The most likely scenario is as follows. If there was a W-2 that had already been entered for your wife and the combination of the two W-2s together created an excess amount of Social Security tax being withheld, then the excess would have been included as part of your tax return, reducing your balance due by the amount of the excess Social Security tax. When you assigned the W-2 to yourself to correct the error, that excess amount no longer applied and therefore the balance due increased.