Understanding why so much is taken out?

I made the mistake of not filing quarterly taxes due to needing the money. I understand now (a little too late) that you get penalized for it. That aside, being an independent contractor has resulted in a 30.1% IOU to the IRS, and that's after including my home office expenses. Doesn't seem right to me. Is there something I could be overlooking that would help reduce the amount I'm being asked to pay??? This seems excessive. We even opted to have more deducted from my husband's paycheck in 2023 to compensate for the previous year when I also didn't pay quarterly. No other changes to our taxes from previous years either...