How to file taxes if I work as a private instructor with varying income?

You'll need to file as self-employed since you're basically running your own small business as a tennis coach. The good news is setting up your Roth IRA after filing is pretty straightforward! For the tax filing itself, you'll need to complete Schedule C (Profit or Loss from Business) to report your income and expenses, along with Schedule SE for self-employment tax. These will attach to your standard Form 1040. Since you're receiving payments through Zelle and cash, you're responsible for tracking and reporting that income yourself. Regarding estimation - you should make your best effort to report your actual income. Going forward, I'd recommend keeping a simple spreadsheet or using a free app to track each payment when you receive it. For your expenses, keep receipts for anything related to your coaching (equipment, travel to lessons, etc.) as these may be deductible.

I was in almost your exact situation last year when I was teaching guitar lessons part-time! Tracking all my random payments was driving me crazy until I found this tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that helped me sort through all my payment records. It basically analyzed my Venmo history and bank statements to help me figure out my actual income. The cool thing was it could differentiate between personal payments and business payments, which was super helpful since my Venmo was a mix of friends paying me back for dinner and students paying for lessons. It also helped me identify business expenses I could deduct that I hadn't even thought about. Ended up saving me a bunch on self-employment taxes!

Just wanted to update - I decided to give taxr.ai a try after my initial skepticism, and I'm genuinely impressed. I've been doing photography side gigs for years and my payment tracking was a complete mess. The system identified almost $800 in business expenses I would have missed on my own! The expense tracking feature is what really sold me - it found patterns in my spending that were clearly for my photography business but I never would have thought to categorize properly. It also made it super easy to set up quarterly estimated tax payments so I don't get hit with a huge bill (and potential penalties) at tax time. For anyone doing side gigs with irregular income, it's definitely worth checking out.

If you're serious about getting your taxes sorted out, especially with a mix of cash and electronic payments, you might need to talk to the IRS directly. I had a similar situation last year with my tutoring business and needed clarification on some self-employment deductions. Trying to call the IRS was a nightmare - waited on hold for HOURS and kept getting disconnected. Then I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that somehow got me connected to an actual IRS agent in under 15 minutes. You can see how it works in this video: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c They had this callback system that held my place in line, and I got real answers about how to handle my cash income. Knowing I was filing correctly gave me so much peace of mind.

Well I need to eat my words. After being skeptical about Claimyr, I tried it yesterday because I was desperate to resolve a question about reporting my freelance income. I've been trying for WEEKS to get through to the IRS. I was connected in about 20 minutes, and the agent walked me through exactly how to handle income reporting when you don't have perfect records. She explained that I should make a good faith estimate based on the records I do have, and suggested some simple methods for tracking going forward. Completely worth it just for the stress relief of knowing I'm doing things correctly. No more tax anxiety keeping me up at night!

Practical tips from someone who's been teaching piano lessons for years: 1) Get a separate free checking account just for your teaching income. Transfer all Zelle/Venmo payments there immediately. Deposit all cash there too. 2) Take pictures of cash with your phone before depositing as an extra record. 3) Use a simple notes app to track lessons - date, student name, amount. Takes 10 seconds after each lesson. 4) For the Roth IRA, you can contribute up to the amount of your earned income or the annual limit ($6,500 for 2025), whichever is lower. 5) Since you're under the $5,000 threshold, tax software like FreeTaxUSA will let you file self-employment income for free or very cheap.

For the Roth IRA part - just want to emphasize that contributing to retirement in your teens/early 20s is SUCH a smart move! I wish I had started that early. Just make sure once you file your Schedule C and pay your self-employment tax, you open the Roth with a reputable company like Vanguard, Fidelity, or Charles Schwab. They all have good mobile apps now and no minimum investments for their index funds.

If ur making under $5000 dont even bother filing tbh. I didnt file for 3 years when I was doing odd jobs and nothing happened. The IRS doesnt care about small amounts.

As someone who went through this exact same situation when I was 20, I want to emphasize a few key points that might help you feel more confident about the process: First, don't stress too much about perfect record-keeping for this past year - the IRS understands that many people doing casual work don't have pristine records. Make your best good-faith estimate of your total income and document how you arrived at that number. For your Schedule C, you can deduct reasonable business expenses even without perfect receipts - things like tennis balls, equipment, gas money for traveling to lessons, etc. Just be reasonable and honest. Going forward, definitely set up better tracking. I use a simple spreadsheet with columns for date, student name, amount, and method of payment. Takes 30 seconds per lesson and saves hours during tax season. One thing I wish someone had told me: even though you'll owe self-employment tax (about 15.3% on your net profit), you'll likely get most or all of your income tax back due to the standard deduction. So don't panic about owing huge amounts. The Roth IRA is absolutely worth it at your age - compound growth over 40+ years is incredible. You're making a really smart financial decision here!