Confusion with filling up i-864 as self employed

[nachosph 0]

I just started being self employed on August of this year, my question is on the "current individual annual income" do I put what I will be making from August-December, or do I estimate what I will be making from August-August 2015? I know this may sound stupid, but it is really bugging me, and I really do not want to make any mistakes at this stage of the process, since it is now a 60 day wait for reviewing.

[Nich-Nick 3,354]

I just started being self employed on August of this year, my question is on the "current individual annual income" do I put what I will be making from August-December, or do I estimate what I will be making from August-August 2015? I know this may sound stupid, but it is really bugging me, and I really do not want to make any mistakes at this stage of the process, since it is now a 60 day wait for reviewing.

The I-864 wants to know your CURRENT income, so whatever the previous job paid isn't part of that question. If you can use your Aug to Dec income to predict what you would earn in a full year, then do that. The tricky thing about self employment is you don't have an employer letter or monthly pay stubs to verify that future income so the tax return becomes more important as a proof of yearly income. Your tax return income (for 3 years) is asked for in a different part of the I-864.

Another thing with self-employment is your yearly income is reduced by all the business deductions you would take on a tax return. So if you took in $30,000 income but deducted mileage, supplies, business travel, phone, etc totaling $10,000; then your yearly income is $20,000 as shown on a tax return. You won't have a full year of self employment on the tax return you present for the I-864, but you might want to consider what kind of business expenses you will be deducting when you estimate your current income carried out to a year. That would be a schedule C tax form). Yeah...kinda difficult. You need a crystal ball.