How can I check that my employer is taking the correct amount of taxes? I think they are taking too little.

[jdunlop3]

I started a new job in April, they only took 3.5% of my Gross out in federal taxes. I filed married claiming 0. My previous job took twice that amount out in the 4 months I worked there. While filing my taxes, it says I owe money. Seems off time since I claim zero but file for myself my husband and my two kids. We did not take the advanced child tax payments during the year so I am not needing to pay that back. Any thought?y employers says they submitted my W-4 correctly. Will IRS be able to tell me what they submitted for me?

[Critter-3]

The new W-4 forms has no  "claiming zero" any longer  so it depends on many factors ... like does your spouse work?  Did you enter the kids on step 3 ?  Did you enter anything else in step 4?   The new form is designed to get your bottom line on the 1040 as close to zero as possible. 

If you want the most withheld then you should choose SINGLE filing status and leave the rest of the form blank.    https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-4

Use the Tax Withholding Estimator on the IRS web site to figure out what you and your spouse  should each put on the W-4 forms that you give to your employers. It's much easier than using the worksheets on the form. It will let you adjust your withholding to get the approximate refund amount that you want.

Tax Withholding Estimator

[RBBrittain]

Are you sure you completed your W-4 properly? It's considerably more complicated than in past years; it's no longer just "married with no dependents" like the old W-4 you're thinking of. Here's the Tax Year 2022 version of the W-4: https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf If you entered dollar amounts on this version of the W-4, they probably reduced your withholding (except in Step 4(c), additional withholding).

Employers do not routinely submit W-4s to the IRS; they enter the information on that form into their own payroll system so that system can compute the correct withholding. The IRS' own withholding calculator (linked on the W-4) has been down since December 30, officially for "unscheduled maintenance" but the formula changes every year & updating it is probably low priority for a short-staffed IRS.

If you think your employer isn't withholding enough, follow the instructions on the new W-4 linked above. Also look at Publication 505, https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p505.pdf (last revised for Tax Year 2021, 2022 withholding should be slightly less).