u/GeologistCorrect6892

Hi everyone, I’d appreciate some guidance and please bear with me since I’m completely new to taxes and self-employment.

I started earning income from my YouTube channels about a year ago, but I haven’t filed or paid taxes yet. My channels are faceless content channels (not vlogs), and YouTube is currently my main source of income. I already have a TIN from my previous employment.

I now want to fix my situation properly and start paying taxes as a self-employed/content creator. Can anyone explain the correct step-by-step process for doing this?

I also have a few questions:

• Do I need to declare the income I earned over the past year, even though I haven’t filed anything yet?
• Is it possible to start fresh from this year onward instead?
• Since my income comes directly from YouTube ads/revenue and I’m not selling physical products or services, I don’t really issue invoices or receipts. How does that work for tax filing?
• What documents or records do I need to prepare or keep?
• Are there any penalties I should expect for not filing earlier?
• Am I also required to declare all of my YT channels? For example, if I have 20 channels, do I have to list all of them? Do I have to register them as a business, since I really have a lot of channels and the earnings are combined?

Any advice, especially from freelancers, especially YouTubers who have gone through the same process, would really help. Thank you!