Hello!
My spouse and I have a question about our tax return. I am employed with a W-2 and he is self-employed. After filing and paying our taxes for 2022 it appears that Turbo Tax taxed us for our entire gross income (even though mine should have been taken out already through my employer). How can I contact Turbo Tax to make sure this is checked out? Taxes are always confusing to me so perhaps I am wrong, but it doesn't seem to add up correctly. What is the best course of action for us? Thanks so much!
When you file a joint return you are taxed on all your income combined. Did he pay any quarterly estimated taxes to cover the self employment tax? The withholding is not broken out to one person. You can try filing separately but then the tax rates are higher.
Make sure that you entered all of the boxes from your W-2. As long as you entered all the numbers correctly, you can rest assured that TurboTax did not double-tax your income. Tax is applied to all of your income. However, if you entered the amount from Box 2 of your W-2, that amount is credited to your tax liability.
You probably notice the extra taxes generated from your spouse's self-employment income. When you are self-employed, you must pay both the employer and the employee portions of social security and medicare tax. This is the Self-Employment Tax and it is 15.3% on top of the ordinary income tax that is due. You should have a Schedule SE in your tax return where you can review this. The link has more information as well.
Tax Tips for the Self-Employed The good news is he can also use Schedule C to list his deductible expenses for things such as advertising, insurance, employee wages, and equipment he purchased to do your work. Expenses will lower his net income and therefore his SE tax.
If he made estimated tax payments, you can enter those by following the instructions here.