Constantly owing

[blindremi]

I claim 0 and owe money every single year. Why?

[tgatling]

Thank you for your question!

Changes in your life, such as marriage, divorce, working a second job, running a side business or receiving any other income without withholding can affect the amount of tax you owe. Taking steps to reduce your tax liability can benefit you at tax time, but you may also benefit throughout the year by adjusting your withholding to increase your take-home pay. If you want a bigger paycheck and a smaller tax refund, you can use Form W-4 to make it happen.

I recommend using our W-4 calculator. After answering the questions, it will yield a results page. On this page, you'll be able to see what to input on the W-4. It also includes a slider that lets you see how any changes to the extra withholding would impact your estimated taxes for the year. Note that any changes made to a W-4 later in the year may have an unexpected result if left unchanged for the next year. So revisit it again every year to make sure that you're aligning your withholding with any changes to your tax story.

I have also included some links for reference: 

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/tax-payments/video-why-would-i-owe-federal-taxes/L3VXudPiN

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tips/irs-tax-forms/form-w-4-and-your-take-home-pay/L4VSEhPez

I hope this helps!

[KochuK]

Hi blindremi, thanks for posting an event question.

There could be many reasons why you owed a balance due when filing past tax returns, such as other income aside from your W-2 wage income.

Recommend that you work through and submit a new W-4 for 2023 to your employer.

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

As you can see, the newly designed W-4 has more criteria than a "claim 0" dependent option.

Since this is close to the end of 2023, you can consider Step 4 (c) Extra withholding to catch up tax payment to be in line with estimated tax liability.

Two more links for your information.

W-4 Calculator 2023 (TurboTax)

https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/

IRS Tax Withholding Estimator

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

Hope the above helps. Thank you.