My wife and I both claim single or married filing separately with 0 dependents and still owe federal taxes?

[kbrizida]

My wife and I both claim single or married filing separately with 0 dependents and still owe federal taxes? We file jointly and made 154k last year. We took the standard deductions because our itemized ones dont exceed the standard deduction amount and still owe the feds $550 dollars. I was sure this year with bumping up our withholdings that we wouldn't owe anything after last years debacle of withholding Married with 0 dependents had use owing almost $4000 in federal taxes. What gives?

[xmasbaby0]

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

[kbrizida]

That not really an answer. We're both deducting the maximum as if we were both single and 0 dependents. So my assumption is by the time we file married jointly we would have over payed on the federal side of things.

[xmasbaby0]

You can also choose to have extra federal withholding in Step 4 c if the amount you are having withheld has not been enough.  

[kbrizida]

Doesn't payroll calculate this? If im overpaying federal taxes based on my annual income and withholding status and my wife is doing the same based on her annual income and withholding status. Shouldn't we have overpaid by the time we file taxes and filing married jointly? One of us still isn't taking out enough federal taxes based on a single 0 dependents withholding status, which blows my mind.

[TomD8]

"Doesn't payroll calculate this?"

Not exactly.  Your federal withholdings are determined by tax tables published by the IRS.  You can find those tables in this IRS publication:

https://www.irs.gov/publications/p15t