I began a new job last year in November 2023 and the company listed me as married filing separately however I have been filing jointly with my husband since 2016. His W2 was listed as married filing jointly. When I inputted our W2s into TurboTax it said we owe. Is this because of the status discrepancy? Or is this simply because I now make more and need to have more taxes taken out over the course of the year?
Can we still file jointly this year? Or do we need to file separately?
Thank you!
Maybe- if you had your W4 with the wrong filing status, this usually results in lower withholding and owing money at the end of the year. If you also made more, that would definitely factor into owing at the end of the year. It most likely was a combination of both factors.
You can file jointly even if your withholding was incorrect. Just make sure you have the W4 updated so you do not owe for 2025!
You give an employer a W-4 to tell them how much tax to withhold from your paychecks. Your W-4 only goes to the employer, not to the IRS. Your W-4 does not dictate how you have to file your tax return. The W-4 just affects the amount of tax that is being withheld.
You can go ahead and file a joint return if that is how you want to file. Joint is almost always better.
If you want to give your employer a new W-4:
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf