topic I owe every year in Get your taxes done using TurboTax

I owe every year

danjoh1969 — Wed, 28 May 2025 23:36:57 GMT

Re: I owe every year

evelynm — Wed, 28 May 2025 23:51:31 GMT

Owing federal income tax at the end of the year. Here are some scenarios:

Under-withholding:

Each job assumes you have only one source of income.
Your tax rate increases as your income rises.

Limited Standard Deduction:

You can only claim one standard deduction on your tax return, regardless of the number of jobs you hold.

Incorrect W-4 Form:

Outdated or inaccurate information on your W-4 forms, especially regarding allowances or multiple jobs, can lead to under-withholding.

Other income sources without withholding:

If you have other sources of income that don't have taxes automatically withheld, like side work, investment income or self-employment, you'll need to account for those when determining your tax liability.

How to avoid owing taxes or a large tax bill:

Complete a new W-4 Form.
Here is a great link to calculate your tax liability and prepare an updated W-4: W-4 Tax Calculator
Account for all income sources: When completing your W-4 form, ensure you account for all sources of income, including secondary jobs and other income sources that do not have automatic withholdings.
Make estimated tax payments: You can make quarterly estimated tax payments to the IRS. Here is the link for estimated tax payments: IRS estimated tax payments

Re: I owe every year

Bemmons55 — Thu, 19 Jun 2025 23:08:54 GMT

Take more deductions. If you are claiming 0 or 1 go up to 5 or so. You'll have more taxes taken out that way you won't owe. Just a thought I know my sister claims quite a few and that way when tax time gets here she has money to go visit her son out of state.

Re: I owe every year

xmasbaby0 — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 01:01:45 GMT

@Bemmons55 Heed the advice of expert @evelynm ----The W-4 you fill out for your employer tells the employer how much to withhold for tax----the other post in this thread suggests "take more deductions"---which is incorrect. The newer version of the W-4 does not have you list exemptions or "deductions" on it---and if it did, claiming "more" would cause you to have less tax withheld, not more--and you would end up owing more at tax time. Use the W-4 calculator and make sure you are having enough tax withheld--you can even choose to have an extra amount withheld from each paycheck to make certain that you are having enough withheld.

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