How much taxes will I pay If I'm married and OUR income together is $18,500-we live in Philadelphia?

Question

we were paid cash
thank you for any help

Answer 1

Assuming that this income is your gross income (before any taxes paid) and you file married filing jointly, your taxable income would be $1600 after the married filing jointly standard deduction and the 2 personal exemptions and your tax owed would be $161.

Don't forget to claim the telephone refund credit. It's 30 for 1 personal exemption, 40 for 2 personal exemptions, 50 for 3 personal exemptions and 60 for 4 or more personal exemptions.

Answer 2

You say you were paid in cash. Were taxes withheld from you wages? If not, you are probably considered a self-employed independent contractor.

If you were considered self employed, you must file Schedule C or C-EZ to account for your income and business expenses. You must also file Schedule SE to calculate the Self-Employment tax at 15.3% of the net profit from your business activity. You must pay SE tax on any SE income in excess of $400 in any tax year.

Your actual income tax bite will be small as you only have about $2,000 in taxable income, but your SE tax bite could be substantial if all of the $18.5k SE income is subject to SE tax, i.e. you don't have an business expenses to claim against it. If you didn't make quarterly estimated tax payments using Form 1040ES, there may be penalties and interest for underpayment of taxes.