Online Freelancers To Pay Tax?

A friend forwarded me this article just last week:

With medical doctors crying foul this week over an “insulting” ad by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR), a tax expert has advised online freelancers to know their tax obligations so they won’t get entangled with new government circulars governing e-commerce. 

Aside from physicians, the BIR has also launched an ad campaign against accountants, chefs, and online sellers who do not pay their tax obligations properly. 

Mon Abrea, a former revenue officer and tax examiner at the BIR, recently conducted a seminar for online freelancers on the new tax memorandums of the BIR on Internet-based businesses.  

US-based online freelance platform Elance sponsored the session dubbed, “Tax Academy Experience for Online Professionals” at the Asian Institute of Management in Makati City. The seminar was meant to guide online professionals on how to pay their taxes right and avoid any penalty.  

Abrea lectured on how freelancers can comply with the BIR’s Revenue Memorandum Circular (RMC) No. 55-2013 that provides the tax obligations of different parties engaged in online business transactions including services.  

He also shared to the attendees “The 31 Most Frequently Asked Tax Questions by Entrepreneurs,” which he wrote in his book on taxes titled “Ctrl+TAX+ Del” that was published in September 2013.  

Abrea is the founding president of the Center for Strategic Reforms of the Philippines (CSR Philippines), a non-profit organization that assists MSMEs or micro, small and medium enterprises.  

During the session, the most queried questions from the participants were: If they indeed need to pay taxes, how can they register as taxpayers? Also, is there a need for a new TIN or Taxpayer Identification Number?  

“It is everyone’s duty to pay taxes,” Abrea said. “As per Memorandum 55-2013 by the BIR, it reminds everyone who engages in online transaction, service, and sales needs to pay taxes.”  

He explained online professionals are no different from other workers in the eyes of the BIR. Thus, freelancers also need to secure barangay clearance and Mayor’s Permit, among others, and then have the business registered at the BIR. He stressed that only one TIN is allowed under the law.  

Among the online business transactions covered by the BIR’s RMC are the Business to Consumer (B2C), Consumer to Consumer (C2C), and Business to Business (B2B). B2C involves online stores selling goods and services to final consumers while B2B encompasses job recruitment, online advertising, credit, sales, market research, technical support, procurement and different types of training.  

Elance Philippines country manager Ronald Cirujano said his company plans to conduct similar events this year to educate more local online professionals.  

Cirujano said the Philippines is rated as the ninth biggest freelancer country in the world. Elance has 800,000 businesses and that three million freelancers use its website in more than 170 countries. 

Elance, together with global job marketplace company oDesk, recently announced a merger, creating an online freelancing behemoth.

The original article written by Tom Noda was first published last 6th of March, 2014 at Newsbytes.ph. 

Are you an oDesk freelancer? Would you be willing to pay your taxes should BIR require you to pay? I don't have any problem paying mine. If it's any help to the government, that's fine, but if it just ends up in the pockets of greedy politicians, I'll probably go ahead and pay but with my teeth all bared.

Leslie Ann Macapagal, Another oDesk Freelancer Earned Ph71,000 Month of April

Leslie Ann's story is very inspiring. She started oDesk May of last year. She used to be a call center agent but quit her job to work full time as an oDesk freelancer. She writes articles, does customer support and enjoys every bit of her time at home.

There are many oDesk providers out there with success stories to tell. Like Leslie, they all used to work outside the home.

Ready to be inspired some more? Visit Leslie Ann's blog, go to Rant and Rave

Hired as an Article Reviewer

March 5, 2010 - I was hired as an article reviewer. It was one of the easiest assignments I have ever worked on. I just have to read the articles that pop on my screen and make grammar and spelling corrections. More like a human spell-check. After which, the author would then be automatically informed that his articles were accepted or that his articles were rejected.

It was an OK job but not the kind of job I imagine myself to be working for a long period of time. It was very repetitive so after two weeks, I quit the job and applied for another one. If I had stayed, I would have ended hating the job. It would have killed my enthusiasm and my motivation to work and would have made me hate being a freelancer. Good thing, I bailed out.

What Kind of Jobs are Available on Odesk?

There's a variety of jobs you can apply for on oDesk.

There are data entry jobs such as uploading images online, typing and cleaning up documents, making PowerPoint presentations, data manipulation on Microsoft Excel.

There are also research jobs you can work on. Sometimes your client will require you to make a one or two-page report based on what info you've collected. Sometimes you will be required to visit websites and company blogs to look up some info. You might even be assigned tasks to collect data as you go and record them in Google Docs or in Excel.

If you are a graphic artist, be on the lookout for companies needing logos and blog headers. Put your best foot forward. Show them your best work. If they like your designs and see you as a potential, who knows? You could end up working for them long term.

If you are a web designer and web developer, there is a lot of opportunities for you guys. oDesk is not the only freelancer site in the Internet. There is also Elance but then that's not what this blog is about so let's just focus on the opportunities available to oDesk freelancers.

There are also phone support and live chat agent jobs. If you have been call center hopping for years and have more than enough experiences to do call center jobs all on your own then give it a shot. Some call centers pay as low as Php8,000 monthly. Did you know that working as a freelance call center agent can get you double, even triple of that amount on your first month? Find out how much call center agents are paid when they get hired by companies direct.

Article writers are also in demand in oDesk. If you have excellent English and exemplary writing skills then write articles and get paid by the hour. You can get paid per article too if you like that.