Hello, I am confused as to why I owe money when I claimed zero exemptions and as a single.. how can this be explained?

[MiriamF]

If I understand you correctly, you claimed zero allowances on your W-4, yet you still owe tax.

The W-4 is only a crude estimate of how much tax needs to be withheld from your paycheck. For people who earn income in addition to their W-2, who have more than one W-2, who earn bonuses or commissions or who have a spouse that earns income, the estimate can be way off. 

Your best solution for next year is to file a new W-4 with your employer and request that additional tax be withheld on Line 6 of that form. To make sure that you don't owe tax next year, 

1. Estimate next year's income and divide by this year's.
2. Multiply the amount of tax you owe this year by the answer above.
3. Divide the answer in step 2 by the number of pay periods remaining in the year and enter that number on Line 6 of the W-4.

Bear in mind that if you increase your withholding, you will decrease the size of your paycheck. Only you can decide the best answer.

[mollymissb20]

My husband and I both make under 50,000 per year. Combined we made 62,000 last year. I filed Married, 0 and it says I owe this year? I'm confused by this. I have NEVER owed my entire life and made way more in the past. Also, I ran the numbers filing together and sep, both ways show we owe. Annoyed!!! 

[KathrynG3]

Re-check your entry for your W-2's to make sure your tax withholdings are properly entered.

If your income and withholding were about the same as last year, you can safely expect similar results for your tax return this year.

For 2020, I do recommend using this IRS Tax Withholding Estimator so you can get a very clear idea of what you will owe federally. You can contact your State Department of Revenue, for their estimated tax withholding recommendations.

These are the tax brackets for 2019 and for 2020

[cllove1991]

I have a similar issue. I filed zero exemptions single, no bonus, only worked for one company but now owe $1010 in NY taxes. My former employer informed me that they don't know what the issue is and that other employees may have had similar issues. I'm not sure where to go from here or what steps to take. 

[VictoriaD75]

Withholding tables calculate withholding amounts for the income earned on that job only. The tax return is a reconciliation of all income earned from all sources, the calculated tax liability for the total income, offset by the withholding. The difference is either a refund or a balance owed. If you happen to live in NYC or Yonkers, your city tax is also included in this calculation. Therefore, the withholding amount is not a perfect calculation. You cannot change the amount withheld for 2019, as that time has passed. You will have to pay the balance due or see if you are eligible for 2019 contributions to deductible IRA's or HSA's.

To try to avoid the balance due in the future, you can consider increasing your contributions to pretax benefit accounts, such as 401k plans or health savings accounts. You may revise your W-4 to indicate an additional fixed amount in withholding. Or, you may make estimated tax payments throughout the year to the taxing authority, such as the IRS or NYS.

[cllove1991]

It doesn't make sense. I only had 1 source of income, no bonus, got significantly taxed by the federal gov, NY state and NYC all year and now owe $1010 to NY. I don't understand how this is possible. I feel that this is a fault on my employer. If I feel that is the case how do I go about rectifying this problem?

[SusanY1]

I am sorry that you still owe tax even after significant tax throughout the year. 

Sometimes, this can indicate there is an entry error somewhere in the return.  I would honestly check for that first.  It could be as simple as a decimal in the wrong place.  This is particularly likely if you only lived and worked in one state, and had only one employer and no other sources of income and did not file using the Married Filing Separately filing status or have any penalties such as 

However, if the return is correct, and the tax is due there is no recourse, unfortunately, as your employer isn't liable in a situation such as this.  Even if tax is under withheld, it is still the obligation of the taxpayer to pay it.  

You may want to talk with your payroll department in any case to ensure that withholding is on the right track for 2020 if after reviewing the return you don't uncover any entry errors or issues. 

Here is the best way to troubleshoot the state return:

1. Revisit the Federal entry for your Form W-2.  Double-check Box 15, 16, 17 for your state tax entries.
2. Delete the state tax return and add it back in.  (Once in a while there is a transfer error to the state, this will resolve it if that's the case, and this step generally only takes a few moments.)
3. Run the Review at the end to recalculate the return. 

@cllove1991

[rudylynn80]

ok I understand now. so did it go through to the irs even though it said not to file? 

after I entered my w2 information. a message came up saying I didn't need to file but it also said I owe taxes I need to know so I can get this taken care of

[CatinaT1]

To check on the status of your tax return, just log back into your Turbo Tax account. You will see the status of your tax return on the first page. 

If there is an issue with your return, follow the on screen directions to make any corrections that are needed.

[Top15]

It’s baffling to be that every “expert” that has replied, has simply offered jumbled explanations of NOTHING and not one solution. The kicker? I tried to file a couple of months ago, it was rejected so I waited awhile before I got around to it. When I first filed before being rejected, I was NEVER told I owed taxes. I’ve never owed taxes before. No exemptions. Nothing. I paid my taxes. I go to file again? Now all of a sudden I owe 1660 in taxes!!!!!!! The only reason I’m getting anything back is because of the Chile credit. I am appalled by the responses of these people. Not one bit of help. Just runaround explanations. Why even waste your time??

[xmasbaby0]

@Top15 Not sure what you mean when you say you were not "told" you owed tax.   You could easily LOOK at your own tax return and see that there was tax due----or you could see the "refund monitor" on your screen that showed tax due-----or you could read the summary given to you in your account that said you owed tax due.

No one in this user forum can see your tax return or your screen.  There were major tax law changes that began with the 2018 tax year that seem to continue to surprise some people.  Personal exemptions of over $4000 per person were removed beginning with 2018 returns.

 Was something different for 2020?  Did you have less income due to the pandemic?  Did you receive unemployment compensation?  If so, did you have tax withheld from it?

There are a lot of variables that affect your refund or tax due including how much you earned, how much tax you had withheld, your filing status, the number of dependents you claim, your deductions and credits, etc.  You may have lost Earned Income Credit or the Child Tax Credit— did a child turn 17?  If you received the EIC last year, remember that changes in the amount you earn have a big effect on the amount of EIC you can get. (Sometimes earning more money means less EIC)  Are you 65 or older ?  If so, your standard deduction is higher. Everyone has a higher standard deduction now so it is harder to use itemized deductions.

And of course, always check your own data entries, looking for errors such as misplaced decimals or extra zeros.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901008-why-did-my-refund-go-down-compared-to-last-year-s

Print out 2019 and 2020 and compare them side by side to see what is different.  The line numbers are different so it is tricky and you have to read them very carefully.

[Top15]

It isn’t my fault that you don’t understand what I said. But let me clarify. 

tried to file, was rejected. 

I created a new account, did the same exact thing. Entered the info and checked it multiple times.

This time when I went to file, the return was significantly less, due to it saying I now owed 1660 in taxes. It did NOT say this before when I tried to file using the other account with all of the same info. I compared the info between the two return filings and they’re EXACT. 

[mesquitebean]

@ Top15 

It's difficult for folks in a user community to help you in a public Internet forum like this because you are the only one who can see your returns.  If you prepared two 2020 returns in different accounts, you'd need to print out the return from each account and compare them line by line to know what to follow up on to see where the discrepancy is.   If the end result on the Form 1040 (the net tax due or refund) is different on the 2 returns, there are bound to be other lines higher up on the Form 1040 that are also different.  Those lines will give you a clue as to what topic to investigate.   Sometimes it can be as simple as someone putting a decimal or a comma in the wrong place, or mistyping and reversing some digits.    And answering a "Yes or no" question differently on an interview screen can often cause significant changes.

If you are using a paid edition of TurboTax, you have phone support. 

Hours are currently 5AM-5PM Pacific (8AM-8PM Eastern) Monday-Friday.

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If you are using Free Edition, phone support is not included unless you upgrade to PLUS for a 29.99 fee.  But you can contact a TurboTax Support agent for free directly via messaging at Twitter or Facebook.

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[VolvoGirl]

And at the end (on each account) it will show you the net combined of federal and state.  But that is only for your own info.  Could you have seen that? Did you do a state return?  Check the actual 1040 federal returns.