married status

Forum|Forum|4 years ago
January 26, 2022
2 replies
8 views

Last year my husband and I owed. We both filed out our W4's as married jointly, 1. At the time I made 5k more than him. When we realized we owed so much, we talked to a family friend tax accountant, after reviewing our W2's he suggested we claim married, hold at single rate and 1. We changed out W4's last year around March. And now we owe again. What do we do? Everything I'm reading says we should claim married filing jointly. When I put in just my W2 information, I get a refund but when I put in my husband's information, we owe. What should we do??

Critter-3

Level 15

On the new W-4 there is no "1" option any longer ... you should BOTH choose the single/ MFS option and leave the rest of the form blank. In a couple of weeks you see that you will not have enough withheld then one of you should add an amount to line 4c ... say you will be 1200 short and you are paid monthly then you would enter $100 on that line ... this amount is added to what is already being withheld.

Of course you changed last year in march which means you were under withheld for the first 1/3 or 1/4 of the year ... so if you extrapolate the difference in the quarterly withholding and you will be ok going forward you really have nothing to change.

Of course you could waste a lot of time completing the 4 page worksheet for each of you if you don't use my shortcut.

ShillersAuthor

Level 2

Why should we claim MFS instead of MFJ? Everything i'm reading says it's not beneficial to file MFS?

DoninGA

Level 15

@Shillers wrote:

Why should we claim MFS instead of MFJ? Everything i'm reading says it's not beneficial to file MFS?

What you select on the W-4 has absolutely no bearing on the filing status you enter on your tax return. As noted filing a tax return as Married Filing Jointly is usually the best filing option when married.

HelenC12

Level 15

If you still owe after withholding at the higher single rate and one (1), reduce it to zero. Even then, you may have to have extra withholding. See Form W-4, Step 4, (4c).

Please read the TurboTax FAQ Why did my refund drop when I entered a second W-2? for an explanation of how a second W-2 affects your income tax return(s).

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