Huge (for us) tax bill. What went wrong?

[Anonymous]

If you post the approx. combined income and federal tax paid we can roughly tell if there’s been a huge error.

[Anonymous]

OP’s math makes no sense. With a 230k income the most fed tax they would pay is about 36k (and that is with no other deduction such as 401k or health insurance).

If they owe 25k that means they only withheld 11k (probably less) during the year. Is this real?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you calculate filing separately vs jointly?

Yes we just tried that. It’s Appearing that the higher earner (me) owes the whole $26k. Apparently I need it be paying an additional $2k a pay period?

Do you only have 13 pay periods per year? That would be unusual.

I’d also look over your tax return carefully and make sure you haven’t input something wrong. Did you earn a lot more than last year? Or was your total withholding much less than last year?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP’s math makes no sense. With a 230k income the most fed tax they would pay is about 36k (and that is with no other deduction such as 401k or health insurance).

If they owe 25k that means they only withheld 11k (probably less) during the year. Is this real?

Maybe OP is including state as well as federal taxes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Well Op, that's good, because we need a much money as we can get to support the war and pay for all the illegal immigrants camped at our southern doorstep. Thank you for doing your part. Much appreiciated.

Is that you MTG?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DH and I are doing our taxes and we owe about $25k which is shocking. We make around $230k pre tax and take the standard deduction.

We both claim all 0s and pay several hundred dollars a pay period extra.

In theory we should be paying an extra $2k per pay period per month right to the IRS?

Here is the kicker, we have a huge disparity in income. My DH only makes $40k and by increasing our withholding it gets to the point where it's silly for him to even work. He carries no benefits for us and his employer doesn't do a traditional 401(k).

I know more information is probably needed, but any ideas on what we are doing wrong. This was quite the gut punch.

OP, your math doesn't add up. If you make $230K pretax, then the most your AGI would be is $204,100, which would be a total Federal income tax of $45543. Of course, your AGI would be reduced by any 401K contributions and various deductions if you itemize, and your tax liability would be reduced by any credits, like the child tax credit. There's no way that you still owe $25K unless one of you didn't have ANY tax withholding.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you making that income for the first time? Is it the first time you owe so much in taxes? How come you didn’t realize that your take home per pay period had increased by that much?
25k is an insane amount to owe at that income.

No, same amount last year and we owed $6k. So we adjust up and now here we are with $26k.

No investments minus 401(k).

And you didn't notice that your take home paycheck was substantially higher than last year? The blame is entirely on you.
I would understand if the difference was lower, $2k or $3k. But $25k??? There is no way you missed that on your paycheck.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I just tell the IRS how much to withhold. If I owed 25k. I would just add 2k each pay period. The IRS knows nothing about your investments.

Dear lord, that’s about the equivalent to what my DH brings home a month. It’s not even worth him working as we are losing then $35k a year on childcare.

Imho you need to divorce and have him file as HoH and claim the child
I think there is a way for you to be HoH as well but not really sure. But at least he gets out of tax h*ll.
You may need to put a different address on your taxes though…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Are you making that income for the first time? Is it the first time you owe so much in taxes? How come you didn’t realize that your take home per pay period had increased by that much?
25k is an insane amount to owe at that income.

No, same amount last year and we owed $6k. So we adjust up and now here we are with $26k.

No investments minus 401(k).

And you didn't notice that your take home paycheck was substantially higher than last year? The blame is entirely on you.
I would understand if the difference was lower, $2k or $3k. But $25k??? There is no way you missed that on your paycheck.

So my take home wasn’t higher, in fact it was a little lower. My take home is approximately $4800/ pay period. After 401(k)/FSA/ etc my gross income was $170k.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I just tell the IRS how much to withhold. If I owed 25k. I would just add 2k each pay period. The IRS knows nothing about your investments.

You mean each month. Unless you are paid monthly.

[Anonymous]

Are you self-employed?

Agree with pp’s that the math doesn’t make sense. Something is wrong.

[Anonymous]

Did you get a large bonus during the year, OP?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you do your own taxes, or did you use an accountant? We make what you make, though our incomes are evenly split. I can’t even imagine a 25k bill.

Part of the problem I bet is that the husband is being withheld at 0 for the first $12k and then 12% for the next $30k when he really should be being withheld at 24%. He probably should just quit if you are paying for childcare.

+1 I bet it’s the marginal rate for DH.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did you get a large bonus during the year, OP?

No, I work a non profit who does not give out bonuses.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did you do your own taxes, or did you use an accountant? We make what you make, though our incomes are evenly split. I can’t even imagine a 25k bill.

Part of the problem I bet is that the husband is being withheld at 0 for the first $12k and then 12% for the next $30k when he really should be being withheld at 24%. He probably should just quit if you are paying for childcare.

+1 I bet it’s the marginal rate for DH.

I am starting to think that this is the problem. We have contacted a CPA to rerun our numbers as well as help for the future. It’s just so weird that our salaries were within $5k of last year yet our owed tax liability is almost 6 times what it was last year.