How do I file my taxes on Jan 15th? I have W2 income from January 2024-March 2024 then I quit my job. I have no income from April to October. Then 1099 income in Nov& Dec

[drghadaelsayed]

How di I estimate the taxes to pay on my Nov and Dec income.

[xmasbaby0]

When you prepare your tax return, the income you received is just going on as income received during 2024--it is not broken down by the months in which you received the income.    You do not mention what kind of 1099 you will have---will it be a 1099NEC for self-employment income?  Did you work as an independent contractor?  If so, you will be paying self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare.   ALL of your income from every source will go on the same tax return, including the W-2 income and any income on any kind of 1099, etc.  If you  only had self-employment income for two months, you may not need to send in an estimated tax payment--you can just wait and see if you are going to get a refund or owe with your tax return.   We cannot see any of your information and you have not shared your filing status, whether you have dependents, etc.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901110-do-i-need-to-make-estimated-tax-payments-to-the-irs

Try entering your information in the Tax Caster to get an estimate of whether you will owe.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/taxcaster/

SELF EMPLOYMENT INCOME/“side jobs”

If you have self-employment income for which you will pay self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare,  you will need to use online Premium software or any version of the desktop software download so that you can prepare a Schedule C for your business expenses.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2926899-how-does-my-side-job-affect-my-taxes

https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/form-1099-nec/1099-nec/L5qTsBiSe_US_en_U...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/self-employed/help/how-do-i-report-income-from-self-employment/00/...

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/self-employed/help/what-is-the-self-employment-tax/00/25922

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/2902389-why-am-i-paying-self-employment-tax

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901340-where-do-i-enter-schedule-c

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/3398950-what-self-employed-expenses-can-i-deduct

https://blog.turbotax.intuit.com/self-employed/self-employed-tax-deductions-

calculator-2021-2022-50907/

If you live in a state with a state income tax, you might need to make estimated payments to your state.

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/self-employed/

https://ttlc.intuit.com/community/business-taxes/discussion/self-employed-don-t-miss-these-tax-moves...

[DoninGA]

If you have self-employment income of $400 or more then you have to report the SE income and expenses on Schedule C.  The Schedule C is part of and included with your personal federal tax return, Form 1040.

The Net of your SE income will have SE taxes owed which is 15.3% of the Net SE income.

You will need to upgrade to the Premium online edition to report the SE income and expenses.

See this TurboTax support FAQ for Schedule C - https://ttlc.intuit.com/turbotax-support/en-us/help-article/import-export-data-files/enter-schedule-...

[xmasbaby0]

And...by the way----you do not have to file your tax return on January 15.    The IRS is not accepting e-files until late January.   If you are making an estimated payment for the last quarter of 2024 you have until 1-15 to make that payment, but you might not even need to make a payment by 1-15 until you see if you owe tax for 2024.   If you owe less than $1000 there will not be an underpayment penalty.

[drghadaelsayed]

I appreciate your response greatly, thank you 🙂 

To answer your questions: I work as an independent contractor - this is my 1099 income. I have no dependents and single. 

My W2 will not be available until the end of January and this is making it a little difficult for me to make accurate estimation. 

I'm just trying to get an idea of how much to pay the IRS for January and I understand it's an estimate but do not want to get a penalty for an inaccurate estimation. 

Thanks a lot. 

[VolvoGirl · Accepted solution]

Send in about 20% oh your 1099 income.   You will pay Self Employment tax (Scheduled SE) on a Net Profit of $400 or more on Schedule C in addition to regular income tax on it.   You pay 15.3% SE tax on 92.35% of your Net Profit (If it is greater than $400).  The 15.3% self employed SE Tax is to pay both the employer part and employee part of Social Security and Medicare.  So you get social security credit for it when you retire.  

You must make quarterly estimated tax payments for the current tax year if both of the following apply:

- 1. You expect to owe at least $1,000 in tax for the current tax year, after subtracting your withholding and credits.

- 2. You expect your withholding and credits to be less than the smaller of:

    90% of the tax to be shown on your current year’s tax return, or

  100% of the tax shown on your prior year’s tax return. (Your prior year tax return must cover all 12 months).

[baldietax]

for the W2 you can estimate it based on your last pay stub which should have YTD figures for wages, Fed tax, social sec, medicare withholdings etc.  I use turbotax to generate an estimate and come back later and do an official version once I have the final forms.  On the W2 box 1 "wages" is net of any 401K contributions and box 3/5 wages for SS/Medicare are your "gross pay".  It can get a bit more nuanced with other benefits but you should be able to plug in enough for the W2 and then your other 1099s etc to get a pretty close estimate.  You can also figure out how to line up the W2 to your pay statement to plug in the numbers if you have them from 2023.

[Chris-was-here]

You don’t need to file a full return on Jan 15th—your 2024 return is still due April 15, 2025. What Jan 15 refers to is the final quarterly estimated tax payment. Since you had no income for most of the year and then picked up 1099 income at the end, you’ll just want to make sure you’ve either:
• Withheld enough tax from your W2 earlier in the year, or
• Made an estimated payment by Jan 15, 2025 to cover the 1099 income from Nov/Dec.
Then, when you file your return in April, you’ll reconcile everything.

Easiest step: check your 2024 withholding vs your total expected tax liability. If you’re short because of the 1099 work, make a Jan 15 payment to avoid penalties.