Married and Taxes

[marketnonsenses]

I dont even know the correct words to use to ask this question. My wife and I both have jobs and file taxes jointly. We make a similar amount of money. But get our withholdings are very different. We ended up owing money this year because my witholding from my checks was very low. Did I fill somthing out wrong? What do other married people put for their status?

[KungfuRabbit]

It depends a lot on house and kids to know withholding.

Think of it this way. You owed money which means you got to earn free interest for a year :)

[kpd905]

What do you each have your allowances set at?  You could change your W4's and each drop your number by 1.  Then see how much it changes your paychecks.

If you know what your 2015 salary will be, plug it in here and see how much tax you'll owe (they have it as 2014 still but I think it will update after April 14th): https://www.calcxml.com/calculators/federal-income-tax-calculator

Otherwise play around with the withholding on here: http://www.paycheckcity.com/calculator/salary/

[marketnonsenses]

What do you each have your allowances set at?  You could change your W4's and each drop your number by 1.  Then see how much it changes your paychecks.

If you know what your 2015 salary will be, plug it in here and see how much tax you'll owe (they have it as 2014 still but I think it will update after April 14th): https://www.calcxml.com/calculators/federal-income-tax-calculator

Otherwise play around with the withholding on here: http://www.paycheckcity.com/calculator/salary/

Thank You. This is exactly what I was looking for.  This answers everything I need.

[velocistar237]

You can try this one, too. No idea if it's any better or worse.

http://apps.irs.gov/app/withholdingcalculator/

[TheAnonOne]

You simply need to lower your allowances.

Your SO probably put down 0 or 1 and you had 3 or 4.

Giant difference.

[marketnonsenses]

You simply need to lower your allowances.

Your SO probably put down 0 or 1 and you had 3 or 4.

Giant difference.

I appreciate the comment but it is totally wrong and I am unsure why you would think I would put 4 down.

Turns out it is field 3 of the W-4. She put Married but withold at single. I just put married. In case this ever comes up for anyone else.

[forummm]

You might discover that the "married, but withhold at single" rate still leaves you owing at the end of the year. You can always add an additional fixed dollar amount to be taken out of each paycheck and withheld. I did that for us, and then increased it, because we kept owing at the end of the year. We don't have a lot of deductions and have a small amount of investment income.