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New Member
posted Apr 12, 2025 4:32:31 PM

Turbo tax has my blended tax rate as 68..4% compared to 13.9% from last year. Something is wrong as it has us owing half our income to federal. How do I fix that?

And we only made $1,739 more in 2024 than in 2023

0 3 442
3 Replies
Expert Alumni
Apr 12, 2025 5:20:55 PM

There may be several reasons that your total Federal tax liability doesn't match the tax tables.

 

A blended tax rate, also known as the effective tax rate, is derived from a number of factors. The effective tax rate for individuals is the average rate at which their earned income, such as wages, and unearned income, such as stock dividends, are taxed. If you received income from a variety of things like stocks and bonds, interest, dividends, or self-employment, they may all play a role in determining your blended tax rate. See this thread for another discussion of this issue.

 

For Federal income taxes, the tax rate brackets for 2024 are 10%, 12%, 22%, 24%, 32%, 35%, and 37%. To see how the tax brackets apply to you for this year, and for a tool to determine your marginal (the highest part of your income) tax rate, see here.

 

Also, note that taxes are often calculated using a different method than the tax tables. For example, if you have capital gains, the tax on those is calculated at the capital gain rate for your income level. If you are self-employed, you may have self-employment taxes in addition to income taxes.

 

See this help article for more information.

 

You can preview your return before filing to find out how your taxes were calculated. See here for details. 

 

 

New Member
Apr 12, 2025 6:42:26 PM

I did not make any income on stocks, bonds, interest, dividends, capital gains or self employment.   We earned our income like we did every year- through our employers and I had a small amount (around $5k) of income that our vendors give me when I sell their product that comes in the form of a spiff.   This was also the case last year.  Our income went up from last year by maybe under $2,000 and we only owed federal $24.  Now it is saying we owe nearly half our combined income!  How is that even possible?  You don't make jointly $140,000 and have to owe $65,000 of it to federal taxes.  Esp when you have 3 kids.  Something is off and I can't figure out what it is.  Not sure if starting over will fix it, but I may do that using a different email address.    

Expert Alumni
Apr 13, 2025 8:55:54 AM

Double-check your income inputs to make sure the income is being reported properly. It's possible that there was extra income somewhere accidentally.