Tips on self-employment and working from home

If you have been following employment trends over the last few years, then you are probably aware of two important trends.

1. People in their 50's, 60's, and even 70’s aren't retiring. They are reinventing. They are taking their skills and changing careers. A few recent books such as Encore: Finding Work that Matters in the Second Half of Life by Marc Freedman make this point. There are also a variety of resources such as BoomersNextStep.com that provide services directly to the “Boomer” generation.
2. More people are working from home. This may be because companies are developing flexible work arrangements. It may be because of increased use of contractors.

One thing that links these trends is that many of the “encore careers” that boomers are pursuing involve working at home. Whether this is because a successful career has become the springboard for a second career as a consultant or because the boomer has the experience, knowledge, and skill to negotiate a non-traditional working arrangement, many older workers are not going into an office every day.

This new way of work brings some challenges though, and as Bill Vick from BoomersNextStep.com writes in Self-Employment and Working From Home Legal Facts:

Working from home can be a lot of fun and quite lucrative but there are a lot of things that you need to know from a legal standpoint that will help keep you out of trouble. Things such as managing finances, paying appropriate taxes, and following laws that the IRS has created are all important things that you’ve got to learn.

These are just a few of the question you should ask.

• Am I an employee or a contractor?
• If I am self-employed, how to I handle my bookkeeping and taxes?
• What other laws or rules affect me?

Check out this excellent article from BoomersNextStep.com to get started on the answers to these questions and others. Self-Employment and Working From Home Legal Facts