Retirement tax questions

You say you worked for a family, does that mean you worked for your family, or for a small family run business but you were not related?

 

If you were an employee and not related to the owner, the employer should have withheld social security and medicare tax.  If you were an independent contractor, you were responsible for your own taxes including self-employment tax (the self-employed version of social security and medicare.)  See here for information about the difference between being an employee and an independent contractor.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/independent-contractor-self-employed-o...

 

If you were an employee, then your employer screwed you, no matter how "nice" they seemed.  You can file a form SS-8 to start an investigation.  If the IRS determines you should have been classified as an employee, you will be credited with the missing social security withholding, and the employer will be charged plus significant penalties.  https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-ss-8

 

If you were an independent contractor, check your tax returns.  You should have a schedule C and a schedule SE.  If you have neither, you screwed yourself.  If you reported the income as "other income" and not as self-employment, turbotax is not an all-seeing eye that can look at your situation and tell you that you are wrong.  If the company was treating you as an independent contractor, they should have given you a form 1099-MISC (before 2021) or a form 1099-NEC (after 2021).  Turbotax would ask questions to categorize the income as self-employment or other miscellaneous income, but if you answered wrong, the program doesn't know that.

 

I think you should take your employment documents and past tax returns to a tax professional who can help you assess the situation. 

 

If you worked for your family, there are some special rules and exemptions for social security withholding.  I would have to look them up to be sure, and we would need to know more about the specific relationships.