My husband and I claim married and zero. We made 117,000 and paid over 13,000 in federal. What should we have paid? It seems like we never have enough taken out .

[DanielV01]

It depends.  If you are looking to have a refund, you likely need to each claim single on your W-4 (not your tax return), so that each company withholds enough tax. 

What happens is this:  Married and zero on the W-4 works under the assumption that the individual with the income is the only earner in the family.  When this is not the case, and especially when the income starts reaching other tax brackets (25%), it is very likely that not enough tax is taken out when combined with the other spouse's income.  Since both of you are claiming married and zero, this is almost surely what is happening on your return, especially if you do not have access to credits and deductions (no children, for example).

By claiming single (1 or zero allowances), you will make up for this.  More tax is taken out, because now the assumption is you are filing single, so that the tax withholdings compensate for the possibility that your (or your husband's) income will get into the higher tax brackets, and you'll be protected.  Another option is to stay with the Married Zero, but to have an additional amount withheld.  All of those options are available on the W-4 form.

This FAQ gives more information on how TurboTax can assist you to plan for next year:  https://ttlc.intuit.com/replies/3301783

[bkfawcett]

Thanks Daniel! This is the statement I've been looking for: "Married and zero on the W-4 works under the assumption that the individual with the income is the only earner in the family." I had married/zero for me and single/zero for my spouse for years and always got some kind of refund until about 3 years ago. Then tried married/zero for both of us last year, and to really mess things up HOH for me... (after all I'm certainly the head of my household! ) Fortunately I only allowed that for 3 months before setting it back, but 2020 was the first time we had to borrow to pay our tax bill and even had an underpayment penalty!?! Now single/zero for both from now on. It seems that this should be stated or more clear when turning in an updated W-4.

[dillon3233]

Is this still the case for 2022? I had a friend tell me that their tax preparer advised them not to do this any longer (i.e. W-4 single/zero) because it doesn't make any difference! Forever my husband and I have claimed "0 Married taking out at the higher single rate." This year we got hosed! Just want to make sure that we change our 2022 W-4s to appropriately reflect what will get us the best refund. Thanks!

[BillM223]

Starting with the Tax Cut and Jobs Act in 2017, the IRS started revamping the withholding tables, which caught a lot of taxpayers off guard.

I would encourage you to give the TurboTax withholding calculator a look at this website. Note that there is an issue at the very end when you are given the opportunity to use the slider to adjust your withholding, so don't use that for the time being, but otherwise, your results will be correct.

You can also look at your prior year return for the total tax you owed (withholding plus any you had to pay on filing), and divide it by your total income to get an approximation of the percentage of income you pay in tax (it won't be the Tax Table amount because of deductions and other things). Then do a sanity check and make sure that the amount taken out of your paychecks during the year approximate this percentage. If the withholding doesn't seem right, you can always adjust your W-4 during the year.

[MatOH1]

Is this still the reason why my Spouse and I owe on 2021 taxes that we're filing now in 2022?

Same income and amount due roughly. Both selected Married and 0 on W4, filing joint.

[fanfare]

"we never have enough taken out ."

If you don't have enough taken out you have to tell the employer(s) to withhold more,

or make quarterly estimated tax payments.

That's all there is to it.

[Critter-3]

When both parties in a marriage work then at least one of them needs to check the SINGLE box on the W-4 ... this is like the old way where there was a box "Married but withhold at the higher single rate" which is no longer on the form.   Try changing the W-4 for both parties to SINGLE for a while to get caught up. 

[Chanelm15]

this stuff confuses me sometimes, but I’m married & im just now getting back to work. My husband claims “married 1” because he claims our son so would I still claim “single 0” on my w-4? I just don’t want to mess anything up with our taxes.