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I made way less than you and my employer withheld $8k in taxes last year for federal income tax.

I would compare this year's taxes with your taxes from last year to figure out the difference if you made the same the past two years.

Looks like you both selected married filling jointly on your w4 and failed to complete step 2

Numbers check out as such.

So you should have one child to claim on your taxes for the credit correct? That being said you did under withhold by that $3K amount according to what we know right now

I just looked at that. Last year they withheld $11,500 in federal taxes.

This year only $5,988 was withheld and I don't know why!

I can claim 2 children. My 3 year old and my 1 month old son (born on 12/31/22).

At $143k of income with two kids you’d expect to owe about $$13k in taxes. You paid about $10k in taxes. It all looks correct.

How did you and wife fill out your w4?

Oh yeah I brain farted my bad. Yeah with the two kids you owe ~$3300 excluding any retirement contribution deductions or any other misc. credits. It looks like you both selected “Married filing jointly” on your W4 without doing Step 2/work on Page 3.

>Can someone please help me try to understand this?

You both filled out your W-4s as if you were the only job holder. If you have a dual income household, you need to either both check box 2c or input an appropriate amount into 4c to account for the dual incomes.

My wife files a Married filing jointly as well. However, she claim's 1 dependent.

We both have married filing jointly.

I do not claim any dependents on my W4 and everything else looks like it's zero.. She claims 1 dependent on her W4 and everything else is 0

> However, she claim's 1 dependent.

"Claiming" things is no longer a thing and hasn't been for a few years. Update your W4. If your employer still has exemptions listed as an option, it's very very very behind the times.

If you haven't updated your W4 in a few years, both of you should update it.

And pay attention to Step II of the new W4.

Your w4 was switched to the married withholding rate.

But did you indicate you both work on each of the other’s W4? If not each of your incomes is being treated as the sole income for two people when in reality there are two incomes.

Are you saying you only put married filing jointly, and did not fill out the multiple job worksheet in step 2?

Then that’s your problem. You guys have 2 jobs and failed to inform your employers to withhold as such.

I wasn't aware I had to do this. We've had two jobs since December of 2020 but this multiple job step 2 stuff you're bringing up is new to me. Could you please clarify?

If you say married filing jointly without going to the next steps they assume you are the only income earner. Taxes are withheld so that it is like that is the only income for two people combined versus each having an income and therefore you end up under withholding.

FML. My employer didn't explain this, but I should've been more on top of this as well. Thank you and will be doing this ASAP.

Lots of folks took off dependents for the two years of extra covid child tax credit. Them didn’t put it back. This is the third or so post today just in this topic.

And I'm not supposed to change it back to single once it's in this rate, correct?

> Could you please clarify?

Here is the W4 as published by the IRS.

Read Step 2.

• https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf

Just read the instructions for the W4.

If you put married filing jointly, your employer withholds as if you have $25k standard deduction, $20k at 10%, $60k at 12%, etc. Which is correct, those are the tax brackets for married filing jointly.

But if you have multiple jobs (eg both you and your wife work), then combined between your jobs your withholding looks like you have $50k of standard deduction, $40k at 10%, etc. So you massively underwithhold.

The solution is to follow the instructions in step 2 for multiple jobs. (Or alternatively, you could both select single instead of married filing jointly).

No, you can set it to single. Or you can check box 2c, same thing at your income level.

Follow up questions...

1. Can we change status back to "single", even though we're married?
2. When filing taxes next year, do I enter our filing status as "single"? Or "married, filing jointly"?

Thank you so so much for making this easy for me to understand.

You can change your W-4 to single to increase your withholding. Doesn’t matter if you are married or not. This is basically just a way to tell your employer what to withhold.

When filing taxes you will still go with married, filing jointly (or married filing separately in rare cases).

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Checking box 2C withholds more federal taxes?

Yes, it splits the standard deduction and brackets in half.

Thank you 🙏🏽

You can also just add an amount to be withheld from each check. I think that's easier than messing around with entries on the W4.