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Employee
June 1, 2019
Question

I am an independent contractor. Can we cover my self-employment tax and income tax by increasing my husband's withholding instead of paying estimated taxes quarterly?

  • June 1, 2019
  • 1 reply
  • 0 views

I have just started a job as an independent contractor. I expect to make about $15,000 a year and have been looking into the tax implications. My husband works as a salaried employee through his job and has taxes withheld through his paycheck. We file our taxes jointly. We are trying to figure out if we can increase his withholding to cover what I will owe in Self Employment Tax and income tax, or if I need to pay estimated taxes quarterly. It makes sense from what we've found that adjusting his withholding could cover my portion of the income tax we will owe, but we're unclear if it could also cover the self-employment tax - or if that's something I'll need to pay quarterly regardless. Thank you so much for your help! 

1 reply

Employee
June 1, 2019

I am not a tax pro.  However, I have been doing exactly that for years.  They really don't seem to care how it gets to them, just that they have it on the schedule that they require. That is, make sure that in a given quarter, the additional withholding amount matches what you would have paid in estimated taxes.

Employee
June 1, 2019
Agree with kemptm