I guess that I'm not alone in my frustration with this part of TurboTax. As others have mentioned, in the past I've just eaten the approximately $500 penalty, not wanting to take the time to calculate it all out (although, again like others, I put together a spreadsheet to simplify the process). But after at least 4+ years, that works out to a couple of thousand dollars -- which I should be keeping in my pocket (and for the $500 I could just pay someone else to do my taxes -- so TurboTax becomes a less attractive option).
I'm confused by a few items:
- the instructions indicate "Self Employment Earnings" (which is true, for me -- but my spouse has W2 income, and her income appears to be included in the total AGI number for the 4th period -- her income is very steady, while mine is erratic which leads to the underpayment/penalty). So do I include her income in the 3 periods requested? Gross? Net of Deductions? (and if we're taking the Standard Deduction, do I just spread that across the periods, vs using actual deductions calculated for each period?) I'm just a little (OK, a lot) unclear.
- Likewise, I also qualify for the Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction, and that is also requested for the 3 periods. As it should, it only appears to apply to my income (self-employment income) but I have no idea as to how to calculate the numbers in my spreadsheet - is the 20% reduction off of Gross or Net? Is 20% even the right number? To complicate matters, I also have rental income -- does that also take advantage of the QBI deduction? Again, how is all of this calculated?
I realize that TurboTax doesn't know when the income was generated (which month/period) so I'm completely understanding of having to calculate that "on the side" but some guidance from them would be helpful with regard to what should be included/excluded from each period's calculations.
