I just spent the last hour going through everything line by line and I found the issue! Somehow I had entered my quarterly estimated payments of $12,000 as "Additional income" rather than "Payments already made." So the system thought I had earned $105,000 AND hadn't paid any estimated taxes, which is why it was calculating such a high effective rate and saying I owed so much more. I fixed the entry and now my blended rate is showing as 31.4% and I'm getting a refund of $1,200. That makes WAY more sense. Thanks everyone for the help!

The withholding calculator is great but I found it super confusing with mixed income. Do you enter your anticipated freelance income somewhere specific? Or just add it to your total expected income?

You add your expected freelance income to the section that asks about "other income" not subject to withholding. Then it calculates both your income tax on that amount plus factors in the self-employment tax. The key is updating it a few times throughout the year as your freelance income might fluctuate. I usually do it quarterly right before making estimated payments to make sure everything still looks on track.

That's actually a great idea! I hadn't thought about approaching administration about this. Did you have to get a bunch of nurses together to request this, or was it something you could bring up individually? My hospital is pretty large so I'm not sure who I'd even talk to about starting something like this.

I started by talking to my direct supervisor, who directed me to HR. We eventually got several departments together (surgery, L&D, ICU) to show it was a widespread concern. The key was framing it as both an employee retention benefit and infection control issue - pointing out that hospital-provided caps would ensure proper laundering and replacement. I'd recommend starting with your unit manager and asking who handles employee benefits or uniform policies. Having a few colleagues support you definitely helps, especially if you can get someone from administration on your side. Even a small allowance is better than nothing!

Setting up an LLC can be helpful if you're doing independent contractor work, but it doesn't automatically change your tax situation. The key is whether you're working as an employee (W-2) or independent contractor (1099-NEC). If you're getting 1099 income, then you can deduct ordinary and necessary business expenses (like scrub caps used for that work) on Schedule C, whether or not you have an LLC. The LLC mainly provides liability protection, but for tax purposes, a single-member LLC is typically treated as a "disregarded entity" and you'd still report the income on Schedule C.

1 I just double-checked and you're right - Box 3 is filled out for "Other Income" rather than Box 7. Does that mean we don't need to file a Schedule C at all? TurboTax still seems to think we do though.

18 That's great news! If the amount is in Box 3 "Other Income" and not Box 7, then this is NOT self-employment income. You should report this on Schedule 1, Line 8 as "Other Income" instead of on Schedule C. TurboTax might be incorrectly guiding you through the self-employment section because it sometimes assumes 1099-MISC equals self-employment. You'll need to back out of the self-employment/Schedule C section and find where to enter miscellaneous income instead. Look for something like "Less Common Income" or "Other Income" in the TurboTax navigation. This should eliminate the self-employment tax entirely!

11 This is a really important point! My daughter checked the wrong box about being claimed as a dependent last year and it messed up both our returns.

Do you know if California has anything similar? I tried googling but got really confused with all the tax terminology.

California does have some education benefits, but they're a bit different from New York's. California doesn't have a direct equivalent to New York's tuition credit, but they do conform to many federal education tax benefits. For California, you'll want to look into the College Access Tax Credit Fund, which is a bit different - it's for contributions to a special fund rather than directly for your tuition. But it can still save you money if you qualify. California also generally follows the federal treatment of scholarship and fellowship income, so the same rules about taxable vs. non-taxable amounts would apply on your state return.

Thats scary! How likely is it to get audited for education credits? Now Im worried I'll mess something up.

Don't panic about it! Audits for education credits aren't super common, but they do happen. The IRS does flag some education credit claims for verification, especially if something looks unusual or inconsistent. Just make sure you're claiming expenses you actually paid for, keep your receipts (digital copies are fine), and don't try to claim things that aren't qualified expenses. Most people claiming legitimate education expenses with proper documentation have nothing to worry about - I only mentioned my experience to emphasize the importance of keeping good records.

Omg I didn't even think about the EIN! I need to go back and check that. Is that something I can see in my TurboTax filing or do I need to check the actual 1099 form?

You should check both your original 1099-DIV form and your filed return to compare them. In TurboTax, you can view your completed return as a PDF and search for the 1099-DIV section. The EIN should be listed there. If you find that the EIN is also incorrect, that would strengthen the case for filing an amended return. The EIN is a more critical identifier in the IRS matching system than the payer name.

Was it a CP2000 notice or something else? I'm in a similar boat and trying to figure out what to expect.