W-4

3 replies
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I would like to understand what I should do not to owe money to the IRS. According to the IRS calculator enought money is withheld from our paychecks, but we had to pay a large amount of money when we did our 2022 taxes.

Ask the Experts - W-4 - May 2023

JBedford

Level 6

Hi, @Feldtmam ! Well, that's certainly surprising. Without knowing all the specifics, I can hopefully at least offer some general information. If you expect this year to be similar to last year in most ways, then you can shoot for the goal of paying last year's total tax liability through withholding. You can find this number on line 24 of your 2022 Form 1040.

So for example, if this number is $20,000, and you are paid biweekly (26 times per year), then you could decide to have $769 withheld from each paycheck. If your current withholding is less than this amount, then perhaps the simplest solution is to file a new W-4 with your employer, and request an additional withholding amount under Step 4, item (c). If you are married, it doesn't matter where the withholding comes from, so you could make the adjustment on your paycheck, your spouse's, or some combination of the two. And if you have withholding associated with income other than wages, then you'd want to take that into account as well. Same goes for any quarterly estimated payments that you may (or may not) make.

Hope this helps!

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FeldtmamAuthor

Level 2

Thanks for the info it is very helpful.

I started the new job in April and are paid weekly. My 401k only kicked in mid July where I’ve also added a catchup amount due to being over 50. It is about 50% of the 401k payment. My federal tax came down a little bit, but I’m not sure that it should have such a huge impact that I had to pay in so much. Is it possible to get someone to review the 2022 taxes with me so I can understand what went wrong?

JBedford

Level 6

Your tax return should include a Two-Year Comparison, which might help you to better visualize what went wrong on your own. But if not, please feel free to schedule a call with us!

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