self employment tax

[nkustura]

Hello all,
i have a client who is self employed and 100% of her income in 2014 was from self employment. Client hasn't made any estimated payments in 2014. When filed joint return with husband, there was no tax due since client's husband had enough taken out of his paychecks to cover tax on joint return. should the client still pay tax for self employment that is in schedule SE or will her husban's overpayment cover her self employment tax.

[Roland Slugg]

Is the couple still married? If so, they should file a joint return. If they are divorced, they have to file separate returns, and the H's withholding or overpayment will be completely unrelated to the W's current year tax, including her SE tax.

Too bad nobody advised her about this a year ago.

[nkustura]

yes, the couple is still married and will file joint return

[S T]

If you are filing a MFJ return, and husband has W2 withholding, and you have indicated that the Spouse C belongs to the Spouse, You should see a separate line item for SE tax on Page 2 - line 57 and the SE Form for the spouse. If the husband has over withheld from employment taxes on W-2 it is possible that will not produce a tax due on the tax return.

The spouse will still have credit on her SSA account for her SE tax via the tax return.

I usually have the spouse with SE make ES payments, but that is also a decision on MFJ couple and how they want to handle either via ES payments or the other spouse covering via the wages/withholding.

Sandy