Tax season is here again and it's time to rummage through your receipts and try to figure out just how much you owe (or are owed by) the IRS. That can be especially tricky if you're an Uber or Lyft driver, host an Airbnb listing or do other work that requires a 1099 tax form. Washington, D.C.-based mobile finance app developer Hurdlr is offering to simplify the tax process for those so-called "on-demand" workers with its new tool, 99Deductions.
"99Deductions was a passion project we had always thought about but didn't know if people would care or if the demand would be there," Hurdlr head of growth Sajad Ghanizada said in an interview with DC Inno. "But it looks like a lot of people really like being able to find all of this information."
Hurdlr's app automatically keeps track of taxable transactions like income and expenses, working out tax deductions along the way. 99Deductions grows out of that by organizing the details for tax deductions for all kinds of freelancers and contractors. It's broken down into different categories that can be cross-referenced and uses plainer English than the official tax code. For example, an Uber driver, real estate agent or freelance software developer can see a list of all the deductions they might have and how to apply them, or can check out different categories for deductions and work out if they might apply.
"Not every person working on-demand knows what the taxes and deductions are that apply to them," Ghanizada said. "We want to fix that."
99Deductions isn't like TurboTax or similar services, it's mainly informational and doesn't offer a guarantee against potential audits. It does try to be comprehensive though, and based on the response so far it could become a bigger piece of Hurdlr's overall offering.
"It doesn't walk you through the process but it does educate you," Ghanizada said. "Every piece of content was written by our in-house CPA and looked over many times. I trust it."
