Freelance confusion!

I really, really don't know what I am doing here - which is never good!

I am a registered business in the UK now. I have signed up to UpWork for some extra freelance work. As I am a US citizen, I need to fill out the W9 form they have on there. It asks for my registered business name - but Im not registered in the US. Do I need to be, because I am a US citizen?

I understand I need to do a tax return (that's something else that makes my head spin), but I did not know if I have to register my business in the US? If so, how? And if not, what is recommended when it comes to sites like UpWork and identifying myself for tax purposes? Should I just use my UK Business name?

I'm starting to question whether it was even worth it -_-

Ok - they told me to fill out the W9 and that I put a US address on it. Is that true?

Also, I believe I fill out as an individual, and it looks like I just use my legal name and not necessarily a business name. If someone can confirm this, I would be very grateful!

Trust your instinct, if you've gone to all the trouble to make a limited company then sits like that are a waste of time.  You'll be lucky to make minimum wage from what I've heard .  They are full of students and workers in foreign countries who can lower their rates to a very low level. 

Definitely - I do agree, but I dont rely on them. I have done one job through UpWork, but the rest of my work is from local clients. I thought the small jobs would help build credibility but if it's going to be a pain I won't ind.

this has brought up the panic about filing as an overseas self employed person on my US Tax return, so it's been a manic afternoon of lots of researching and even more confusion :-(

Local clients?  Like people around your neighborhood?   I've never heard of anyone doing that. 

What kind of stuff do you do?  I'm working in the city doing SQL development and data wArehousing

I'm doing social media management and SEO copywriting. My clients can be anywhere but they just happen to be local for now. My neighbour needed some work done, then my brother in law referred me to someone he works with, etc. I only have one client down located south!

If you are in the UK then you should not register your business in the US and if you fill out a W9 put your current address. ie your UK address if that's where you live.

You will need to file a UK self assessment and pay UK national insurance and also file US taxes as a sole proprietor Schedule C, however, make sure you get a coverage certificate form HMRC and that you do not pay US self-employment tax.

Thanks for that nun - that helped a lot!

I know I still need to do UK taxes too, that's not a problem. I have kept pretty good record and HMRC made it seem like it was really easy, so we'll see!

Do I automatically get a coverage certificate from HMRC? I assume I wouldn't get this until April? And is that a problem if I need to file US taxes before then?

I knew about the US/UK tax thing as a US citizen but if I had known it would have been worse as self employed then I probably wouldn't have bothered -_-

There is no requirement to have a certificate of coverage to file a US income tax return.

From a UK perspective, you'll have to choose an accounting period; so you might choose a 31 December year-end to simplify your annual reporting.

There is no requirement to have a certificate of coverage to file a US income tax return.

From a UK perspective, you'll have to choose an accounting period; so you might choose a 31 December year-end to simplify your annual reporting.

The official approach of how to deal with self-employment tax is given on page 2 of the link below, but if Guya says a certificate of coverage is not necessary I'm sure that is the case and you would just not complete Schedule SE and write something like "Exempt, US/UK SS Totalization Agreement" on 1040 line 57.

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/i1040sse.pdf