It's April 15. Tax Day. And if you're a freelancer, consultant, independent contractor, or solo business owner who hasn't filed yet - take a breath. You're not out of options.
Here are five things you can still do today, in order of how much they could save you.
1. Fund a SEP-IRA Before You File
This is the biggest one. If you have self-employment income, you can open and fund a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP-IRA) and deduct the contribution on your 2025 return - even if you set the account up today.
The contribution limit is up to 25% of your net self-employment income, or $69,000 for 2025, whichever is less. If you made $80,000 as a freelancer last year and haven't put anything into a retirement account, you could contribute up to $14,674 and reduce your taxable income by that exact amount.
Translation: if you're in the 22% federal bracket, a $14,000 SEP-IRA contribution saves you roughly $3,000 in taxes. Today. Legally.
The catch: you need to fund the account before your filing deadline, and that deadline is extended if you file an extension. So if you're tight on cash right now, file an extension (more on that below) and fund the SEP-IRA by October 15.
Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab all let you open SEP-IRAs online in about 15 minutes.
2. File an Extension in 10 Minutes
Form 4868 gives you until October 15 to file your return. Filing it takes about 10 minutes at IRS Direct Pay (irs.gov/payments).
Important: an extension to file is not an extension to pay. If you owe taxes, you need to estimate and pay that amount today to avoid late payment penalties. The IRS charges 0.5% per month on unpaid taxes - that adds up.
But if you owe nothing or expect a refund, filing an extension costs you nothing and buys you five more months to get organized.
SCORE, the nonprofit small business mentoring organization, sees thousands of solopreneurs each year who panic-file and miss deductions. Their advisors consistently say the same thing: it is almost always better to take the extension and file correctly than to rush and leave money on the table.
3. Run Through the Solo Deduction Checklist
Before you file (or before you hand things off to a preparer), spend 15 minutes scanning this list. These are the deductions self-employed people most commonly miss:
Home office. If you use a dedicated space in your home for business, you can deduct either $5 per square foot (up to 300 sq ft = $1,500 max, simplified method) or a percentage of your actual housing costs (regular method). Most solopreneurs default to simplified. If your rent is $2,500/month and your office is 15% of your home, the regular method gives you $4,500. That's a $3,000 difference.
Health insurance premiums. If you pay for your own health insurance and don't qualify for coverage through a spouse's employer, 100% of your premiums are deductible. Most self-employed people know this. Many forget to include dental and vision.
Software subscriptions. Every tool you use for client work - design tools, project management, AI subscriptions, video conferencing, cloud storage - is a deductible business expense. That includes ChatGPT Plus, Notion, Figma, Zoom, Canva Pro, and anything else you paid for and used for work.
Professional development. Online courses, certifications, books, conference fees, and even relevant podcast subscriptions you paid for are deductible if they relate to your work.
Half of self-employment tax. This one is automatic, but confirm it's on your return. Self-employed people pay both the employer and employee share of FICA (15.3%). The IRS lets you deduct half of that (the employer portion) from your gross income.
4. Double-Check Your Quarterly Payments
If you made estimated quarterly tax payments during 2025 - in April, June, September, and January - make sure those amounts are entered correctly on your return. This is a common source of errors for freelancers.
The IRS keeps a record of your estimated payments in your online account at irs.gov/account. Pull it before you file. If the number on your return doesn't match IRS records, you'll hear about it.
5. Know What You're Buying If You Use AI to File
There are now dozens of apps that use AI to help self-employed people file taxes. Some are excellent. Some are good at asking simple questions and bad at flagging what they missed.
A few things to check before you trust one:
Does the tool explain each deduction it's including, or does it just spit out a number? Transparency matters.
Does it handle Schedule C (profit or loss from business) and Schedule SE (self-employment tax) correctly? Those are the two forms most relevant to solo operators. Not all tools handle them equally.
Does it prompt you for home office use, vehicle use, and business travel? Or does it skip those unless you know to bring them up?
QuickBooks Self-Employed and TurboTax's self-employed tier are the most widely used and tend to handle the Schedule C scenarios correctly. Keeper Tax is worth looking at if you're primarily a W-2 worker with side income.
One More Thing
According to MBO Partners' research, there are now 5.6 million independent workers earning over $100,000 a year. The thing that separates them from the ones who earn half that isn't always the rates they charge or the clients they land.
It's often the systems. Tax is one of those systems. The ones who treat it proactively - quarterly payments, good bookkeeping, an annual 30-minute deduction review - keep more of what they earn and stress less in April.
Today is your annual reminder. File or extend. Fund the SEP-IRA if you can. And starting May 1, keep a folder for receipts.
Sources: IRS.gov | SCORE.org | IRS Direct Pay | MBO Partners 2025 State of Independence Report