I'm employed but spouse is self-employed/sole-proprietor. Can I pay both our taxes?

[familie-p]

Our respective incomes are drastically different, and spouse's income from self-employment is less than 50k/year. We will file jointly, but I'm wondering if I can make an extra withholding in my taxes for their income tax, so they don't have to pay income taxes directly? I realize they still need to pay (2x) SSN and Medicare, but will this work? Is this a better strategy than them making quarterly income tax estimate payments?

Also, any other advice for filling taxes out jointly and successfully given our situation? Also, which TurboTax product would work for filing taxes for us? It's all new for us... thanks in advance for your help!

[ColeenD3]

Yes, you can certainly increase your own W-2 withholding to cover your joint tax liability. Another alternative is to make one single estimated payment in April to cover the rest of the year. You may do another payment before January 15 in case there is a shortfall.

You will need the Self-Employed or Home and Business Editions to include her information.

[Opus 17]

Assuming you file jointly, then it doesn't matter who pays the tax as long as the IRS gets the money.  You can certainly increase your job withholding to cover the taxes from your spouse's self-employment.  

Joint filing is almost always better even if your income is uneven.  You would file a schedule C for your spouse's SE income, and the net income after expenses is combined with your W-2 job and all your other deductions, credits and dependents on your main form 1040.  You don't file the business separately, unless it is an S-corp (which would be unusual, and would require legal and professional tax help to set up correctly.)

[familie-p]

Thank you so much! That helps a lot. 🙂