Do I need to pay quarterly taxes on just income from my side business/hobby selling on Etsy or on all of my income including my full time salary job?

[sbennett1818]

I am getting ready to open an Etsy shop and I am assuming that I will need to pay quarterly taxes on the income I bring in. I have tried to use online calculators to get an idea of what the payments will be but it seems like they want me to include the income I make from my full time salaried job. Because taxes are already withheld from my salaried job this does not make sense. Also, because I am just getting started do I need to make a quarterly payment in April if I have not had any sales yet and therefore have no income?

[ChristinaS]

You only have to pay estimated taxes if your full time job withholding is not adequate.

Are you claiming 1 or 2 on your W4 at work? If so, lower that to 0 or choose 0 plus additional $10/$25 per paycheck. You don't need to make estimated tax payments if you can pay in more via your FT job.

Etsy is tough- do you expect this to have a major positive result on your income? If so, then you may need to make estimated tax payments if you aren't used to a sizable refund from the W2 job.

You don't make estimated taxes for the W2 job- they already take out taxes.

Your tax liability just from the Etsy work might be 15% for Self-Employment Tax plus 15-20% for regular income tax (depending on high your income is in general) on the net income (income minus all expenses).

You are not required to pay estimated taxes if your W2 withholding can cover this.

[sbennett1818]

So let's say for example I make $1000 for the year and have $400 in expenses bringing down the net income to $600. Then I would figure to owe $90 in SE Tax and $90-120 in income tax. So total I would owe $180-210 in taxes for the year. If paid quarterly then I would pay $45-53 every quarter. Right?

[ChristinaS]

Making estimated tax payments for such a small profit is not required (nor would it make sense). Your SE tax on $600 income would be less than $30 (the first $400 is not subject to SE).
Do you normally get a refund? Would SE tax of $30 plus another $150 ($180) cause you to owe on your taxes?
Your Etsy profit will be on your tax return along with everything else.

[sbennett1818]

My husband and I normally do get a pretty hefty refund every year so taking $180 out of it would not be a big hit. With just starting this Etsy shop and not knowing what my profit will actually be, I want to be cautious and aware of doing everything by the books. I don't want to be surprised come tax season next year because I wasn't making the required estimated payments and take a hit on our usual refund that we have become accustomed to.
You said that making estimated tax payments on such a small profit is not required. At what point does the profit become substantial enough to require quarterly estimated payments?

[ChristinaS]

When you would owe on your taxes otherwise. I would just increase my W2 withholding. If you usually have a hefty refund, overpaying the IRS even more just doesn't make sense. You are not doing anything wrong to not make estimated payments when you usually have a big refund and aren't yet raking it in via Etsy.

[sbennett1818]

Thanks for your help! This has cleared up a lot of questions.

[ChristinaS]

You're welcome! Best of luck with Etsy.