W4 Tax Election Mistake

[Gomonstersquad]

Hi! I got married at the end of 2020, and since then, my husband and I have always filed as “married filing jointly” each tax season. I just noticed in my work profile that the tax election on my W4 was still set to “single” and not “married filing jointly” like I thought it was. I have since updated it, but does this affect what option my husband I should choose when filing our taxes this year? Have I been accidentally committing fraud for a couple of years?

[VolvoGirl]

What you claim at work on the W4 doesn't have to match your real tax return.  I'm married but claim Single to have more withholding taken out.  Have you been getting refunds each year?  If you change to Married you might end up with a smaller refund or a tax due.  

[Gomonstersquad]

Thank you! Yes, we have been getting refunds each year. We started to fill everything out this year and our projected return was drastically smaller than what we got back the year before (we’re gonna go back through and make sure we didn’t make any mistakes), so I was worried I had skewed things somehow with the W4 stuff. Still getting the hang of taxes, so this is really good to know. I appreciate you answering!