I just did our taxes - we owe

[Deleted]

We owe $1700 and I don't understand why.     We both claim 0. We deduct mortgage interest and SL interest. We have charitable contributions. I'm annoyed. 

So my question, if I have one of our employers withhold additional money each check, does it matter which one? For instance, with just my W2 we were getting a refund. Adding in DH results in us owing. But I'd rather withhold the additional money from my checks because we have more money leftover from my paychecks than his.

[Deleted]

Sucks. It happened to us our first year married. Actually we ran the numbers early in December and were able to narrowly avoid a penalty by sending most of DH's checks to the feds for the month. I don't think it matters which paycheck the money comes from so long as they get it.

[goaskalice]

I also don't think it matter which paycheck it comes out of. That is a horrible surprise. DW owes a little every year, not that much, but still it sucks when everyone is talking about their refunds and we're sending in a check.

[asoctoberfalls]

Is it possible you got hit with the AMT? We also claim 0 and have extra state tax withheld, but the withholdings don't take AMT into account.

[mrsfarmer]

Are you withholding married 0 or single 0? That makes a big difference and can result in this. Married tables are lower but don't take both incomes into account. DH does married 0 and I do single 1.

[lemon]

Yeah, married and 0 won't help you not owe. It can be pretty deceiving because you'd think married and 0 is exactly what you should claim to break even, but I've never heard of that working out for anyone.

[hesitantbride]

Can I commiserate and say we owe about $1900 in federal taxes? This happened to us last year as well, and I know I should have changed the witholdings and I didn't. It seems like we have the same tax situation--mortgage interest rate deduction, SL interest deduction, and some charitable contributions.

It sucks Sorry to be in the same boat as you!

[gt7301b]

Claiming 0 is your problem.

The IRS withholding calculator is broken, but I'd give it a try when it is working:

www.irs.gov/Individuals/IRS-Withholding-Calculator

[mrsfarmer]

You don't need the calculator. Do this: take your effective tax rate (what was calculated this year as a percent). Estimate what your taxable will be this year ( gross minus pretax deductions minus standard or itemized minus personal deductions). Take the result, subtract out what has been withheld from your checks so far this year, and divide among remaining number of pay periods this year. You can then look up the withholding tables and adjust accordingly.

[AAM2012]

We owe $3500 so far. Found out my husband had been claiming 1 the past 2 years even though I asked him SEVERAL times to make sure it said 0 and to have them take extra out of his paycheck.

Somewhat off topic: we owed last year and got a notice that we could be penalized for not paying our estimated taxes throughout the year. Are we going to be fined this year since we owed more than $1k two years in a row? Anyone know?

[dancingirl21]

Why is claiming 0 the problem? We owed around $2k our first year married but were DINKS with no mortgage and H was claiming 1. After that we adjusted and had additional withheld from both of our paychecks and went to 0. We never owed after that. This last year we got a $3k return because we bought a house. We adjusted by eliminating the additional amount I was withholding. We'll see where we end up this year.

[Deleted]

You are making me really anxious about getting our W2s. We haven't gotten a single tax related thing from anyone yet.

I'm expecting a refund and will probably have a meltdown if we owe. DH changed jobs last year and we make more because of it, so who knows.

To answer your question, I don't think it matters which paycheck it comes out of. And honestly $1700 isn't a whole lot if you are prepared for it - I might change both to "married 0 withhold at single rate" and then just set aside a little money for tax time.

[Deleted]

We owed over $10,000 last year by claiming zero and not asking for extra to be withheld. It happens. You need to withhold more if you don't want to owe. You can use the IRS withholding calculator to figure out how much extra you should withhold.

But as long as you are prepared to pay and are not in underwithholding penalty range, it isn't a bad thing to owe. All it means is that you didn't give the IRS an interest-free loan during the year.

[joenali]

We owed $3000 last year. We fixed our glitch right away!!

[LoveTrains]

Yeah, you can't both withhold married "0". If you do that, it assumes that you don't have a spouse that is working. So it isn't withholding enough. It's really quite simple, check "married but withhold at single rate" or do married 0 but divide $1700 by the number of pay checks you get a year and then ask for that to be extra withheld from each paycheck.

DH gets an extra $75 withheld from each pay check so we don't owe. This year we are getting about a $500 refund, which is just how I like it (a refund that is under $1000).

[Deleted]

Is there a way to determine how much having my husband change to married but withhold at single rate would reduce his paycheck? I am trying to determine if we should do that or just have an dextra $50 held from my check.

I don't think I have to hit $1700 exactly since we will have a baby to claim next year as well.

[sometimesrunner]

Jan 26, 2013 15:18:33 GMT -5 @libgrl said:

Is there a way to determine how much having my husband change to married but withhold at single rate would reduce his paycheck? I am trying to determine if we should do that or just have an dextra $50 held from my check.

I don't think I have to hit $1700 exactly since we will have a baby to claim next year as well.

Google ADP salary calculator. I use that one all the time.

[fryjack2]

We have owed between 5-8k the past 2 years. We were DINKS with a mortgage in VHCOL/HCOL and a high tax bracket. This year, I hope we get money back since we had twins. Otherwise I need to figure out what to change.

[Deleted]

I entered everything preliminarily and I'm stoked that it looks like we owe under $600 for federal this year. Maxing out my 401K and switching to traditional from Roth 401K helped in reducing my income enough. We owed around 3K last year.

We still owe a ton to NJ. :/

We both enter married 0 but hold at single rate. We have one kid, mortgage interest, property tax deduction and charitable contributions.

[Heisenberg]

Jan 26, 2013 9:44:16 GMT -5 @buckybells said:

You are making me really anxious about getting our W2s. We haven't gotten a single tax related thing from anyone yet.

I'm expecting a refund and will probably have a meltdown if we owe. DH changed jobs last year and we make more because of it, so who knows.

To answer your question, I don't think it matters which paycheck it comes out of. And honestly $1700 isn't a whole lot if you are prepared for it - I might change both to "married 0 withhold at single rate" and then just set aside a little money for tax time.

me too. This is our first year filing together and I'm anxious as hell about it. I'm letting DH take them to his people, I'm not even going to try and do it myself for the first time.

[oregonpachey]

You guys are scaring me. I hope to God we don't owe. I claim 4 but maybe since we are a single income household for the first time and we have two kids we will be okay? Maybe?!?

[mskitkat]

Now I'm worried. We just got married this year, and I changed it to married and 0 without any additional withholding. It's what my mom said to do. Crap. She was a SAHM, so that would be why.

[isabel]

Ugh. I really hope we don't owe. I changed our withholding last year and had DH withhold extra to try to get us to a break even point. We normally get a decent refund, but I'm nervous that I've gone too far in the other direction. I don't want to owe!

[sweetnsour]

Can you increase your 401ks? Some 529's contributions are tax deductible for the state.I would think of ways to reduce your tax if possible.

[sweetnsour]

Also, if your child will be in daycare, can you put money in a dependent care account? You can put 5000 pre tax so it will reduce your taxable income.
Eta: After you have your child.

[curbsideprophet]

Why is everyone so afraid of owing? Our goal is to be within $1K either way. So 1700 would be a little more than I would want to owe, but in the end not that huge a deal. I would sooner owe $1700 than get 3 or 4K back. I don't need to give the government an interest free loan. Plus I do not need to worry about when my refund will arrive.

OP sorry you owe more than you expected.

[Deleted]

Jan 28, 2013 0:17:20 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

Jan 27, 2013 15:06:27 GMT -5 curbsideprophet said:

Why is everyone so afraid of owing? Our goal is to be within $1K either way. So 1700 would be a little more than I would want to owe, but in the end not that huge a deal. I would sooner owe $1700 than get 3 or 4K back. I don't need to give the government an interest free loan. Plus I do not need to worry about when my refund will arrive.

OP sorry you owe more than you expected.

The average American doesn't have $1700 laying around. It seems a little out of touch to be surprised people are worried about owing substantial $.

:Y:  While we do have the money and writing the check won't create an actual hardship, it's still a lot of money. It will take a while for us to rebuild that cushion especially as we get closer to having a baby and maternity leave.

[hesitantbride]

Jan 28, 2013 0:24:21 GMT -5 @libgrl said:

Jan 28, 2013 0:17:20 GMT -5 jenny1980 said:

The average American doesn't have $1700 laying around. It seems a little out of touch to be surprised people are worried about owing substantial $.

  While we do have the money and writing the check won't create an actual hardship, it's still a lot of money. It will take a while for us to rebuild that cushion especially as we get closer to having a baby and maternity leave.

To rationalize the pain, I tell myself it wasn't money we were supposed to have anyway.  So I am grateful for the small amount of interest I was able to earn on it whilst sitting in my ING account