduct your travel, auto, mileage, parking, costumes, dry cleaning if done on the road, etc… All of these expenses are deducted from your total income generated and thus will provide you with your net profit or loss.

Hope this helps … 🙂