My husbands employer has not taken out any federal taxes from his regular earnings. He started this job in the middle of last year so when we filed our taxes we didn't notice this. However, upon filing this year and seeing the tax burden it raised a flag. His W2 is showing that federal taxes were only deducted from his bonus payment but are not coming out of his regular earnings. We checked his W4 and he is not claiming exempt. He is married filing jointly and claiming $4000 in step 3 for 2 qualifying children under the age of 17. His employer is not offering any assistance with this because they said the deductions are based on the W4. We are both a bit confused because he has always completed his W4 this way and has never not had federal taxes withheld. We are also wondering why this didn't impact his bonus withholding. If this is a mistake by the employer do we now need a corrected W2? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
First, I recommend checking your husband's final 2024 paystub to confirm there was no federal tax withholding. If there was no withholding on the paystub then you wouldn't need a corrected W-2, and your balance due is likely correct.
I suggest submitting a new W-4 to your husband's employer. Completing the W-4 can be tricky. The withholding (or lack of) could be correct based on the W-4, but the W-4 may be wrong. This is a pretty common situation when both spouses work but the W-4 doesn't indicate that. If the W-4 doesn't show that both spouses are working, the employer withholds as if the household is only living off of that one income.
Step 2 of the W-4 provides additional information for what to do when there's more than one job. Make sure to follow the steps here when updating the W-4.
The bonus would have tax withholding because bonuses have a required supplemental withholding that is separate from regular tax withholding.
Thank you this is very helpful. So his last paystub does confirm that there was no federal taxes withheld only ss and medi were withheld. He missed checking that box that I also work. I guess that is causing zero federal taxes from his regular earnings. It seems there still would have been some amount of federal taxes withheld even if a low amount. My income is higher than his so now preparing our taxes because he didn't have federal withholding our tax impact jumped to 13k.