Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Anyone know of resources to help me work out how much I need to earn from being self employed business owner in Asheville? What would income tax be?
We would own a house with no mortgage. No debt on business.
Just the other usual expenses, food for family of 4, health insurance, insurance, utilities etc.
We currently live a simple life but have enough spare for an annual holiday, odd meal out, cinema. This is in England so hard to compare income needed.
We don't smoke, drink, or buy designer clothes.
I know it is hard to give figures, but averages will do!
I would hate to hazard a guess at how much money you ought to be making to live in the U.S. I can tell you that poverty level for a family of four in the U.S. is $22,500 gross. And obviously you realize Euros or Pounds translate differently than our Dollar. And Asheville, as compared to the rest of North Carolina, it's more expensive to live here, whereas living in California is maybe three times as costly, but other parts of the country are cheaper than here.
But to tell you how much some national costs are, first comes taxes. Self-employed pay their own tax, along with local, state and federal taxes, which winds up being very roughly 1/4 of your earnings, you send it in quarterly. So, if you were to make, say, $40,000 gross per year, just go ahead and figure $10,000 of that will go to the government, right off the top.
As relates to taxes, in North Carolina, which some states do not have this, we also pay a property tax, so even though you have no mortgage on the home you will be living in, you will still have to come up with anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand per year, depending on the local tax assessment of the value of your home and land. I think the average home in Asheville is about $250,000, so tax would be roughly $1,200 per year, they send a yearly bill.
But one of the biggest hurdles of living in the U.S., as compared to England, is your country provides free health care, but we have to pay for ours through health care insurance. Cost for health insurance for self-employed earners can vary all over the place, from roughly $1,000+ per month for family of four, down to maybe $300 per month depending on what sacrifical strategy you use to keep costs down. Here is a website that will help you figure out that stuff: The Self-Employed Health Insurance Dilemma | OutOfYourRut.com
And that's not even getting into groceries, utilities, gas, home and car insurance. Our gas costs less than yours, that much I know. We do have public transit, but it is not anywhere near as good as it is in England. Different people estimate their costs differently, and it has been done on this forum before, you might can find it by doing a search of the forum. But for family of TWO, groceries are around $400 per month, utilities are around $400 per month, and our two used cars and home insurances are around $100 per month.
Maybe that will sort of help you figure out SOME idea of what you need to earn. There is a forum for England in the General Forums, so could be someone there has also lived here and can give you a proper estimate. There are other forums concerning moving issues, finances, maybe you can get someone to give you an estimate in those forums, too.
Thanks gigimac.
I currently earn £1321/month gross in part time employment.a business's we are considering owner currently pays themselves $3000/mth gross, roughly what I would get if I was f/t here.
Income tax is £139.00, national insurance another tax we have to pay is £79/mth.
Tax is roughly the same as there but we only pay it on what we earn after the first few thousand per year.
Housing is by far more expensive here, so what we save in mortgage we can use on health insurance! Thanks for the link, health insurance is confusing!
I think eating out is more expensive here, but groceries perhaps,similar.
Here internet and mobile phone and tv may be less?
Public transport is generally ok, outside of London where we are one 15 min bus journey is about $7! London it would be much less.
We pay property tax, called council tax, supposed to be for local services. We pay £150/month about $240, our house is pretty modest, 3 bed, perhaps 1400 square ft.
We also pay car tax about £160/year, insurance about £300/year, that is on a cheap car, experienced driver.
Our sales tax is 20%!
Looked at poverty line for England, seems what I earn is on the line, just as well i have a husband. He brings in £1500/mth after tax.
To compare directly we net £2500/mth about $4000, if we earnt that in Asheville would that be enough, health care would be paid instead of mortgage?
Or another question, would $3000 gross/mth plus what husband can earn as a plasterer, property renovator, be enough!!
We have 2 kids.
Thanks!
I didn't count mortgage in my post because you said you would not have to pay for a home, so your comment about switching that for health care doesn't fit with my previous thinking. If you or your husband were to work FOR someone else and receive a paycheck with benefits that included health care coverage, at least you could save some on that possibly astronomical cost. I had briefly considered, when making my post, of the number $40,000 gross per year for family of four to make it okay, it is about double the poverty line here, but I am stupid with numbers and so left it to you to add and subtract how some particular yearly income might work.
I enjoyed reading your costs in England, I visited there twice many years ago, loved the train system, wish we had kept up that particular nicety, but in America, cars are king, you cannot live here without a car, unless you live in a very large place like New York City. I would do a give-and-take with you on all that, but I have not worked in a long while, so I cannot do personal comparisons.
As for what your husband could make here as compared to the UK, and considering it is expensive to live in Asheville, and yet sometimes the pay is not as good as some places, I couldn't say how much he could pull in on top of your earnings. Also, I included TV and Internet in utilities, but not mobile phones, as we intensely dislike the shock of the ring, plus the terrorist "I'm not a telemarketer" foreigners on the other end.
So, as I said in the beginning, I would hate to hazard a guess. Plus I know nothing about owning and runnning a business except what some funny people on TV said the other day, something like, "You have to be willing to spend all your savings, sell everything you have, and give away your children if you have to."
To compare directly we net £2500/mth about $4000, if we earnt that in Asheville would that be enough, health care would be paid instead of mortgage?
As a Brit who travels between England and Asheville I should point out not to use the currency exchange rate for comparing UK income/ costs with US income/ costs. In other words, if you earn £2500/mth in the UK, there is no easy way to convert that to what you might earn here.
Example: A TV in UK may cost £500. Would it cost $500 x 1.59 (exchange rate) = $795 in the US? Actually, it would probably be around $500. Oddly I have often noticed that US and UK prices are often the same numerically. Like fish at £12/pound is around $12/pound here. Does that mean it is cheaper here? Only if you are bringing your UK money with you, like a tourist. But if you are planning to earn it here it will depend on your earning capacity.
I would suggest you look at the typical pay rate for your skills in UK then see what the pay rate is here in the US. From that you can determine what your income might be. Then you could look at your costs, as gigimac has outlined so well, and determine from that what your standard of living would be here.
Overall I find it is cheaper to live here than in the UK, though that is changing slowly. For my line of work I can earn roughly 2 times as much here as in the UK. I can save half of my income here whereas I'd be hard pressed to save anything in England.
Not knowing what your business is I cannot say whether it would find a place here, you might want to check that out before making the leap. Regrding health insurance I would suggest going for very high deductible policies if you are generally healthy. You can always look at the NHS as a backup if needed in a serious situation.
Most families of 4 in the US make at least 60k between two earners to be comfortable. (30k each is the low end for those with bachelor's) Especially in asheville where prices are higher than the rest of Nc (housing, gas, groceries). I wouldn't be comfortable living here with 2 kids to depend on me unless I was making at least that especially if I had to pay for my own health insurance.
Consider this, I'm sure you want to go visit family, at least once or twice a year, thats 4-10k gone right there in plain tickets depending if you can catch a sale at tickets of only 1k each. You WILL have to purchase a car or two, so bank on another 7-14k a year on 3 year financing unless you can pay up front. 3-5k at the low range for a private family health care plan, another 2k or so for car insurance. Internet and electric another 2k. .....it quickly disappears.
Last edited by saucystargazer; 06-26-2011 at 02:14 PM..
One other consideration, jukes, is the fact that self-employed people must pay both the employee and employer share of Social Security and Medicare taxes. Employees only see their share of those taxes and are often surprised that if they become self employed, those taxes essentially double. So, if you are deciding you need to raise your income, your business revenue will have to increase accordingly (or net profit decrease).
Talk to your accountant about the ins and outs of that.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
