In 2015, I got really serious with my side hustle and ended up earning well over $30,000. While I was proud of the extra money I'd made, I realized I'd made one major mistake when tax season rolled around — not closely tracking my income or expenses. I was so excited about making money with a side hustle, but I paid for it the following spring by spending hours trying to organize my financial documents and data.
Not tracking my income meant not knowing how much tax I might owe
As a freelancer or contractor, I did receive a few 1099 forms from companies I worked for. As long as you earn $600 or more as a contractor, it's a requirement that companies send you a 1099 form stating how much you earned; this also gets sent to the IRS.