Is it possible to delete Upwork account and W9 form as if I did not even start working at Upwork?

[fksayaci]

Hi.

I have a long question about tax payment. I remember that I filled W9 form, but I have no clue what I will do with this form. How will I report my earnings in tax return? Can someone brielfy explain whole story? I was searching in the internet. I always see people talking about forms W2, W9, 1099, 1099-MISC, etc. I am confused.

The second question is about the title. Since I earned very small amount since I started, I just want to refund my earnings and delete W9 form. Is it even possible at all? I do not want to report my earnings to IRS as a freelancer for a couple of reasons.

I may have follow-up questions based on your answers.

Thank you for your time

[aocumen]

Hi Fikri, 

All freelancers who are U.S persons should file a Form W-9 with Upwork. You sign electronically by submitting the form. You may read more about the w9 form here. 

Regarding your second question, unless you request that we delete certain information, we retain the information we collect for at least 5 years. You may read more about this in Section 3. Data Retention, Privacy Policy of the Upwork User Agreement.

[fksayaci]

Thank you for your reply. Can you be more specific about how to report my earnings to IRS?

1) Does IRS already know that I have earnings so far?

2) Will I get a paper form W9 at the end of year to my mailbox?

3) Will I fill 1040 form to report my earnings to IRS?

As my questions may sound, I do not have any clue about how to fill tax return and how to deal with IRS?

As for the second question, I still does not understand if I can delete all my information or not. For instance, can I delete W9 form? If IRS already knows that I have earnings so far, will it still keep my documents even if I delete W9 form? I am assuming that I will refund all my earnings to clients.

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Fikri,

Please consult with a local specialist on how to report your earnings in your country. If you have any additional questions feel free to post them here, thank you.

[jmlaidlaw]

@Fikri --

Surely you are not planning to defraud the IRS. You will not want to continue to post questions that make it sound as if you are planning to evade taxes and provide false information to the IRS and/or fail to provide information to the IRS. That is not only illegal, but also exceedingly unwise.

If you earn a truly small amount of money (I think that it may be as little as $400-500 in a given year), you are not required to file U.S. taxes -- or, at least, that used to be the case.

If you do not earn much and do not take deductions, you can file a Form 1040EZ, which is, in fact, very easy to file. (Not sure if it applies if you need to pay Social Security taxes, though.)

You say: "I do not have any clue about how to fill tax return and how to deal with IRS." Yet, your profile says that you have "a strong background in mathematic [sic] and statistics" and you note that you hold a PhD. Surely you can successfully navigate the US tax system. I hold only a BA, and I do it -- and my tax forms are 16 pages long.