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drchance
December 11, 2022
Question

I'm self-employed my wife works for a company

  • December 11, 2022
  • 5 replies
  • 0 views

I know this issue may be simple but I cannot find anything online about it and my chat session with QBSE was unhelpful.

In short, I'm self-employed, my wife is not. I filled out the QBSE profile and entered my wife's information including her W2 income. However, QBSE never asks how much is being withheld from my wife's annual salary. And what I think QBSE is doing, is assuming her income is additional income that needs to be added to mine to calculate quarterly taxes. So, on 120K annual income, I end up paying a little more than 42K at the end of the year (around 10K per month). That's a 35% tax bracket ... it doesn't even make sense even if she didn't pay taxes but she has a normal job with taxes, insurance, etc. withheld each month.

For the last 2 years I get this incredible refund around April 15 but I'd rather get a much more accurate quarterly tax schedule. Honestly, my work is very simple ... no employees, some mileage reports, routine invoices for services only (no products being sold) ... it doesn't seem like it should be this convoluted. Has anyone else seen this issue?

    5 replies

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    Giovann_G
    December 12, 2022

    Thanks for letting us know, drchance.

     

    I know this wasn't easy for you since you've contacted our support about your tax obligation as a self-employed person. QuickBooks Self-Employed is design to help you record your self-employed income and expenses, track mileage, and prepare your Schedule C. The software calculate the estimated taxes depend on the tax information entered in the system.

     

    There isn't a need for you to enter your wife annual W2 income if you filed your taxes separately. You'll have to update your tax information to get the exact taxes.

     

    Here's how:

     

    1. Click the Setting icon found at the upper part of the page.
    2. Select Tax profile.
    3. Choose No in the Filing jointly? section.
    4. Once done, hit Save.

     

    This set up will give you an accurate estimated amount to pay the IRS. Check out this link for more details: Review your tax profile in QuickBooks Self-Employed.

     

    Additionally, always check the IRS website for the updated tax payment schedule to prevent tax penalties.

     

    If you have further questions or concerns, let me know. I'll be around to help you.

    D
    drchanceAuthor
    December 12, 2022

    Giovann_G,

     

    We actually file "married filing jointly".

    It seems like QBSE assumes that if you are married filing jointly, your spouse must be self-employed as well and thus, all of their income is subject to quarterly taxes. I just find it difficult to believe that this kind of arrangement (one spouse self employed and the other works for a company) isn't easily handled QBSE.

     

    I'm not expecting QBSE to be 100% accurate on the quarterly taxes but it seems to me that the application would need some additional data to get relatively close. For example, Are you married? Yes. Are you filing jointly? Yes. What is your spouses income? 100K. What is their average monthly tax withholding? 3K.

      DHeraV
      DHeraV
      December 12, 2022

      I appreciate you reaching back to us regarding your tax filing concern, @drchance,

      Since you're using QuickBooks Self-Employed (QBSE), we wanted to ensure that the appropriate department could assist you further. By this, I recommend posting your concern to our TurboTax Support forum. 

      They are our partner support for issues relating to self-employment tax filing. They can give you advice on how to file jointly with your spouse. You can post your inquiries here. 

      Feel free to leave a reply if you require further assistance with tax filing in QBSE. The Community team is here to help anytime. Have a nice day!

      J
      JonpriL
      December 14, 2022

      Hi there, @drchance.

       

      Yes, my colleague would like to let you know you'll be needing to contact our specialists online. As the Community is a platform addressing all technicalities about QuickBooks products, our tools do not include the ability to review customer information, like yours.

       

      I want to include that reaching out to our Customer Care Support is best during business hours from 5 AM-5 PM PT Mondays-Fridays. Use this article to learn more: How do I connect with a tax expert in TurboTax Live?

       

      I'm a post away if you have any other QuickBooks concerns. I wish you continued success in all of your business ventures. Take care!

      D
      drchanceAuthor
      December 15, 2022

      @JonpriL  ... The last time I talked to QBSE's "specialists online", they told me I may need to hire an accountant. Why am I getting the run around on this basic question. QBSE keeps passing me off to different groups and now I'm being asked to go back to the tech support I started with ... phone support.

       

      You said "our tools do not include the ability to review customer information" but you really do not need any of my customer information for this problem. This issue is not specific to me and is not unique to any of my data. Simply use generic data ... pretend you make 50K a year ... and tell QBSE your married filing jointly and your wife also makes 50k ... but she works for a company that witholds taxes on her monthly check. QBSE will calculate your estimated taxes on 100K  which is not accurate.

      I'm trying to find out if there's a solution to this. If not, just say that QBSE cannot estimate quarterly tax based on that scenario. Maybe say something like ... the best we can do is just tell QBSE you're married filing separately ... your quarterly taxes will still be inaccurate ... but they'll be less inaccurate. 😕😕

        H
        HusbandPlayingBookkeeper
        December 21, 2022

        We have the exact same situation. 

         

        You are correct - their tax estimator assumes if filing jointly your spouse is also self-employed and thus gives you a huge tax liability estimate. 

         

        The quarterly tax calculator - which is a big part of why we use this - becomes useless. 

        Please post if you get a straight answer or fix!

          K
          Kratterpillar
          December 26, 2022

          I've also experienced my estimate jumping up significantly this December, with no extra income applied. I always save a little extra for quarterly payments, but when the difference is several thousand higher for a quarter, its a bit tough to swallow.

            B
            bryon41
            January 2, 2023

            I am having the same issue, and was relieved to find it's not just me. I was on top of my quarterly tax estimates when suddenly in December it told me I owed double what it had been telling me a week or two prior. I am self-employed and my wife is salaried and has her income tax withheld. Being able to track, estimate, and pay taxes is one of the primary reasons I'm paying for this software, and will have to look elsewhere if this function stays how it is now. drchance is correct in that having a field right next to our spouse's W2 income where we can indicate their monthly tax withholding would fix this completely. Indicating we will not be filing jointly is also inaccurate as it puts us in a completely different tax bracket. Please fix this ASAP QBSE!

              G
              gamer1girl
              January 30, 2023

              I am having this exact same problem!

              I tried getting help with the live chat QBSE has but they ended the sessions abruptly with 0 help.

              QBSE PLEASE add the option for the withheld amount on a W2!!

              G
              GlinetteC
              January 30, 2023

              Hello, gamer1girl.

               

              I know this hasn't been easy for you, as you've already contacted QBSE support about inputting your husband's withheld taxes. I'd still suggest reaching out to our TurboTax support again, as they can take a look into your account and assist you further.

               

              I would also recommend consulting with an accountant or tax advisor about this matter. This way, they can provide options for handling and recording the taxes properly.

               

              I appreciate your patience in this matter. If you have other questions, you can always post them here.

              G
              gamer1girl
              January 30, 2023

              Yeah everytime I've tried to talk about this specific issue and how to resolve it, I've been intentionally and abruptly disconnected from the live chat etc. TurboTax does not help much as this is specifically a QBSE issue.

               

              Obviously this appears to be a common issue and I'm sure you all here will only be seeing more of these exact questions approaching April. I'm just stunned that with such a simple problem (literally just one little box or section needed!) We are all given the runaround or told to consult an accountant. Calculating quarterly payments is a HUGE pro to QBSE and if that doesn't work because of an extremely common factor that's really sad and you'll be losing customers. 

               

              So please I urge for the option to add your spouse's W2 withholding amount to be added or returned as a feature!! 

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