[USER]

I usually love doing my taxes because every year I end up with a ~$1000 refund. My husband usually gets ~$200-300 refund.

This year, we suddenly OWE $1700 federal and $700 state!!! We are losing our minds and don’t know what to do.

My income is about $70k and his is about $50k. I make an additional less than $2k a year teaching fitness classes.

Not one single thing has changed this year other than my income slightly increased ($5k) AND…we got married.

I’m so confused, because I thought there was a tax benefit to getting married. This is our first year filing jointly.

We both submitted new W4s in December saying married filing jointly. After some research, I see that we should change our W4s back to single, even though we will actually file jointly, but because this was just in December, that really doesn’t seem like it was the issue.

What went wrong here? Is it because we got married?

Do I need to hire a tax professional to try to fix this or does it seem like we’re SOL and need to just adjust withholding better for next year?

It’s just too drastic to seem right. Somethings not right.

Thanks for any advice

[Samantha]

We make the exact same as you and the exact same scenario. We owed for the first time last year as we did buy a house. This year we are on track to owe yet again, though currently having a professional review it all.

We have 3 dependents (one of which was added this year).

We were advised to change our W4 to single next year to avoid owing again. I haven’t edited my W4 since 2022 and we did get a nice return that year.

Nothing else has changed since other than buying a house and adding a kiddo!

[Jake]

What was your total withholding for the year? I wonder if you W4 was not set up correctly at the beginning of the year also which may have contributed to you not having enough withheld.

[Karen]

you may need to review the w4s. The math used to be so far off on them and they fixed it. However, they made it even more confusing if your salaries are far apart.

I always run our numbers against the tables because I didn’t trust their w4 calculations against reality.

I’ve been at my job 26 years now so I don’t know when the W4s were redone, but no one mentioned they had been! They hit the calculations much more accurately now.

We only take the child credit on one W4 and after our bonuses hit I run the numbers.

I have to withhold an extra $20 from one paycheck to have us in the zone I prefer. (I Prefer to owe no more than $500. Rather I make money on my interest)

[Em]

When I got married my husband and I owed for the first time as well, quite a bit actually.

We’ve had difficulty adjusting over the years and now we pretty much break even every year.

[Carrie]

We were within $100 last year. Hubby got ~$20k raise and we somehow owe almost $3,000. No changes. And his record shows last W-4 change was done February 2023, so it wasn’t that either.

Significantly more withholding but still a big bill.

I’ve done our taxes for 30 years, and I’m stumped.

[Stephanie]

Did you get a 10-99 for your work as a fitness teacher? If so, that may be your problem

[Libby]

You aren’t the first person I’ve heard this from. Maybe something changed in the tax laws for 2024. Not sure.

Have you tried to update to married filing separately to see if it helps?

Any write offs you can claim for your 1099 income?

[Heidi]

Yes, taxes changed. Did you max out a traditional IRA? Is your part time job 1099? Sounds like max ing all retirement vehicles would help you.

[Sahar]

Same! Got back $3500 last year and owe $9000 this year. 3 changes for us: made a little more (5k), don’t have the energy efficient credit like last year (got windows replaced), and apparently my husband thinks he changed his withholding with work to claim 3 (our 2 kids and me) so not enough taxes taken out.

But holy moly! I don’t have $9000 to pay!!

[Melissa]

We had that issue so now on our W4 claim single no deductions plus have extra $25/payday removed.

This is the 1st year we will have a refund in 15 years

[Rick]

You may have fallen accidentally into wait and hope. It often works. But then it tends to mean revert and smack you upside the head like a cold fish.

Like others have said, this is likely a w4 issue. Not that you made a mistake, other than not reviewing your w4 setup every year or two.

Add this as a more proactive step more years and I bet you avoid the cold fish upside the head going forward.

[Christopher]

Something that may not affect you, but to consider: a lot of people have used HYSAs this year making good interest.

None of that interest has had taxes withheld so that might be part of your difference.

[Ashley]

On the new W4 there is a box for “second income” this needs to be checked on both, meaning your return has two incomes.

The W4 changed a few years ago and is not the same as it used to be.

Missing that box, my husband didn’t have taxes taken out for a few months before we caught it!

[Aaron]

It sounds like you went from overpaying 1300’and getting a return to underpaying 1700 and owing more tax. Broadly the total swing is 3k out of 120k income wich is 2.5 percent.

So, I would say no need to see it as a giant crazy mistake either way. Your right where you wanna be basiclaly not majorly overpaying nor majorly underpaying.

If you want to withhold
More you should ask your payroll dept what you need to change your swing your withokings back 3k the other way.

It’s harder or easier depending on how the company calculates its withokdings.

But overall no need to beat yourself up

[Kaelin]

As a CPA that does taxes, I would recommend you fill in your W4 as single for the rest of the year and adjust moving forward if you are getting too much withholding back with that.

When you fill in your W4 at MFJ, it doesn’t know how much your spouse makes to get the withholding accurate for your situation.

The differences to filing as married filing joint for federal is you combine your incomes and your standard deduction doubles from when you were single, and if you have certain deductions, the threshold for those deductions will also double or increase to potentially be beneficial.

At least with Wisconsin, there’s a $480 credit you can get as married filing joint as well if you both have income from a job or your own business.

But your W4 is probably why you owe money this year as there were not really any tax law changes from prior year.

You could work with a professional to know exactly what you should withhold or you can just change your W4 as single, most likely get a high refund, and adjust as you go to be where you want to be.

[Kristen]

We got married in 2020 and owed the first year we did married filing jointly and my wife said the same thing you did!

We took the amount we owed and divided that by 26 and had that extra amount withheld from my paycheck and that fixed the issue the next year.

[Adam]

That’s an ideal situation. You owe a little but not owe so much that there is penalty for underpaying.

My goal every year is to owe a few grand.

[Victoria]

You made 5k you paid no taxes on. Owing what you owe sounds about right. Take out the 5k and I bet you don’t owe (just to see if that’s the case, not actually filing without it because that’s incorrect).

[Aaron]

My wife and I have multiple income streams which makes tax estimating a challenge. I run a couple projections at different times of the year on the AARP income tax calculator.

It has enough fields to enter me and spouse main incomes, pension, interest, etc, plus deductions.

I then use an updated w4 a few months before the end of the year on my main job to withhold any extra I need.

This year we should be within $120 of even.

[Nina]

Tax laws have changed & will continue to get worse with Trump. This will be your new norm.

Throughout the year, have an additional $160/month taken out & that way you shouldn’t “owe”

[Jodi]

Same thing happened to me last year, but I owed more than 4 times what you owed. I knew we would owe but I was shocked at the amount.

A part of the issue was that in 2023, my husband took a different job and he chose married 0 as he always does, but somehow chose that he was the only person working in the household so they were withholding very little from his check.

This year, I have been going on the IRS website to check my expected withholdings so I could be on track.

When I checked in August, I increased my withholding quite a bit and also made a payment.

[Author]

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