Hey, Sharon, one of your favorite topics. With this one will be very brief and not very detailed. But again, as we're looking at transitioning or possibly being in the early stages of being 1099, you want to make sure you understand the tax implications of this transition. And, you know, a lot of times CRNAs get into this and I've got several that have and really haven't understood what the tax ramifications are and they spend all their money throughout the year. Then it comes tax time, they don't have the money to pay their taxes. You don't want to cross that line to where you're dealing with that every year. I've got, you know, CRNAs who I've seen come to us and they're two years behind on paying their taxes. You want to understand what those tax implications are. First, let's talk about taxes. There is a big difference from where you are currently to where you're going to go. If you are a W-2 employee, you literally don't have a lot of deductions anymore. As a 1099, you have a lot of deductions that you can take, you know, such as the home office expense, for example. Sharon, you know, maybe you need a new pair of shoes to wear in the OR. We go through all of this in the modules following what we're talking about now. So don't let it scare you because we tackle all of these going forward. So we'll break this down in a lot more detail later. So as you transition, again, not trying to scare you, but your tax situation gets a lot more complicated. You want to make sure you understand these tax ramifications because it does get complicated. If you're used to just using TurboTax and clicking the button and going through, or, you know, you've got an accountant or somebody that helps you, and it's very, very simplistic. They just plug in your W-2, how much you made, boom, you take the same deduction, boom, come to the end, that's it. Now it gets a lot more complicated and you want to do it right because not doing it right increases the likelihood of errors. Errors increase the likelihood of audits. Audits increase the likelihood that you're wearing orange or stripes. We don't want anybody to be doing that, Sharon, right? That's not in my color wheel. Again, make sure you understand what you're getting in bed with here. Self-employment tax, you know, typically CRNAs are used to seeing that out of their W-2 position and they pay that. That's your FICA tax, which is your Social Security and your Medicare tax. Again, we have another module dealing with this and ways to limit that tax and so forth. You now pay both sides of that. So therefore you are your own employer and you've got to deal with the ramifications of that potential tax increase. And you've got to account for that in your accounting of whether this makes sense for me or not. Quarterly estimated taxes. You know, that's something else that a lot of W-2 CRNAs don't have to do. Now that you're independent contractors and you own a business, you could potentially have to pay these estimated taxes. Estimated tax payments. Remember, you're supposed to pay the tax of the quarter in which you earn it. If you do not do that, then you could owe penalties and interest. So these quarterly estimated taxes are due April, June, September, and January on the 15th of the month. If you haven't paid enough taxes in that quarter, you have to make a quarterly estimated taxes. If you have an S-corp that is profitable and you haven't withheld enough out of your W-2 salary, you might have to make a quarterly estimated tax payment. So again, a little more complicated, not rocket science, but something else you've got to keep up with. Now, instead of a W-2, you get a tax form called a 1099 NEC. Non-employee compensation. You can see that box seven right there on that 1099 in front of you, Sharon. This basically tracks how much money you got paid. And there are errors that occur on these 1099s. So you need to make sure that your 1099 matches up with what you think you got paid. I had one just a couple of weeks ago that was off, when I say substantially, I mean to the tune of about 80% more than what they paid this actual CRNA. They didn't have a clue until we pointed it out and said, oh, well, your books aren't matching with your 1099. So what do you mean? I said, well, your books show that you made this much. Your 1099 shows that you got paid this much. No, I didn't get paid that much. So then they had to go back to the person that issued the 1099. Again, staying on top of this and tracking this, putting in checks and balances. 1099s are reported directly to the government. So those computerized random audits come out and say, oh, well, this 1099 doesn't match up with what they reported on their tax return. Ding, ding, ding, ding, you got a problem. So again, familiarizing yourself with that process is a very, very good thing. The other thing is now that you are a 1099 independent contractor, there is a possible, what we call QBI, Qualified Business Income, which we have a module on, deduction. And that gives tax relief to business owners. Now, this started back in 2018. It will wind down at the end of 2025, unless they decide they're going to renew this deduction. But it basically works to where 20% of what you make in your business can be taxed at zero. Zero percent. Great deduction. You do not get that if you're a W-2. But 1099 CRNA should be taking care of that. So these are just a few of the tax implications. We have some modules that go into these in a lot more detail. Again, just trying to educate yourself on what's out there. One of the biggest questions we get, Sharon, is, is it worth it for me to do this? These modules will help you work through and say, oh, well, I'm making this amount. All right, I've got this expense and this expense and this expense, but I'm also saving on taxes here and here and here. So you add all that up and you come up to a conclusion. Is it worth it? Sharon, is it worth it? It's been worth it for me. There you go. So these are just some of the tax implications. Again, going through these modules and figuring out a little bit more in detail of what each one of these things mean is gonna help you in the long run.

tax implications

1099 status

CRNA

self-employment tax

Qualified Business Income deduction