United States Self-Employed Tax Checklist 2024, 2025 & 2026
Use this comprehensive checklist to make sure you have everything ready before filing your IRS (Internal Revenue Service) self-assessment for 2024, 2025 & 2026. Covers allowable expense categories, record-keeping requirements, and key deadlines.
Allowable Expense Categories
- Business Income (Schedule C Line 1) — grossIncome
- Other Business Income (Schedule C Line 6) — otherIncome
- Cost of Goods Sold (Schedule C Part III) — costOfGoods
- Advertising & Marketing (Schedule C Line 8) — advertising
- Travel Expenses (Schedule C Line 24a) — travel
- Business Meals (50%) (Schedule C Line 24b) — meals
- Rent & Lease (Schedule C Line 20a) — rent
- Repairs & Maintenance (Schedule C Line 21) — repairs
- Office Expenses (Schedule C Line 18) — officeCosts
- Supplies (Schedule C Line 22) — supplies
- Legal & Professional Services (Schedule C Line 17) — professionalFees
- Bank Charges & Interest (Schedule C Line 16b) — bankCharges
- Business Insurance (Schedule C Line 15) — insurance
- Utilities (Phone/Internet) (Schedule C Line 25) — telephone
- Other Business Expenses (Schedule C Line 27a) — otherExpenses
- Personal / Non-Deductible (N/A) — personal
Pre-Filing Checklist
- Gather all bank statements for the tax year
- Categorise all income and expenses
- Separate personal and business transactions
- Check for any unclaimed allowable expenses
- Calculate total income and total expenses
- Review estimated tax liability
- Set aside funds for tax payment
- File before the IRS (Internal Revenue Service) deadline