TurboTax Self-Employed does have an estimated tax calculator, but in my experience it doesn't handle the annualized method very well. It more focuses on the equal payment method. I ended up using the IRS worksheets anyway. QuickBooks Self-Employed does a better job with variable income and quarterly calculations, but it's still not perfect for true annualization calculations.

Thankfully I don't have any capital gains stuff to worry about right now! It's just straight freelance income. If that changes I'll definitely get professional help.

That's a really good point I hadn't considered. I'm in Tennessee which I think doesn't have state income tax, but I should double check how they handle capital gains specifically. Do you know if there's a good resource to check different state rules?

You're in luck with Tennessee! They don't have a state income tax on earned income or capital gains. They used to have something called the Hall Tax on investment income, but that was fully phased out as of 2021. I usually just google "[state name] capital gains tax rate" and look for the official state department of revenue website for the most accurate info. Each state has different rules and exemptions, so it's worth checking the official source.

That's not really helpful. People at all income levels have legitimate tax questions, and capital gains rules are complicated. Plus, we don't know OP's situation - they could have owned those properties for decades and this might be their retirement money.

You're right, sorry for the negative comment. Tax season makes me grumpy. I just get frustrated seeing the different tax rates for different types of income. Wishing everyone good luck with their filings.

I completely forgot about social security taxes, thank you! Do you know if there's a minimum threshold for this? Like if I'm only there for 8 months, would that change anything about Social Security obligations?

For Social Security taxes, the duration of your stay doesn't typically create a minimum threshold. If you're employed by a US company, they'll generally continue to withhold Social Security and Medicare taxes from your paychecks regardless of where you're physically working, unless there's a totalization agreement with that country. As far as I know, the US and Kenya don't have a totalization agreement, so you'd continue paying into the US Social Security system. The good news is this means you'll continue earning credits toward your eventual US Social Security benefits, even while working abroad.

I'm not a tax expert, but from what I understand, Kenya typically doesn't consider you a tax resident unless you're there for 183+ days in a year. Since you were only there for 3 months (presumably less than 90 days), you likely weren't subject to Kenyan income tax. If you did everything correctly with your US taxes and reported all your income there, you probably don't need to worry about filing anything retroactively for Kenya. But if you're concerned, it might be worth consulting with a tax professional who knows the Kenyan tax system.

That's a relief! Yes I was there for exactly 89 days and did report everything on my US taxes. Was worried I might have some surprise tax bill waiting for me from the Kenyan government. Thanks for the info!

This is really helpful! Is this something I need to manually override in TurboTax? Or is there a specific section where I should be entering this information?

In TurboTax, you need to look for the section about "home sale" or "sale of home" and there should be questions about how long you owned and used the home. When it asks why you sold before meeting the 2-year requirement, select "divorce" or "unforeseen circumstances." If you can't find this option, you might need to use the "form view" rather than the interview format. Look for Form 2119 in TurboTax. If you're still having trouble, the "Help" search function in TurboTax and searching for "partial exclusion" should guide you to the right section.

This! When I got divorced last year, my accountant made this exact point. Each person files their own portion. Your gain would be even smaller if split properly.

Thank you for pointing this out! I think this might be part of the problem because I was trying to figure out how to split everything in TurboTax and wasn't sure if I was doing it right. So I should be reporting only half of everything - half the purchase price, half the selling price, and half of all the associated costs?

Whoa, I had no idea about the Recovery Rebate Credit! I definitely didn't get any stimulus money before because my parents claimed me. How do I check if I qualify for this? Would it be a significant amount?

You should qualify if you didn't receive the third stimulus payment (which was $1,400) and you're now filing as independent. Most tax software will ask you questions about this specifically - something like "Did you receive the third Economic Impact Payment in 2021?" It's definitely significant - it would be up to $1,400 added to your refund! Your tax software should help calculate this, but make sure you answer the questions about Economic Impact Payments carefully. If your parents received the payment for you as their dependent in 2021, you wouldn't qualify, but if no one received a payment for you, you likely will.

This is such an important distinction! I messed this up my first time filing too. I thought by selecting "Single" as my filing status, I was automatically indicating that I was claiming myself. But they're totally different questions on the tax forms.