Total income $2650....why is Fed tax due ?

[kellehs]

Trying to complete my daughter's return.....her 2019 income was $806 on a W2 from her retail job, and $1850 on a 1099MISC from her Instacart food delivery gig. $2656 total income.

No Fed tax withheld in either case, but I'm confused as to why Turbo Tax is saying that there is $261 Fed tax due.

Where/how/when is the single person's allowance of $12,200 applied ? What am I missing ?

Thanks to anyone out there who can shed some light.

[Anonymous]

self employment tax.  an amount that should be $261.  $1850 * 92.35% * !5.3%.   even with 0 income tax you still have to pay the SE tax you earned from work you performed for which you did not receive a w-2. 

[NCperson]

just to add to @Anonymous  excellent response, if your daughter was an employee half that $261 would have been  withheld from her paycheck in the form of social security and medicare taxes. And then the employer would have paid a similar amount for their share of those same taxes.  

If you are self employed, the government still collects the same amount, but it all comes from the "employee'  It is collected regardless of the standard deduction amount.   Otherwise, there would be HUGE incentives to be self employed and literally  NO ONE would be paying into the social security fund or to the medicare fund