What Professional Do I Need To See For Financial Advice Not Related To Investments?

Factual Questions
1

I need financial advice. So I need a financial advisor, right? Except don’t they deal almost exclusively with investments and charitable contributions and shit? I have a much more specific and immediate situation involving taxes, the Affordable Care Act, and related matters (which, if you’re invested (ha) in reading about, you can read at the end of this post).

So do I need to see an accountant? A financial advisor like I initially thought? Another professional?

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As concisely as I can explain this: When I signed up for my Affordable Care Act policy in December 2020 I was making a hair above that. However, I lost that job, then started making money as an independent contractor. Now I’m making roughly twice what I was making, give or take. I need to report this to the Health Care Marketplace, but I need to have some idea of what this is going to do to my insurance rates, whether I need to start looking at off-the-shelf policies, etc. And then there’s the matter of taxes; as an independent contractor, there’s no withholding, yada yada yada. So I need someone who knows their shit to help me get a plan in order.

2

Sounds like you need an accountant. Or at least those are all services that my CPA provides amongst so many more she is also a cop though I don’t use those services.

3

Your CPA is a cop? Like a police officer?

4

Wow, I guess autocorrect caught me. No, the cop should be cfp.

5

Whew!

I had a coworker once (a Financial Analyst) who was moonlighting as a sheriff’s deputy. In a place where sheriff’s deputies were the main LEOs (i.e. not just running court security and jails). Incidentally I had to bail him out of jail once in another state for DUI pled down to Reckless Driving, which made no difference to his employer (sheriff or county). Yay Kansas!

But a self employed CPA seemed like a stretch.

6

The OP wants to talk to a CPA about the taxes and to the local “Obamacare” help-you-find-insurance counseling outfit to get some ide of what the insurance rates are doing in your changed circumstances. You might be able to find one entity that does both competently, but I doubt it.

AIUI, the latest COVID support bill made some significant changes for 2021 in the insurance subsidy mechanism. So the answer for your 2020 situation and your answer for 2021 and future may be very different.