My tax liability is crazy high compared to my income - am I calculating something wrong?

The high tax bill is likely because of your gig work income. When you earn money through gig work, taxes aren't automatically withheld like they are from a regular paycheck. That $11,000 of gig income is subject to both income tax and self-employment tax (which is about 15.3% to cover Social Security and Medicare). For gig workers, you generally should be making quarterly estimated tax payments throughout the year to avoid a large bill at tax time. The good news is you may be eligible for deductions that can help reduce what you owe. As a self-employed person, you can likely deduct business expenses like mileage, supplies, a portion of your phone bill, and other costs directly related to your gig work.

I was in almost your exact situation last year! My tax bill was insane compared to my income, and I was completely stressed about it. I tried everything - redoing my taxes multiple times, checking for mistakes, even considered paying for a professional. Then I found this tool called taxr.ai (https://taxr.ai) that basically analyzed my tax situation and found a bunch of deductions I was missing. The site helped me understand that as a gig worker, I could deduct mileage, a portion of my rent for home office, and even part of my internet and phone bills. It flagged that I was missing the Qualified Business Income deduction too. After applying everything it found, my tax bill dropped by almost $1,400! The tool explained everything in super simple terms that made way more sense than the tax software I was using.

Just wanted to follow up about taxr.ai - I decided to give it a try after being skeptical and wow, I'm impressed. The system identified several deductions specific to my gig work that I had no idea about. It found that I could deduct part of my car insurance (not just mileage), showed me how to properly calculate home office deduction, and explained which software subscriptions were 100% deductible vs. partially deductible. The biggest surprise was learning about the Qualified Business Income deduction that applied to my situation - that alone saved me over $800! The explanations were super clear and helped me understand why each deduction applied to my specific situation. I ended up reducing my tax bill by about $1,700 total. Definitely worth checking out if you're doing gig work.

If you're struggling to figure this out, and especially if you need to talk to the IRS about payment options, good luck getting through to them on the phone! I spent DAYS trying to reach someone at the IRS about a similar situation last year. After waiting on hold for hours and getting disconnected multiple times, I found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that actually gets you through to a live IRS agent, usually within 15 minutes. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c I was seriously skeptical at first, but after wasting an entire afternoon on hold, I tried it. Got connected to an actual IRS agent in about 12 minutes. The agent helped me set up a payment plan for my tax bill that I could actually manage with my tight budget. They also explained which penalties could potentially be waived in my situation. Saved me a ton of stress and probably helped avoid additional penalties from not having a plan in place.

I have to eat my words here. After posting my skeptical comment, I decided to try Claimyr anyway because I was desperate to talk to someone about my payment options. I couldn't believe it actually worked. Got connected to an IRS rep in about 15 minutes after spending DAYS trying on my own. The IRS agent was surprisingly helpful and walked me through my options for handling my tax bill. She explained I qualified for a payment plan with minimal setup fees since my income was under certain thresholds. She also pointed out that I might qualify for Currently Not Collectible status if my financial situation was really tight, which would temporarily pause collection actions. I'm still shocked this actually worked. Would have saved me so much stress if I'd known about this earlier. Sometimes being wrong feels pretty good!

Have you checked if you're eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit? If your income is around $38,500 you might qualify depending on your exact situation. That could help offset some of what you owe. Also, make sure you're taking the standard deduction which is $13,850 for single filers this year.

Anyone else notice that the tax software companies make it really easy to miss deductions for self-employed people? I swear they hide that stuff on purpose unless you pay for their premium versions. I switched to FreeTaxUSA last year and found so many more deductions than TurboTax showed me.