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Has anyone considered the Qualified Joint Venture election? My accountant suggested this for our situation. If both spouses materially participate in the business, you can elect to be treated as a qualified joint venture instead of a disregarded entity. This lets you split the income between spouses without setting up formal employment. You'd each file a separate Schedule C and split the income according to your ownership interests (could be 50/50 or whatever split makes sense). Each spouse gets credit for Social Security and Medicare. This avoids payroll taxes and quarterly filings but still gives both spouses credit for working.
I actually hadn't heard about this Qualified Joint Venture option before. Would this mean we'd need to change our LLC registration with the state too? Or is this just a tax election? Also, would we still get the liability protection of an LLC this way?
This is just a tax election, so you wouldn't need to change your state LLC registration. You'd still maintain the liability protection of the LLC. The Qualified Joint Venture election is made simply by filing your tax return as a QJV - you file a joint return, but each spouse files a separate Schedule C, Schedule SE, and any other required schedules. The main requirement is that both spouses must materially participate in the business, you must be the only owners, and you must file jointly.
Quick question - I'm using TurboTax for my taxes and have a similar situation with my single-member LLC and spouse helping out. Does anyone know which option is easier to handle in tax software? W-2 employee vs. Qualified Joint Venture?
In my experience, the W-2 route is more straightforward in TurboTax. The Qualified Joint Venture requires more manual manipulation in the software. TurboTax asks if you want to report a business, then you'd need to create two separate Schedule Cs manually and split everything correctly yourself. With W-2, the software handles everything through the normal employment sections.
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Don't panic too much about the unfiled returns. I was in your exact situation last year (hadn't filed 2019-2021 with business income). What really helped me was starting with the most recent year first, then working backward. The older returns felt less overwhelming once I had the current one done. Also, if you have any business losses in those years, make sure to document them carefully! I was able to carry some losses forward which reduced what I owed significantly. And don't forget about the home office deduction if you were working from home.
Did you do all this yourself or hire someone? I'm in a similar situation but wondering if tax software can handle unfiled business returns from previous years or if I need a professional.
I started with tax software but quickly realized I was in over my head with the business portion, especially for multiple unfiled years. I ended up hiring a CPA who specializes in small businesses and self-employment taxes, and it was 100% worth the cost. The CPA found numerous deductions I would have missed, like partial deductions for my car when used for business purposes and some home expenses beyond just the home office. They also helped me structure my payment plan with the IRS when I couldn't pay the full amount right away. If your situation involves any complexity at all with business income, I'd recommend a professional. The peace of mind alone was worth it, and the money they saved me in deductions more than covered their fee.
Whatever you do, DON'T ignore this any longer. My brother didn't file for 3 years (had business income too) and the IRS eventually garnished his wages and put liens on his property. It was a nightmare to fix and cost way more than if he'd just filed late.
How long did it take before the IRS took action? Were there warning notices first or did they just start garnishing out of nowhere?
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I had the same issue last month! What worked for me was selecting Form 1040, then choosing "social security" as the payment type, and using 12/2020 as the tax period. Make sure you're not selecting "estimated tax" or any other payment type, as that will direct your money to the wrong place. Also, print out your confirmation page after submitting the payment. I learned the hard way that the EFTPS email confirmations sometimes get delayed or lost, and having that paper confirmation saved me when I had to prove I made the payment on time.
Did you also have to file an amended return, or was the payment enough? I'm not sure if I need to do additional paperwork or if just making the EFTPS payment takes care of everything.
Just making the payment is enough - you don't need to file an amended return for this specific situation. The deferred social security tax was always a payment timing issue, not a tax calculation issue. When you make the payment correctly through EFTPS, the system will match it with your outstanding liability. Just make sure you keep your payment confirmation for at least 3 years in case there are any questions later.
Has anyone had their deferred social security payment incorrectly applied? I followed what I thought were the right steps on EFTPS, but when I checked my account a month later, the payment had been applied to my regular 2025 estimated taxes instead of the 2020 deferred amount. Now I'm stuck in a loop trying to get it corrected.
This happened to me too! Call the EFTPS customer service line at 800-555-4477 (not the regular IRS line). They can help reassign the payment to the correct tax period and type. Have your confirmation number ready. I was able to get mine fixed within a week. Don't bother with the general IRS line for this specific issue - the EFTPS folks can handle it directly.
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You should think of cash tips as similar to credit card tips in terms of tax treatment. For credit card tips, you're collecting the money and then distributing it to employees - clearly part of their wages. Cash tips ultimately work the same way in the tax code, even though they go directly from customer to employee. Smart move is to factor the approximate employer tax on tips into your overall business model. At my restaurant, we assume about 15% of sales will be tips, so we include the expected employer FICA in our pricing strategy. That way you're never caught off guard.
That makes sense from a business strategy perspective. Do most POS systems automatically track this for you? I'm using a pretty basic one right now and doing some calculations manually which is where I noticed this issue.
Most modern POS systems have tip tracking features, but they vary in sophistication. Basic systems might just record the tips but not calculate the tax implications. More advanced restaurant-specific POS systems will actually estimate your employer FICA obligation from tips and can generate reports for payroll. If you're using a basic system, it might be worth upgrading if tips are a significant part of your business. In the meantime, a simple spreadsheet that calculates 7.65% of reported tips will give you a quick estimate of your additional tax responsibility. Some owners I know actually set aside this percentage from daily sales automatically to cover the eventual obligation.
Has anyone figured out the best way to handle cash tip reporting for employees who work multiple jobs? I have a server who also works at another restaurant and we're both confused about how the tip allocation requirements work when someone has split employment.
Each employer is separately responsible for their own FICA taxes on tips earned at their establishment. Your employee needs to keep tips separate by workplace and report them accordingly to each employer. You're only responsible for tips earned while working for you.
Oliver Brown
To answer your original question - in my experience CPAs are worth it in certain situations: 1. If you're self-employed or have rental properties 2. If you have complicated investments or cryptocurrency transactions 3. If you've had major life changes (inheritance, bought/sold property) 4. If you're close to retirement and need tax planning For your situation (two W-2s, standard mortgage), probably not worth the $300-500 a good CPA would charge. You might be better off just adjusting your W-4 withholding at work to avoid owing next year. The standard deduction is so high now ($27,700 for married filing jointly in 2023) that most people don't itemize anyway, making tax situations much simpler than they used to be.
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Mary Bates
•This is good advice. I'm a bookkeeper (not a CPA) and I always tell people that the best time to hire a tax pro is BEFORE the tax year ends, not after. By April 15, most of what can be done has already been determined by your actions the previous year.
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Reina Salazar
•Thanks, this really helps put things in perspective. We definitely fall into the simpler category. I did adjust my W-4 after this surprise, but I was mainly wondering if we were missing something obvious that a professional would catch. Sounds like for our situation, probably not enough to justify the cost.
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Clay blendedgen
Has anyone tried those tax planning apps that let you estimate your taxes throughout the year? I've been thinking about using one since I got surprised with a big tax bill last year too.
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Ayla Kumar
•I've been using TaxCaster from Intuit (free app) to do quarterly check-ins on our tax situation. It's not perfect but it helps me see if we're on track or need to adjust withholding. Saved us from a surprise last year when my wife got a big bonus that was under-withheld.
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