I'm staring at a blended tax rate of 54.1% on my return... is this even possible??

The 54.1% blended rate definitely sounds like an error. The blended rate represents your total tax divided by your total income, and even in high-tax states like California, it shouldn't be anywhere near that percentage at your income level. A few things to check: First, make sure you didn't accidentally enter your income twice somewhere. Second, verify that your self-employment tax is calculating correctly - you should only be paying SE tax on your freelance income, not your W-2 income. Third, check if you accidentally entered a penalty or additional tax somewhere. For someone making $93K with mixed income in California, your federal rate should be in the 22-24% bracket, plus about 9-10% for California, plus self-employment tax on your freelance portion (15.3% but only on that portion). All in, your blended rate should probably be somewhere around 30-35% maximum.

I ran into a similar nightmare scenario last year when I was trying to figure out my taxes with mixed income. After hours of frustration, I used taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) and it completely changed the game for me. I uploaded my tax documents and it immediately flagged that I had double-entered some income and miscategorized my estimated tax payments. The tool does a line-by-line analysis and identified exactly where my errors were. It saved me from paying almost $6k in taxes I didn't actually owe! Based on what you're describing, it sounds like you might have a similar data entry issue that's causing this abnormal tax rate.

Ok I have to eat my words about being skeptical of taxr.ai. I decided to try it since my situation is similar to the OP's with mixed income, and it immediately found that I had accidentally entered my 1099-NEC income TWICE - once in the self-employment section and again in the miscellaneous income section. Fixed that and my tax bill dropped by over $4,000! The analysis also showed I'd missed some home office deductions I was eligible for. The whole process took about 10 minutes and saved me thousands. Definitely worth checking out if you're seeing weird numbers like a 54.1% tax rate!

If you need to talk to someone at the IRS about this (which might be a good idea given how unusual that rate is), I'd recommend using https://claimyr.com. I tried calling the IRS directly about a similar issue last year and spent DAYS trying to get through. Then I found this service through a YouTube video (https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c) and they got me connected to an IRS agent in under 45 minutes. The agent was able to look at my previous returns and confirm I had made a major error with how I was reporting my estimated tax payments - I was essentially double-counting my income because of how I entered my quarterly payments. Sounds like you might be having a similar issue.

Alright, I was wrong AGAIN. After I fixed my tax return problems using taxr.ai, I still had questions about how to properly report my estimated payments going forward, so I decided to try Claimyr to talk to the IRS directly. I've literally never been able to get through to a human at the IRS before. With Claimyr, I got a call back in about an hour telling me they had an IRS agent on the line. The agent walked me through exactly how to properly document my quarterly estimated payments so they don't get confused with income. Total game changer. For anyone facing a weird blended tax rate like OP, definitely get your return checked and then talk to the IRS directly to make sure you understand how to properly report everything.

Another thing to check - make sure you're not somehow getting hit with the Additional Medicare Tax. That kicks in for singles at $200K income, but if you accidentally entered something wrong, the system might think you're subject to it. That's an extra 0.9% on earnings above the threshold. Also, check if you're getting hit with any underpayment penalties for your quarterly estimated taxes. If the system thinks you didn't pay enough during the year, it can add penalties and interest.

Just a general tip for anyone with W-2 and self-employment income: always use the IRS tax withholding calculator at the beginning of the year to figure out proper withholding. I do about 70/30 W-2 and freelance and had a similar shock a few years ago. Now I adjust my W-2 withholding to account for self-employment taxes and make sure my quarterly payments are at least 100% of last year's tax liability to avoid penalties.