

Ask HN: Leaving current job but may need to do some contract work - 32lkjlkejrwel

Hello,<p>My situation is that I am leaving my current job to pursue something a bit more challenging. In my current job, I have the lion's share of the knowledge for a legacy product. This has all been documented  but my skillset and previous experience made me somewhat uniquely qualified for supporting this product. When I leave my company, I would like to give them the option to hire me as a contractor should a problem arise that they are not able to handle inhouse.<p>This is very new to me and I was wondering if anyone could offer advice, direct me to a book or site that walks me through what I need to do in order to protect myself and be legal (I live and work in the US) In particular I have the following concerns:<p>- Protecting personal assets should anything go wrong while contracting<p>- Do I need any kind of insurance?<p>- Correct structure to receive payment and pay taxes<p>- Potential problems you may see that I am not even aware of?<p>Depending on the cost in time and money to set this up I may or may not go through with it. Thanks for any help you can offer.
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codeslush
I'm not an attorney, but I have done consulting on and off over the last dozen
years. Hopefully this helps:

1\. It's a good idea to incorporate - not only for the individual protection,
but for the ability to reduce taxable income as much as possible. C-Corp is
probably best, but also most complex. You can start as an S-Corp and change
down the road if you want. Many other reasons to do this as well. It does have
its own set of expenses though - particularly, in CA you have to pay $800 per
year just to exist. For the first several years, I worked as a sole
proprietor. To mitigate personal risk as much as possible, I had certain
clauses put in the contracts (and others removed). For example, no warranty
for work - it is time and material, and liability could not exceed what was
actually paid. I would also negotiate to have any insurance clauses removed -
as I didn't carry any.

2\. You __should __get insurance - General Business and E &O and if employees,
workers comp. Many clients may require this. Note, however, that I never had
it. If you have employees, it's almost a requirement.

3\. Do pay estimated taxes quarterly. This will help reduce penalties and also
help you not spend all your money and then be screwed when tax time comes. Set
aside at least a third for this.

4\. If forming a company that processes payrolls, get a payroll service like
ADP. You screw up a payroll and the penalties are huge. It's worth the extra
money to pay someone to get it right.

5\. Make clear separation between personal and business expenses. Have a
business account you use for business and don't mingle them together.

6\. Get an accountant! Learn Quickbooks, or something to track income and
expenses. Meet with accountant more frequently than April! Meet in Oct/Nov and
get input on what you need to do before year end. With a C-Corp, any money
left in the company is taxed as retained earnings and then taxed again when
you pay yourself. You want to avoid this double-taxation and an accountant
will help you figure it out (either through equipment purchases or payroll).

Have fun, and good luck.

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32lkjlkejrwel
Thanks for the info. It has given me a starting point. For the moment this
would only be me so I would not have to worry about worker's comp but will
look into General Business and E&O.

