We owe (MFJ) for the first time in forever and I'm not sure why.

[Mom2twingles]

Hubby earned $5,500+ more than last year with his employer. I earned $740 less as an NEC (school board stipend and I work as an independent contractor for a family member). Last year we got over $1700 back from federal, and over $800 from state. This year we OWE $1035 to federal but are still getting over $800 back from state. Hubby said he did not change anything on his W4 (he claims 0 dependents so we always get money back). I'm not sure if the salary increase changed our tax bracket. I had his W2 uploaded from a picture so I deleted it. Based only on my NEC info, we would have gotten money back. As soon as I added his W2 information by hand, we owed. Is my NEC then to blame? It didn't affect us last year, though.

Before COVID, he was in a different line of work and made $30K more, yet we still got money back. My NEC payments were less this year, so I'm trying to figure out if his payroll taxes are to blame or if something else is going on. I had to care for my elderly dad who is battling major health issues and two of our three daughters (one is an adult) had medical issues last year as well, which resulted in large medical bills (high deductibles from health insurance). We do not have an HSA, and my dad doesn't qualify for Medical. Therefore we had to set up payment plans for the girls' medical bills, and we ate my tiny loss of income as I can't become my dad's paid caregiver. We have no other write-offs except the standard deductions and 2 child dependents.   

[xmasbaby0]

You have self-employment income and have to pay self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare.  Did you prepare a Schedule C for your business expenses?

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

And...you say your spouse earned more.  More income = more tax.

And.....you cannot judge by only entering some of your income and watching the refund monitor.  That thing starts out by giving you the married filing jointly standard deduction, so right off the bat, $27,700 of your income was "tax free."   You cannot ever take the refund monitor seriously until ALL of your income is entered.

We cannot see your return.   Print out 2022 and 2023 and lay them side by side to compare them line by line and find the differences.

[Mom2twingles]

I have, or at least Turbo Tax completed Schedule C using the 1099 NECs that I have. I am doing everything the same way I did it last year. I realize that my NEC status screws up our end picture, but it did not seem to do that last year. Comparing hubby's W2 he made over $5,500 more but his Federal income tax withheld was only $466 more than 2022. That isn't much of a difference to me, but I have no idea how federal income taxes are calculated. 

When my husband made $100K (more income = more tax) I had only the smaller NEC from a board stipend, so I assume it didn't make a big dent in the overall picture. My NEC is now more, and my hubby makes less, so I will assume that is the reason we owe. Sadly, I took the NEC job for my family member because my husband switched careers and took a major pay cut. My job allows me to care for my dad, and earn a small income, but clearly, that is biting us in the ass.

[Mom2twingles]

I also realized our twins turned 17 near the end of the year but still before the year-end, so we lost $4K in child tax credits...perfect storm.

[xmasbaby0]

@Mom2twingles Ouch---yes----when they turn 17 you lose the child tax credit and instead you get the $500 credit for other dependents instead.