Married filing jointly - May need to change W-4

[J_L_434]

2023 was my husbands first year back to working full-time and salaried and I got a raise for my full-time and part-time jobs. These bumped us up to the 24% tax bracket. We file married jointly. We owed a couple hundred for California State Taxes, probably because all 3 of our jobs are in education and our total income is way more than 2022. We didn't owe any Federal taxes because we had 2 tax credits in 2023: 1) home solar panels and 2) qualifying new EV car purchase. We are afraid that we will owe for 2024. I've tried changing my W-4 for my full-time job which is the largest income of our 3 jobs, but my HR payroll technician said that based on what I tried to change for some odd reason I'm actually getting more back a month than withholding more and that's not what I want to do, so she didn't process any of the changes I tried to make. I wanted to withhold about an extra $150/month. I'm pretty sure that if I don't change my W-4 to withhold more, that we will owe Federal taxes for 2024. The new 2024 W-4 form is not easy to figure out in withholding extra. What changes can I make to my W-4 so that we don't have to worry about owing for 2024? TIA.

[ShannonDuff]

I recommend using the TurboTax W-4 Calculator since your income has changed and you will not have those big credits for the 2024 tax year. https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/ You can also refer to Pub 505 from IRS.gov for more detailed withholding information.

Line 2 of DE-4 for CA will be the worksheet where you can add that additional amount you want taken out. 

The number of allowances you claim will determine how much is taken out, so a lower number will result in more income being withheld vs a higher number.
The worksheets are designed to give you a good indication of how much income you will earned and based on that information, the percentage of withholdings is determined. You can use the tables on Pg. 4 of DE-4 to help you calculate the extra amount. This is also the same case with extra withholding on the federal side. There is a table at the end of the form to help you determine any extra withholdings.