On one screen, it said my self-employment tax was $994. A couple of page later, in the summing up of what I owe, the self-employment tax was doubled to $1,988. Why?

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
February 13, 2025
1 reply
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The discrepancy seems to be a software problem. I have checked & doublechecked my entries, but the site is consistently giving me two different numbers -- & that's a considerable difference in my tax liability.

Best answer by VolvoGirl

How much is the Net Profit on your Schedule C? You might be seeing 1/2 of the SE tax that is used for other things.

Self Employment tax (Scheduled SE) is automatically generated if a person has $400 or more of net profit from self-employment. You pay 15.3% SE tax on 92.35% of your Net Profit (If it is greater than $400).

VolvoGirlAnswer

How much is the Net Profit on your Schedule C? You might be seeing 1/2 of the SE tax that is used for other things.

yksinainenAuthor

Thanks for your reply. I finally was able to talk with a human being at TurboTax, & he explained that the $994 referred to a half-off deduction for the full self-employment tax. So I still ow the full $1988, but half that amount was deducted elsewhere. Or something like that. (I'm obviously not a tax expert.) In the end, I attribute the confusion to lack of clarity in the wording TurboTax had in explaining along the way. But next time I'll know.

Thanks again.

VolvoGirl

Yes I was going to mention that. You get to take off the 50% ER portion of the SE tax as an adjustment to your regular income on 1040. It will be on Schedule 1 line 15 which goes to 1040 line 10.

You are paying 15.3% SE Tax for…..
SS for employer 6.2%
SS for employee 6.2%
Medicare for employer 1.45%
Medicare for employee 1.45%