Why does it matter whose W-2 it is?

Forum|Forum|3 years ago
February 2, 2023
2 replies
4 views

Married Filing Jointly. Three W-2's: 1 for me, 2 for spouse

TurboTax mistakenly identified one of our W-2's as mine. When I corrected the name on it in TurboTax, the 'tax due' was reduced by $200? What?!

Why does it matter whose it is? I thought MFJ just added all the incomes together and calculated taxes based on the combined income. I didn't change anything except the dropdown to select that it belonged to my spouse.

VolvoGirl

Level 15

Yes it matters a lot. There are several reasons. I can't think of them all but a big reason is if one person went over the Social Security max and has excess SS to be refunded. If one person had more than 1 employer and paid more than $9,114.00 in Social Security tax (box 4) combined you get the excess back on your tax return. It's for each spouse separately.

And it can affect any IRA contributions limits.

Condo2dAuthor

Level 2

Great point!

I'm sure it bumped me over that SSN withholding limit. Thanks.

BillM223

Level 15

There are certain situations where it matters. For example, for the Child and Dependent Care Credit, both spouses must have earned income to get the credit, and when both W-2s are accidentally assigned to the same spouse, then the result is often no credit.

I am sure that there are other similar situations. You are correct that the tax calculation is based on adding all W-2s together no matter who they belong to, but there can be other more subtle issues that affect your tax outcome.

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