By
Christela Becker
Pursuing a passion has its ups and downs. Before I became a real estate agent, I worked traditional W-2 jobs and didn’t think about taxes until the annual filing date rolled around. No thought towards expenses or deductions because everything was taken care of, or withheld by, my employer.
When I followed my heart and became a real estate agent, it was fantastic. I was doing what I loved and had really good sales the first year. Then came tax time and for the first time in my life, I owed. It was like a punch in the stomach. All the hard work I put into building the business to find I now owed taxes on my income.
To be honest, I knew in the back of my mind that this was because I neglected to forecast my tax obligations as a new 1099 worker. I was determined to prepare myself in the future and not be caught off-guard by taxes again.
Thanks to my husband, I learned about a tool to help me do just that: Hurdlr. Hurdlr makes it super easy to track all of my business expenses, including mileage, which is the largest deduction of all. I’m constantly on the road showing homes to clients and with Hurdlr, tracking mileage happens automatically! As soon as I start driving, it starts tracking.
It also connects to my bank account so, at the end of the day, I go in and swipe left or right on any transactions to separate them into business or personal categories. I don’t worry about receipts any more and Hurdlr learns my transactions and automatically sorts them for me by categories. As a real estate agent, business expenses really add up, too. Buying food for open houses, marketing expenses, costs for continuing education on top of the mileage. Not tracking these expenses, and deducting them from your gross income, can end up in a big tax hit.
One of the best Hurdlr features is that it puts together reports to use with my tax filing software so I know exactly what I need to pay each quarter for my estimated tax.
As a real estate agent or working in the gig economy as an independent contractor, I would highly recommend Hurdlr. Before Hurdlr, taxes made me anxious and uncertain. Now I feel confident that I’ll be prepared and I can spend more time on what matters, like doing what I love and making my clients happy!
