Being self-employed comes with incredible freedom—choosing your own projects, setting your own hours, and growing your business on your terms. However, one challenge that many self-employed professionals face is managing taxes. Without an employer handling withholdings, staying on top of tax obligations is essential to avoid surprises.

At Hangr Coworks, we love connecting our members with valuable resources, and who better to share expert tax advice than our very own member, Jill Flinton, CPA? Here are Jill’s top tax tips to help freelancers, consultants, and small business owners navigate tax season with confidence.

1. Keep Track of Your Income and Expenses

The key to stress-free tax preparation is maintaining accurate financial records. Use accounting software or a simple spreadsheet to track income and categorize expenses throughout the year. This helps ensure you’re not scrambling to find receipts when tax deadlines approach.

2. Know What You Can Deduct

As a self-employed professional, you can deduct a range of business expenses that reduce your taxable income. Common deductions include:

• Home office deduction – If you work from home, a portion of your rent/mortgage, utilities, and internet may be deductible.
• Coworking space fees – Your Hangr Coworks membership is a legitimate business expense!
• Office supplies and equipment – Computers, printers, and even pens and notebooks count.
• Marketing and advertising – Website costs, social media ads, and business cards are deductible expenses.
• Professional development – Courses, workshops, and certifications that help grow your business.

3. Set Aside Money for Quarterly Taxes

Unlike traditional employees, self-employed individuals don’t have taxes withheld from their income. The IRS requires estimated quarterly tax payments if you expect to owe more than $1,000 in taxes for the year. Mark your calendar for these deadlines:

• April 15
• June 15
• September 15
• January 15 (of the following year)

Setting aside a percentage of your income each month for taxes will prevent financial stress when payments are due.

4. Understand Self-Employment Tax

Self-employed individuals must pay self-employment tax (15.3%) to cover Social Security and Medicare, in addition to income tax. 

5. Consider Retirement Contributions

Saving for retirement not only secures your future but can also reduce your taxable income. Self-employed professionals can contribute to:

• SEP IRA (Simplified Employee Pension)
• Solo 401(k)
• Traditional or Roth IRA These options provide tax advantages while helping you build long-term financial security.

6. Keep Business and Personal Finances Separate

Open a dedicated business bank account to track income and expenses more efficiently. This simplifies bookkeeping and makes it easier to claim deductions accurately.

If you are using a credit card, ideally have one in the business name. If that is not initially possible, use one card exclusively for business expenses.

7. Work with a Professional CPA

While DIY tax software can help, having a knowledgeable CPA like Jill Flinton on your team ensures you’re maximizing deductions and staying compliant with tax laws. A tax professional can provide personalized guidance and help you plan for future growth.

Stay Tax-Savvy and Focus on What You Do Best
Tax season doesn’t have to be overwhelming. By staying organized, planning ahead, and leveraging expert advice, you can keep more of your hard-earned money while remaining compliant with tax regulations.

Want to connect with other professionals like Jill Flinton and gain valuable insights for your business? Hangr Coworks is more than just a workspace—it’s a community that helps you thrive.

Need personalized tax advice? Reach out to Jill Flinton, CPA, and take the stress out of tax season! This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Beginning April 15, 2023, Hangr Coworks and Palette Offer Reciprocal Membership to its members.

Available for full-time members at Hangr Coworks in Clifton Park, and the Palette Community in Saratoga Springs and Schenectady, active members are now offered a reciprocal membership with Palette and Hangr Coworks, which allows for up to two visits per month to Palette’s or Hangr Coworks OPEN SEATING coworking spaces during standard business hours. (Subject to availability).

This will allow for more connection, collaboration and community between our organizations and we are here for that!

Members may visit the PARTNER page to request their Guest Pass. 

Headshot Mini Sessions - January 19th

Headshot Minis will happen one day per month at a discounted rate of $99.

You get a 20-30 minute mini headshot & selection session with the Flight Creative Photo Team. At the end of your session you will get to see your headshots instantly on an iPad and select your 10 favorite images to be shared to you in high resolution. 

We’ve noticed, after years of shooting dozens and dozens of headshots – is that some people just need a super quick 20 minute update and not the full hour or the chats or all the posing or the multiple outfits. Some just need that one good shot and then need to race back to work. There is only time for one outfit with a choice of several standard backgrounds. These are quick and easy headshots for the person that doesn’t need or want spend hours at a photo studio.

There are upgrade options just like in all of our sessions. You will have the option to purchase additional "retouched" images for $39 apiece or 4 for $129.  

Next Session is January 19th, 2023 - Starting at 9:30am at Hangr Coworks in Clifton Park. 

Reserve Your 30-Minute Session Today

A $25.00 deposit is required at the time of booking. This booking deposit is refundable if you need to cancel more than 24-hours before your scheduled session. No refunds will be given if you cancel less than 24-hours before your scheduled booking.

Paul Drake, a health care salesman, dreads the thought of commuting back to his office in Albany after 19 months of working from home in Malta, N.Y.

But Mr. Drake, 33, also wants a break from overhearing his wife's calls and a better place to meet with clients than the local Starbucks. So he signed up here at Hangr, a new company that has opened a large, modern and friendly co-working space, in Clifton Park, close to his work territory.

“It would take a couple more zeros on the paycheck,” he said, “to get me back to commuting into downtown four or five days a week.”

More than a year and a half ago, the coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented disruption to the daily routines of office work, keeping millions of employees in their homes.

Now, as the pandemic crawls out of its second year, the future of work is still up in the air as many companies have embraced a hybrid model, allowing employees to split their workweek between the office and home, with little clarity about the timing of a mandatory return.

In this uncertainty, a growing number of start-ups, like Hangr, are betting that the pandemic has spawned a new kind of worker — one who will not be commuting into a central business district a few days a week but would still desire occasional office space closer to home for a distraction-free environment.

In the Capital District, possibly home to the country’s fastest growing co-working communities, coworking spaces are increasingly targeting the thousands of office workers who live in the suburbs.

Some developers who own Albany office buildings have scoffed at the idea that satellite workplaces will become a permanent alternative to working from home or from traditional offices, believing the hybrid model is a short-term trend.

Still, the emergence of co-working spaces in residential neighborhoods underscores the uncertain prospects for Albany’s office sector that supports a vast ecosystem of restaurants, coffee shops and other businesses.

Supporting this belief, around the country, the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue is partnering with coworking giant WeWork to turn parts of department stores into co-working spaces. Codi, a start-up founded in Berkeley, Calif., offers private homes as flexible working spaces. Industrious, a co-working company, has an office space inside a mall in Short Hills, N.J.

Hangr Coworks, founded by a group of local business owners, with its first co-working location in Clifton Park — has plans for future locations in other outlaying communities like Troy, Malta and Rensselaer, over the next few years. 

Hangr plans to lease vacant office spaces, targeting densely populated neighborhoods where local residents had long prepandemic commutes and few other co-working options. Users can pay as little as $25 for a daily membership, accessing a comfortable lounge areas or open seating or, for more regular demands, select a private desk option for less than $3 an hour with a monthly commitment.

“Certain real estate owners believe the only path to prosperity is to bring everybody back,” said Christine Smith, a Hangr co-founder. “I don’t follow that approach. If we’re thinking about attracting members to the region, this is more sustainable long-term.”

In Albany, the real estate industry has been eager for workers to return to office complexes. But many companies have discovered that they can operate with a smaller footprint as more jobs have become fully remote. Despite a recent uptick in demand for Corporate office leases, the availability of office space there is still near a record high.

We hope employees will use a co-working site on their work-from-home days and brushed off the possibility of employees working remotely part of the week after the pandemic, calling it “your alternate universe.”

In the Albany region, about 42 percent of workers were in the office in mid-October, according to Kastle Systems, a security company that tracks employee card swipes in office buildings. The percentage has climbed steadily since Labor Day, but is still half of what employers had predicted in a June.

A bigger reckoning around office space may unfold in the coming years, as an estimated 30 percent of leases at large Albany buildings will expire in 2023, according to the New York State Comptroller’s Office. One major question, economists say, is whether larger companies will hold onto their office space to guarantee seats for all employees, no matter how many days a week they come in.

For many employees, the reluctance to return comes down to the commute.

Workers in the Saratoga County region had the longest average one-way commute in the area at about 38 minutes, according to 2019 census data. About 23 percent of workers in the region commuted at least an hour each way.

In July, Dean Iacovetti, president at Vanta Partners, a tech-recruiting firm, relocated to Hangrs co-working space, closer to where he lives. He said he was reminded of the benefits whenever he visits the company’s former location, a round trip that can often take up to an hour during typical workday.

“I’m the only person in the suburbs who can just about walk to work,” said Tori Rankin, who works at the Clifton Park location every day with eight other Flight Creative employees.

Co-working spaces in the suburbs are particularly appealing to parents who want more separation between home and work, Hangr said. In its surveys of prospective members, the biggest complaints about working from home were the lack of space, unreliable internet, and noise (leaf blower day, in particular).

Juergen Klingenberg, Hangr co-founder, sees the company as a supplement, not a threat, to the traditional office building. In fact, Flight Creative Group, Klingenberg’s other venture started leasing office space within the Hangr Coworking space, moving his entire company from Saratoga Springs this summer. The company organizes its meetings and happy hours around Tuesday and Wednesdays, the designated days when every employee comes into the office.

“The office building is not going anywhere,” Klingenberg said. “We’re just going to use it differently.”