Hi @AA235 ,
The new 2023 Form W4 does a great job at allowing you to adjust your withholdings.
If you or your spouse are self employed, make your estimated quarterly payments. To calculate your estimated payment amount use the worksheet on page 6 Form 1040 ES (link included below) to help you calculate the amount due each quarter.
I also suggest you can research if contributing to your 401K at work or IRA contributions can help you minimize your tax liability at the same time saving for retirement.
Below are some helpful articles:
Estimated Taxes: How to Determine What to Pay and When
Employee’s Withholding Certificate
Thank you for reaching out and good luck!
That is a great question! Were there any new variables introduced into your finances last year to explain the reason why you may have owed more than usual (new job, second job, started a business, sale of investments, a child who has aged out of the child tax credit, to name a few)? If so, is this change likely to continue into future years? It is also a good idea to look at your W-2's from year-to-year to see if your withholding decreased dramatically from one year to the next.
If you don't anticipate any new changes to your tax situation this year, you might want to look at increasing your withholding (if you are an employee) or making estimated quarterly payments (if you are a contractor). You can adjust your withholding by filing an updated W-4 with your employer and perhaps selecting "Single" in Step 1, eliminating credits from the calculation in Step 3, or adding an additional withholding amount per paycheck on Line 4c.
I recommend running your 2023 numbers through this calculator to help determine if you need to be withholding more this year. https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/
I hope this is helpful!