I've been freelancing for four years here in San Diego, mostly doing design work for tech companies. My income is all over the place, some months are great, some are slow and I have been doing quarterly estimated taxes on my own the whole time which has been fine but never perfectly accurate. I usually end up owing a little or getting a small refund and I just accept that as the cost of irregular income.
Getting married next spring and my fiance has a regular W2 job, steady salary, straightforward tax situation. We have just been handling our own finances independently but once we are married in California I know things change and I am trying to actually understand what that looks like before it just happens to us.
The things I can not find a clear answer on are how my estimated tax calculations change when we go from two separate filers to a married couple in a community property state. Does his income affect my quarterly estimates or do we have to recalculate everything from scratch. What actually happens if I keep filing the way I always have and just ignore the change.
I have a CPA I use for my freelance taxes but she has never specifically walked me through what changes when you get married and I have not thought to ask until now. The California community property layer on top of the irregular income situation makes me feel like this is more complicated than the standard advice I find online.
Where do you even start with this because my CPA handles my freelance taxes fine but I feel like I need someone who specifically understands what marriage changes in California?
Freelancer in San Diego with irregular income, getting married next spring and im trying to wrap my head around how everything changes tax wise
byu/Optimal-Sound-5558 inpersonalfinance
Posted by Optimal-Sound-5558
3 Comments
Yes your partner’s income impacts your tax rate, assuming you will file jointly.
Communal property has nothing to do with it, let’s not overcomplicate this. Filing jointly with one w2 and one freelancer is very normal. It does not require any sort of special expertise. It’s extremely similar to how you two already were filing, just one return instead of two.
You could file separately if you want (“married filing separately”), but generally you benefit from filing jointly.
Your situation is super common in California and it does get a bit weird with irregular income. The main shift is that once you’re married, income earned during the marriage is generally treated as shared so estimated taxes might need to be looked at together instead of just you solo guessing each quarter.
Your CPA should be able to walk you through this pretty easily though you probably don’t need a whole new specialist, just a more detailed convo about how to adjust your estimates once you’re filing jointly.
You’ll likely just need to start thinking about estimated taxes as a joint picture instead of two separate ones especially in a community property state like California.