Why do I have to pay more than double this year if I'm making about 50% more compared to last year?

[Anonymous]

I have a 1099 Misc, last year my income was $20K and I paid about $3800, this year is $33K and it tells me I owe $8000??? that's more than double! why is that????

[Anita01 · Accepted solution]

1099 income is expensive in terms of taxes.  You owe not only income tax on it, but also social security and medicare tax.

Your tax does not go up at the same rate as your income.  You only get to take the standard deduction and personal exemption one time, so as your income increases much more of it becomes taxable.  Last year, for example, if you are single you only had about $10,000 in taxable income.  This year, after deducting your standard deduction and exemption for claiming yourself, you have over $20,000 in taxable income, so the proportion of your taxable income more then doubled.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for the reply! I see.

It is a lot of money lol ...I'm trying different options, like... last year I didn't add any expenses, at all. I'm a designer and work from home, last year I didn't add my home office because I didn't want to deal with all the expenses and all that.

Right now I'm trying to add details about my home office, and the miles I have to drive to see clients (25mi a day total-at least). It makes a big difference in how much I have to pay 🙂

[Anita01]

Yes, it does, the higher your income gets, the more worthwhile it becomes to carefully track and deduct your expenses.