We are freelancers like you, and we have run companies, prepared taxes, provided financial advice, managed investments, and built amazing financial systems running billions of dollars of assets.
We wanted to bring our decades of knowledge and experience together to help you be successful, and so Namu was born in 2018.
Our founding team are a couple of born and raised NYC natives, who want to make freelancing easier for you.
Our monthly newsletter provides curated financial news, tips and tricks, and highlights of new Namu functionality for better managing your self-employed business.
A 1099 worker is also considered self-employed worker. You are your own 1-person business in the eyes of the IRS. Being a business, you are allowed to deduct business expenses, contribute to retirement at a higher rate, and have some other flexibilities. But with those benefits comes the need for accurate accounting, quarterly tax payments, and accurate expense tracking for deductions. A self-employed worker may receive 1099 form(s) from your clients at the beginning of the following calendar year. They are used to cross-check your earnings and to notify the IRS of these payments you received. Only a person who is self-employed receives these forms, either full-time or as a side-hustler.
However, in recent years with the increasing use of electronic payments, you may receive fewer 1099’s even though you had self-employed income. Therefore, do not think that you only need to report the income you received a 1099 form for, all income received throughout the year that was not part of your wages or investments needs to be accounted for on your taxes.
A W-2 employee is also called a wage earner. There are many differences between being a wage earner and being self-employed, but a few of the relevant ones are that your employer pays half of your FICA taxes on your behalf, and you receive a W-2 form at the beginning of the following calendar year that explain all your wages, withheld taxes, and other items.
As a wage earner, you can be either a part-time or full-time employee – hours worked does not distinguish between a W-2 employee and a self-employed worker.
If you’re just starting out (bravo!), and want to know if you are a match for Namu, here are some helpful filters:
• You send your client a completed W-9 form before you start work
• Your clients issue a 1099-MISC the following January or February (this may not happen if you are paid electronically)
• You have no employees or only employ other solopreneurs (meaning, no W2 employees)
If your answer is yes to any of the above, then you are a perfect match for Namu!
Our financial technology is detailed and sophisticated, it solves for the actual nuances that many self-employees face. For example, many software packages will calculate federal estimated taxes, but not State and Local. Also, Namu is fully integrated between your invoicing workflows, accounting, taxes and retirement, so you never need to enter your financial information twice, reducing errors, increasing accuracy, and saving you time. Finally, Namu provides a financial coach/mentor/guide to provide you with consultative sessions where we can learn about you and give you the best advice. Sometimes, you don’t know what questions to ask, so we take an open-ended consultative approach to learn about you, your business, your goals, so you can help us help you.