Fema Employment
Why do my husband and I owe so much in federal and state taxes? We hardly make any money!?
My husband and I both live and work in Kansas. We made a COMBINED $42,658 in 2007. TaxACT says that we owe $1,082 in federal taxes and $319 in state taxes. I don't understand. Would it be better if we filed separately? Before I entered any of my husband's W2s the program was stating a $609 federal tax return and a $40 state tax return. It seems that for some reason my husband was claiming 2 on state and federal for a $1285.83 W2 from a job he had for a couple weeks. Other than that we have both been claiming 1 on federal and state. we don't have any kids -yet. i'm pregnant now. should have popped it out sooner i guess. this whole situation is incredibly stressful and makes me so mad. thanks for the answers everybody. i'm not too savvy with this whole tax thing, and neither is my husband, obviously, lol. we are definitely learning from our mistakes here. we don't itemize... i just answer the questions that TaxACT asks and go with that. we don't own a house so we didn't have mortgage interest. we were renting an apartment for all of 2007. we can deduct property and state taxes through itemization? Lisa J- yes, our total federal taxes owed is $1082. the government needs to write a manual on how to live in the united states... and mail it to every person with their social security card.
Public Comments
- Filing seperately will increase you total tax liability. It might provide you with a refund, but on your husband's return he will owe a lot. If you net those it shoudl give you a higher tax liability. If you don't have kids and you do not itemize, it would be better to claim 0 or 1
- you owe more because people like us have to make sure we pay in enough for the rich to not have to pay taxes and to make sure that bush's tax cuts on the very wealthy dont cut into the govt's share. The rich have enough deductions and loopholes that they never have to pay taxes.
- the main reason is the he was claiming 2 it should be kept at 0 most 1..if he doesnt owe much on his taxes alone i would file separately this year and fix the w-4 right away and start anew
- A couple with two jobs needs to claim less on the W4 to have more withheld sense the total couple income is taxed. A couple where only one worked earning 20K would pay much less than a couple earning 20K so need to have a larger amount withheld.
- you need tax rightoffs, by your situation I noticed no kids were mentioned, so that will cost you, unless you are buying a house or raising kids you dont have any major tax rightoffs and uncle sam really screws people who dont
- Usually it is better to file jointly. Usually the spouse with the higher wages fills out their W-4 for Married with 2 allowances, while the spouse with the lower wages files married but withhold at the higher single rate and no allowances. You should owe about $3,000 in taxes and you should have had that much withheld from your payroll checks. That will vary based on your exact circumstances - do you own a house and itemize etc... You can always call the IRS and walk through your tax return with them.
- You owe so much because you underwithheld on your W-4. What is the total tax that you owe? Is it the $1082? Because if so, that is an effective tax rate of 2.5%. which pretty darn good. Do you have itemized deductions like mortgage interest, property taxes, state taxes, etc etc etc? Total taxed owed of $1082 is awesome! that is a very very low effective rate. If you have enough to itemize you can claim state and local taxes as a deduction, or you can claim sales tax. But if you don't own a house, you probably don't have enough to itemize, you would just use the standard deduction.
- I wish the tax packages wouldn't predict the refund until ALL W-2 and schedule C income had been entered. Then you wouldn't be so disappointed that the "refund" flipped from money back to money owed when you entered the last W-2. Even though he held the job for only a few weeks, putting single/0 probably would have behaved the same, except the amount due would have been lower.
- Because he had 2 marked down, they didn't take enough taxes out, so the $1,082 in federal and $319 in state is what they would have taken out if he had marked 1 or 0. This is exactly why I have 0 down so they will take out more than enough to cover my taxes.
