Getting paid, honestly

Passing the card fee to your client is allowed in most US states — and it's a compliance project, not a line item. Visa's rules, New York's $500 penalty, and why most freelancers should price it in instead.

Stablecoin payment numbers are wildly inflated — the New York Fed says under 10% of the volume is organic. What's left is still real, still growing, and genuinely useful for exactly one freelance problem.

The reporting threshold jumped from $600 to $2,000, so the 1099-NEC pile arriving next January will be much shorter. Same tax bill, fewer receipts — and your own invoice records doing a job they never had to do before.

A card payment isn't final for 120 days. What a chargeback actually does to your balance, the 7–21 days you get to answer it, and why the boring invoice record is the only argument that travels.

The federal 1099-K threshold is $20,000 and 200 transactions again. But Illinois files at $1,000, six places at $600, and Rhode Island at $100 — and what you owe never depended on the form arriving.

Card, ACH, wire, check — every payment rail has a different lag between paid and spendable. Why paid is three different days, and how to plan around the one your bank agrees with.

59% of self-employed Americans have income that swings month to month. The case for retainers — and a recurring-invoice loop that doesn't auto-charge anyone's card.

52% of projects experience scope creep. A three-sentence system: name it, price it in writing, and put it on the invoice as its own line.