Hi, I filed W4 as head of household by mistake on Jan.2017, I am single. For 2017 and Jan.2018 I didn't pay state tax. What is the best way to fix this problem? Thx.

[emrdzy]

I contacted my employer and filed a new W4 form today (Jan.29th) as single.

[Anita01 · Accepted solution]

How you filled in your W-4 only determines how much tax was withheld during the year.  It doesn't have anything else to do with your tax return and neither the IRS nor the state cares about how you filled out your W-4.  They only care about how you file your return, so you don't need to explain anything to them about the W-4. 

You file your tax return with correct information, meaning you file as single.  You may owe both federal and state tax because of the difference between what you owe and what you had withheld but there is nothing you can do about that now except to file your return correctly.  The correct amount of tax you owe will be calculated on your return.  

You may have underpayment penalties on both the fed and state because of not having enough withheld, Make sure you go through the Underpayment of Estimated tax sections when asked about them because you can sometimes lower or do away with the penalties based on your 2016 return amounts.