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fully funding your IRA, 401K, SEP IRA, what-have-you [...] Paying quarterly taxes is a bitch

Well, there's no way to make it cheaper, but there are ways to make it easier. For the last few years I've used companies that let me, more or less, outsource the paperwork to somebody else. I've heard them called employer-of-record services.

The basic deal is that I go on doing my contracting thing, except that when we get to signing the paperwork, I have my client call them. Then the shell company invoices my client and pays me regular paychecks after deducting for whatever benefits (401k, health, dental, life insurance) that I choose to buy from the menu of options they've set up.

It's great in that it let me focus on the stuff I like (finding and doing the work) while they take care of all of hassle of benefits, invoicing, and taxes. It's especially nice to have them play bad cop when a client is late paying an invoice.

I've used Zero Chaos in the past, but didn't like them much. A couple of years back I switched to mybizoffice.com which, other than the dorky name, has been great. They've been flexible about contracts and billing arrangements, and they always pay on time.

if you found the job yourself and was told to go to a 'body shop' to front-end you, you are really bringing the business to the body shop and you should know that the body shop should take about 23% of your income.

I used the shell-company-for-hire ZeroChaos for six months or so last year and was quite happy with them. The employer paid the fee on that one, but my recollection was that ZeroChaos charges a flat $300 per month.

You still have to pay all the various taxes that you would as an independent, but that's still better than 23%. And ZeroChaos also would let you buy benefits (including health insurance and a 401k) through them, which saves some hassle.

If not, there are some self-service consutling companies out there such as FreeAgent and ZeroChaos. They do the billing, taxes, 401(k), insurance, direct-deposit, etc. You pay a monthly fee (~$300) plus insurance premiums.

But when your contract is over, they don't find you a new one. And they don't pay you until your client pays them, so be prepared to get paid irregularly.

They bill your clients and deposit the money (minus both sets of taxes, your health insurance fees if you want health insurance, whatever money you want to put into their 401(k) plan, and a roughly $300 per month fee) into your bank account.

It's simple to set up and saves a ton of time. Best of all, you make more money than your co-workers because they have to give 30% of their billings to their consulting companies.

I've looked into independent contracting. I even did a business plan. Right now rates where I am are shyte. I do plan on incorporating in my home state, New Hampshire. NH next to DE has easier to take rules on incoporating.

If I did contract I would outsource my payroll and billing to an "Employer of Record" firm. Basically they do all your payroll, taxes, billing and collections for you; freeing your time up for more billable hours. They collect the money from your clients, cut you a W-2 paycheck. Also you can get business insurance at a good rate. All for a small fee. You're still working for yourself but don't have the hassles of nitty-gritty of doing your own payroll and collections.

In the eyes if your banker and the IRS, you are a W2 employee but you get to call the shots as a contractor. These agencies also offer discount health and dental insurance. they offer retirement savings plans as well. Take a look at Youcor [Yucor], a company that offers this service. Also there is ZeroChaos and Guru.com has similar services.

I too use Zerochaos.com; I cannot compare it to freeagent for I have not used them- however I can say that Zerochaos saves me time and money by handling the administrative overhead.

I used FreeAgent.com and was very disappointed with their services. I now use ZeroChaos. I have found them responsive and caring. They actually assign you to a individual service rep who will take care of everything.

Hello!! Why are so many of you so made that this article is up, apparently again. I did not read slashdot when Coulombine occured, however it appears there are a lot of sharped tongued people out there. I don't know of Jon Katz and his previous articles- but if you don't like it- don't read it. How productive is it to voice such anger, espcially when some people have experience so much pain. Safe Travels,