Are Taxes Taken Out of My Paycheck?

There was a question a few weeks ago from Ryan:

What do you do about taxes? Are they automatically deducted, or do you just get cash and expected to 1099 everything? I’ve heard some people say you only get paid cash, some say you can direct deposit, and some say that Americans get deductions, but generally not anyone else.

Uh…ok, so I’ve been obviously stalling on this one because I’m not entirely sure of the answer. I don’t really remember what happened when I was a crew member. I’m sure that there are others on the site that could give a better explanation – perhaps someone can leave a comment with more info.

My Father is a CPA (accountant), which probably explains why I know so little about taxes (he does it all for me – thanks Dad!). I asked my Father about this, and I will relay what I remember him telling me about this.

• Taxes were not taken out while I was a crew member in Europe, but I did have to pay federal taxes, even though I was out of the country.
• As a guest performer, I was hired by a production company and paid through wire transfer as an independent contractor (again, no deductions).

In both of these situations I had to keep track of my income and pay my taxes quarterly.

Regarding payment in cash, it is true that they pay in cash. If you don’t have direct deposit set up with the cruise line, they will pay you in cash once a month. Obviously, it can get a little hairy to have that much cash sitting around, so unless you’ll lugging along a safe or have some other plan, I would recommend setting the direct deposit up as soon as you get on the ship. Ghostwriter recently reported that he is able to set up wire transfers directly from his cruise ship, so you might consider looking into that too.