Can I file joint taxes when my spouse has a new small business?
Title: Can I file joint taxes when my spouse has a new small business? 1 My wife just launched her photography business this year, and we're navigating the tax situation for the first time. She's already planning to work with a CPA for the business finances, but I'm confused about our personal tax situation. Can I still file our taxes jointly like I've done every year? Or do we need to somehow incorporate her business into our joint filing? I've been searching online and getting totally contradictory information about how this works. This is all new territory for us since she's never owned a business before. I normally handle our tax filing with TurboTax, but now I'm wondering if that's still possible or if everything has to go through her CPA. Any advice from small business owners or tax folks would be super helpful! Thanks in advance.
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Vince Eh
3 You can absolutely still file jointly! Your filing status (married filing jointly) is separate from how the business income gets reported on your tax forms. If your wife's photography business is a sole proprietorship (which is most likely if she hasn't formally created an LLC or corporation), her business income and expenses will be reported on Schedule C, which then gets attached to your joint Form 1040. The net profit from her business will be included in your household income. Her CPA can prepare just the business portion (Schedule C and any related forms like depreciation schedules for equipment), and then provide you with the completed Schedule C to incorporate into your joint return. Or you could have the CPA handle the entire return. Either way works! The only thing that would change your ability to file jointly would be your marital status, not the fact that one of you has a business.
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•6 This is really helpful, thank you! One follow-up question - if we decide to have her CPA do just the Schedule C part, how exactly does that work logistically? Would they just give us a completed form that we then enter into TurboTax ourselves?
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•3 The CPA would typically prepare the Schedule C and provide you with either the completed form or the specific numbers to enter. If you're using TurboTax, you'd just enter her business information in the self-employment section, which will create the Schedule C within your return. Most CPAs are familiar with this arrangement and can give you exactly what you need for your software. Just make sure you communicate clearly about who's handling which parts of the return to avoid any duplication or omission of information.
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12 Hey there! I was in a similar situation last year when I started my graphic design business. Tax stuff felt overwhelming until I discovered https://taxr.ai - it literally saved me hours of confusion. The tool analyzed our situation (my business + husband's W-2 job) and explained exactly how to handle the joint filing with my Schedule C business income. It confirmed we could still file jointly (which saved us money) and showed which business expenses were deductible. The best part was it helped me understand how estimated quarterly taxes work for my business income while still maintaining our joint filing status. Seriously made everything so much clearer!
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•8 Does it work if my spouse is doing an S-Corp instead of a sole proprietorship? Our CPA recommended we set up an S-Corp for tax advantages but now I'm even more confused about how our personal taxes work.
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•14 I'm a bit skeptical about these online tools. How detailed does it get with explaining state-specific business taxes? My wife's photography business operates in multiple states and I'm worried about missing something important.
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•12 Yes, it absolutely works with S-Corps! The tool explains how the income flows from your S-Corp to your personal return through a K-1 form, which is different from a sole proprietorship's Schedule C, but still ends up on your joint return. It walks through exactly how that works. For multi-state business operations, that's actually where I found it most helpful. The tool breaks down state-specific requirements and shows which states require separate filings based on your business activities. It specifically flagged some filing requirements for a state where I had only done two projects that I would have completely missed otherwise.
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14 I need to come back and say I was totally wrong about being skeptical of https://taxr.ai. After our discussion, I decided to give it a try for my wife's multi-state photography business situation. The analysis clarified EXACTLY how to handle the state tax filings for her business while still doing our joint federal return. It identified that two states required separate business filings I wasn't aware of, but confirmed our personal taxes could still be filed jointly regardless of her business structure. It actually saved us from making a pretty big mistake with how we were planning to handle equipment depreciation. Couldn't recommend it more for anyone with a spouse running a small business!
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17 If you're dealing with business tax questions, you'll probably need to talk to the IRS at some point. After waiting on hold for 3+ hours trying to confirm how my wife's new business affected our joint filing, I finally found https://claimyr.com which got me connected to an IRS agent in 15 minutes instead of the hours I wasted before. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c They basically hold your place in the IRS phone queue and call you when an agent picks up. Literally saved my sanity during tax season when I had specific questions about our Schedule C filing with our joint return. The IRS agent confirmed everything the previous commenters mentioned - you can absolutely still file jointly!
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•20 Wait, how does this actually work? The IRS just accepts this service jumping the queue somehow? Seems too good to be true with how notoriously bad their wait times are.
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•9 Yeah right. No way this works. I've spent DAYS trying to get through to the IRS about my wife's business tax ID questions. If this actually worked everyone would be using it.
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•17 It's not about jumping the queue - they literally just wait on hold for you in your place. The system keeps your spot in line and then when an IRS agent finally answers, it connects the call to your phone. You still wait the same amount of time overall, but you don't have to personally sit there listening to hold music for hours. They use a combination of automation and actual people to monitor multiple calls at once, which is how they're able to offer the service. The IRS has no idea you're using a service - from their perspective, it's just a regular call that happened to stay on hold until an agent was available.
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9 I have to eat my words. After being completely skeptical, I tried the Claimyr service for our business tax ID question. It actually worked exactly as described - got a call back in about 45 minutes and was connected directly to an IRS agent who answered all our questions about filing jointly with my wife's photography business. The agent confirmed everything mentioned here: we can absolutely file jointly with her business income on Schedule C, and the estimated quarterly tax payments she makes for the business don't affect our ability to file jointly. Saved me literally hours of hold time and the anxiety of wondering if we were doing everything right.
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5 One thing nobody mentioned yet - make sure your wife keeps really good records of all business expenses and income! My husband started a side business last year and our tax filing got delayed because we had to go back and organize all his expenses and receipts at the last minute. Also, don't forget about estimated quarterly tax payments. Since taxes aren't automatically withheld from business income like they are from a regular paycheck, you might need to make quarterly payments to avoid a penalty when you file.
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•10 What's the threshold for when you need to start making those quarterly payments? My wife's photography business is just getting started and probably won't make much profit the first year.
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•5 Generally, you need to make estimated tax payments if you expect to owe $1,000 or more in taxes when you file your return. For a new business, it can be tricky to estimate, but it's based on the profit (income minus expenses), not just the total income. Since your wife is just starting out, you might not need to worry about this the first year if she's investing in equipment and has more startup expenses than income. But it's definitely something to keep in mind as the business grows. The IRS website has a worksheet to help figure out if you need to make these payments.
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22 Quick tip from someone who's been filing taxes with my husband's small business for years - you might want to open a separate bank account and credit card just for the business. Makes tracking expenses SO much easier at tax time. Also look into what business deductions you can take - my husband's photography business was able to deduct equipment, a portion of our home for his office space, mileage to photoshoots, etc. Those deductions really added up on our joint return!
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•16 Do you need a business license before you can start deducting business expenses? My wife has been taking photography jobs but hasn't formally registered anything yet.
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