Suddenly owe taxes this year with no changes to W4 or life situations

[bmelnek45m]

Last year, our taxable income was $134,799 with a liability of $20,266.  We paid $21,143 and received a refund of $877.  Since then, we have had no changes to our W4's, life, etc.  We did make more money this year, resulting in a taxable income of $155,352.  This put our liability to $24,283, but our W2's only indicated we paid $15,500.  How is this possible to suddenly have $8,783 of taxes due when we made no changes at all?  Could it be a mistake our employer(s) made on the amount of Federal taxes that were withdrawn?  Any insight/help would be appreciated.

Thanks

[ThomasM125]

It is clear your tax withheld decreased whereas it shouldn't have based on your increase in income. It is possible you submitted a new W-4 form, as it is customary for many employers to request that on a yearly basis. If so, you may have made some errant entry on that form that reduced your tax withholding. I suggest you explore that possibility with your employer and prepare a new one for this year.

[bmelnek45m]

Thanks for your input.  We have not submitted any new W4's at all since 2022, so this is a sudden surprise.  I do understand that it is ultimately up to us to keep an eye on how much tax is being taken from our checks, but we have always received refunds prior to this.  We will check with HR to see if any changes had been made on their end.