The Accounting System
for Freelancers
and Business Owners
Transactions import and get categorized for your review — no spreadsheet, no shoebox. Your estimated tax position updates as the year goes, so April isn't the first time you see it. An accounting system, not a filing tool. From $19/mo.
Starting price after beta
Bank access, no payment permissions
Quarterly deadlines tracked for you
During beta, no card required
The Bookkeeping Work, Automated
WriteOff isn't just another accounting tool. It combines tax-aware bookkeeping with strategy surfacing in one system.
Real-time tax estimates
See a running estimate of what you may owe, updated as transactions come in.
Strategy Finder
AI surfaces strategies that match patterns in your data — S-Corp election, the Augusta Rule, hiring family, and more — with rough dollar estimates to take to your accounting professional.
Books That Mostly Keep Themselves
Transactions import and get categorized for your review. Invoicing and mileage included. Less monthly upkeep than QuickBooks, Xero, Wave, or FreshBooks ask of you.
WriteOff Assistant
Text a receipt in and it’s matched to the transaction and kept with your books. Ask about your books, generate reports, and run bookkeeping actions the same way — what you instruct is recorded for your review.
Compliance Tooling
1099/W-9 collection, receipt SSN screening, tax-law updates, and a year-end checklist. You remain the filer of record.
Built for Real Life
Handles dependents, married filing jointly, and multiple entity types.
How Automated Bookkeeping Works
Four steps, from connecting a bank to handing off clean books.
Connect Your Bank
Securely link checking, savings, and credit cards through a bank-data aggregator. Read-only — WriteOff cannot initiate payments or transfer funds.
Auto-Categorize
AI proposes a category for incoming transactions and learns from your corrections.
Track Taxes Live
Your estimate updates as transactions sync.
Hand Off Clean Books
Export to your accounting professional or filing software. WriteOff does not file for you — it makes filing a short conversation.
How the Math Works
The same business, run two ways, carried all the way to the federal tax bill — so you can see which strategies are worth raising with your accounting professional and roughly what they could be worth.
Hypothetical example — not a projection for you
Made-up facts for one imaginary taxpayer, shown to illustrate the arithmetic. WriteOff has not evaluated your situation and cannot tell you whether any of this applies to you. Your own numbers will differ.
Every input
- Net business profit
- $120,000
- Filing status
- Single
- Tax year
- 2026
- W-2 salary, S-corp
- $72,000
- Distribution, S-corp
- $48,000
- Home rental rate
- $200/day × 14 days
- Payroll service
- $600/yr
- 1120-S preparation
- $1,000/yr
- Standard deduction
- $16,100
- Social Security wage base
- $184,500
The same $120,000, run two ways
Self-employment tax applies to net earnings, which IRC §1402(a)(12) computes by subtracting half the 15.3% rate: $120,000 × (1 − 7.65%) = $110,820. Both bases below sit under the $184,500 wage base, so the full 12.4% applies to each. Income tax is computed on the 2026 federal rate schedule for a single filer, against the 2026 standard deduction of $16,100.
| Sole proprietor | S-corp | |
|---|---|---|
| Net business profit | $120,000.00 | $120,000.00 |
| W-2 salary | — | $72,000.00 |
| Distribution | — | $48,000.00 |
| SE / payroll tax base | $110,820.00 | $72,000.00 |
| SE tax / payroll tax @ 15.3% | $16,955.46 | $11,016.00 |
| …deducted above the line | $8,477.73 | $5,508.00 |
| Home rental, §280A(g) | $0.00 | $2,800.00 |
| Adjusted gross income | $111,522.27 | $111,692.00 |
| Less standard deduction | $16,100.00 | $16,100.00 |
| Less §199A deduction | $19,084.45 | $7,938.40 |
| Taxable income | $76,337.82 | $87,653.60 |
| Income tax | $11,506.32 | $13,995.79 |
| Plus SE / payroll tax | $16,955.46 | $11,016.00 |
| TOTAL FEDERAL TAX | $28,461.78 | $25,011.79 |
| Cost to run it | $0.00 | $1,600.00 |
| Total outlay | $28,461.78 | $26,611.79 |
| Left after federal tax and costs | $91,538.22 | $93,388.21 |
$1,849.99 less, all in.
Total federal tax, minus what it costs to run the S-corp. Both strategies below are ones WriteOff surfaces from your books — the arithmetic is the same arithmetic shown above.
$1,357.19
S-corp election
$5,939.46 less payroll tax, less $2,982.27 more income tax, less the $1,600 it costs to run.
$492.80
Home rental, §280A(g)
$2,800 excluded from income. Worth less than 22% of that, because the exclusion also trims the §199A deduction.
Pro pricing is planned, not live — beta accounts are free and take no card. The two strategies above are hypothetical, so this is arithmetic on an example rather than a projection of what you would save.
Why the payroll saving isn't the whole saving. W-2 wages are not qualified business income. Moving $72,000 of profit into salary cuts the §199A deduction from $19,084.45 to $7,938.40, which hands $2,489.47 of the payroll-tax saving straight back as income tax. Taxable income here is below the 2026 §199A threshold of $201,750, so the wage limitation does not apply and both columns take the full 20%.
The salary is the lever. Reasonable compensation is what the work is worth — comparable pay for similar duties, hours, and experience. It is not a share of profit, and there is no safe percentage. A lower salary saves more payroll tax and is harder to support. Where yours should land is a determination for your accounting professional, not for this page.
§280A(g) applies where a residence is rented for less than 15 days in the year: no rental deduction is allowed to the owner, and the rental income is not included in gross income. The statute says nothing about the rate charged, and nothing about who the renter must be. Whether the businessmay deduct the rent is governed by §162(a), which allows only “ordinary and necessary” expenses — an unsupported above-market rate is challenged there, not under §280A(g). Comparable local rates and a record of the days are what support the figure.
Why the sole-proprietor column is $0.The strategy needs two taxpayers: one to deduct the rent, one to exclude the income. A sole proprietor is not separate from the business, and neither is a single-member LLC — the IRS treats it as “an entity disregarded as separate from its owner.” There is no one to rent from. §162(a)(3) allows a rent deduction only for property “to which the taxpayer has not taken or is not taking title or in which he has no equity,” and Publication 587 states it directly: “If you own your home, you cannot deduct the fair rental value of your home.” An S-corp is a separate taxpayer filing its own return, so the lease has a party on each side.
§280A(g) has been in force unchanged since the Tax Reform Act of 1986, and it applies “notwithstanding any other provision of this section.” One thing not to stack on top of it: §280A(c)(6), added by the same 1986 act, blocks a home-office deduction on space you rent to your own corporation and work in as its employee. The exclusion is unaffected — just do not claim both on the same space.
Retirement contributions are not shown. A solo 401(k) is available either way, the amount differs by entity and salary, and the tax on it is deferred rather than saved. Worth a separate conversation, not a line in this one.
This is federal tax only. Your state adds its own, and state treatment of S-corps varies widely — some do not recognise the election at all.
2026 figures. Limits and brackets change annually.
Sources: Social Security wage base and rates, IRS Topic 751 and Publication 15 (2026); standard deduction, tax rate schedules, and the §199A threshold, Rev. Proc. 2025-32; disregarded-entity treatment, IRS “Single member limited liability companies”; rent on a home you own, IRS Publication 587. It is an illustration, not advice — confirm your own position with your accounting professional.
Get Early Access to WriteOff
WriteOff is in private beta and we onboard in small batches. Request an invite and we will email you when a spot opens. Beta access is free and no credit card is required.
⚠️ WriteOff is not a substitute for professional tax advice. Consult your accounting professional for your specific situation.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. WriteOff is an accounting system, not tax filing software. It keeps your books current, tracks deductions, and estimates what you'll owe as the year goes — then exports clean records to you or your accounting professional at filing time. Filing the return itself is done elsewhere. WriteOff helps you prepare 1099-NECs for contractors you pay. Transmission runs through a third-party provider and you remain the filer of record.
Yes. WriteOff supports sole proprietorships, single-member LLCs, and S-Corps. The Strategy Finder models a rough S-Corp comparison from your income. Whether the election is available or advisable is a question for your accounting professional.
WriteOff connects to thousands of US banks and credit unions. Connect checking, savings, and credit card accounts. All connections use encryption in transit and at rest, with read-only access — WriteOff cannot initiate payments or transfer funds.
WriteOff is in private beta and access is invite-only. Request an invite on the waitlist page and we email you when a spot opens. Beta access is free and no credit card is required. When we start charging we will tell you at least 30 days beforehand and you can decide then.
WriteOff encrypts data in transit and at rest, connects read-only through a bank-data aggregator; your bank credentials are handled by that aggregator and are not stored on our systems. See our security page for details.
Every plan includes invoicing and mileage tracking. Starter ($19/mo) covers core bookkeeping. Pro ($39/mo) adds the Strategy Finder, 1099/W-9 management, and up to 2 business entities. Premium ($109/mo) adds the WriteOff Assistant and up to 3 entities. Enterprise is custom-priced for unlimited entities — built for production and rental companies that hold one entity per asset.
Yes — the spouse seat add-on lets a second user (your spouse) access the account for married-filing-jointly workflows, including joint income tracking.
Not necessarily — but it makes your accountant's job much faster. We run a partner program that gives accountants access to every client from one login, plus a referral commission that starts at 10% and rises to 15% past 3 active clients and 20% past 10. Each referred client pays out for 12 months from their signup, and there is no limit on how many you refer. Program terms are confirmed in writing when you join.
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