No Federal Tax Withheld, but State Tax was withheld

[BillD7522]

I am a widower since 2014, with no dependents beside myself.  Federal withholding has me in the single/widower category.  State has me as 1 dependent, me.

For 2022, no Federal taxes were withheld from my pay, but State taxes were withheld.  The result:  I paid a hefty amount to the Federal government.  Why is there such a big difference in withholding?

[xmasbaby0]

It sounds like you need to prepare a new W-4 for your employer so that more federal tax is withheld from your paychecks.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

Also....you are posting your question from Home and Business----if you have self-employment income you are required to pay self-employment tax for Social Security and Medicare.  Have you been making estimated quarterly payments?

[BillD7522]

I just checked with our payroll people and I was told that I filled out the W4 correctly.  

I used Home and Biz because I had a farm LLC which has not produced any income due to destruction of my crop by Japanese beetles.

[xmasbaby0]

Well----if the result of entering a correct W-2 was that you owe a lot to the IRS-- and you do not see any federal tax withheld in box 2 of your W-2, I would reconsider what the payroll office is telling you and ask them to start withholding more so that you can avoid this next year at tax time.    Or---start making estimated quarterly payments to the IRS yourself to avoid owing next April.   When you print out your 2022 tax return it may print out some 1040ES vouchers that you can use to make quarterly estimated federal tax payments during the year.  They are optional; but using them will help you to avoid a big tax bill next year and to avoid an underpayment penalty.

[BillD7522]

Thanks,

These are the conclusions I came to.  I have never had this issue before.  Payroll said the Fed rules changed in 2022 regarding withholding, and they used to have a link to a webpage describing the changes and what to do, but they say the link no longer exists.  Another mystery...

[BillD7522 · Accepted solution]

Further investigation reveals that on my W4, Federal has me as married, whereas State has me as single.  They should be the same: single.  Payroll says they have seen this problem with other people, but, they have no idea why it happens.  I conclude that the software they are using has a nasty "bug".  Even so, I would have expected that Federal taxes would have been withheld if I were married.  Makes no sense at all.

[VolvoGirl]

Too bad  you didn't notice on your paystubs there was no federal w/h.  Check them closely to make sure they start taking out the federal withholding.  

[BillD7522]

That's what payroll told me!  Ha!  We have no paper stubs - everything is electronic.  The nature of my job does not allow time for me to login to the payroll app to view this stuff - really.  So, it is what it is.  In all of my years of working (I'm 70), this has never happened, so I was not even looking for it anyway!