TurboTax

File with experts
File your taxes
Experts at your fingertips

An expert helps with your taxes, or does them for you
TurboTax Expert Full Service

TurboTax Expert Assist

TurboTax Self-Employed
Prior year taxes
File myself
File myself
Do it yourself

We'll guide you step-by-step
TurboTax Do It Yourself

TurboTax Self-Employed

TurboTax Desktop
TurboTax Free

Activate your product

Prior year taxes
Business
Business
Business taxes

Get your T2 corporate return done right, your way
TurboTax Business

TurboTax Business Desktop
Tax situations
Tax situations
Tax situations

Find extra guidance for your big life moves
For investors

For 25 and younger

For self-employed

For new to Canada

For life changes
Resources
Resources
Resources

Explore tax tools, get tips, and read reviews
Personal income tax calculator

RRSP savings calculator

Learning hub

TurboTax support (FAQ)

TurboTax community
Pricing

Community

smillersmiles06

Question

Hello, I am confused as to why I owe money when I claimed zero exemptions and as a single.. how can this be explained?

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
June 1, 2019
7 replies
0 views

No text available

TurboTax Free Edition Online

MiriamF

If I understand you correctly, you claimed zero allowances on your W-4, yet you still owe tax.

The W-4 is only a crude estimate of how much tax needs to be withheld from your paycheck. For people who earn income in addition to their W-2, who have more than one W-2, who earn bonuses or commissions or who have a spouse that earns income, the estimate can be way off.

Your best solution for next year is to file a new W-4 with your employer and request that additional tax be withheld on Line 6 of that form. To make sure that you don't owe tax next year,

Estimate next year's income and divide by this year's.
Multiply the amount of tax you owe this year by the answer above.
Divide the answer in step 2 by the number of pay periods remaining in the year and enter that number on Line 6 of the W-4.

Bear in mind that if you increase your withholding, you will decrease the size of your paycheck. Only you can decide the best answer.

mollymissb20

My husband and I both make under 50,000 per year. Combined we made 62,000 last year. I filed Married, 0 and it says I owe this year? I'm confused by this. I have NEVER owed my entire life and made way more in the past. Also, I ran the numbers filing together and sep, both ways show we owe. Annoyed!!!

KathrynG3

Re-check your entry for your W-2's to make sure your tax withholdings are properly entered.

If your income and withholding were about the same as last year, you can safely expect similar results for your tax return this year.

For 2020, I do recommend using this IRS Tax Withholding Estimator so you can get a very clear idea of what you will owe federally. You can contact your State Department of Revenue, for their estimated tax withholding recommendations.

These are the tax brackets for 2019 and for 2020

Top15

It’s baffling to be that every “expert” that has replied, has simply offered jumbled explanations of NOTHING and not one solution. The kicker? I tried to file a couple of months ago, it was rejected so I waited awhile before I got around to it. When I first filed before being rejected, I was NEVER told I owed taxes. I’ve never owed taxes before. No exemptions. Nothing. I paid my taxes. I go to file again? Now all of a sudden I owe 1660 in taxes!!!!!!! The only reason I’m getting anything back is because of the Chile credit. I am appalled by the responses of these people. Not one bit of help. Just runaround explanations. Why even waste your time??

xmasbaby0

@Top15 Not sure what you mean when you say you were not "told" you owed tax. You could easily LOOK at your own tax return and see that there was tax due----or you could see the "refund monitor" on your screen that showed tax due-----or you could read the summary given to you in your account that said you owed tax due.

No one in this user forum can see your tax return or your screen. There were major tax law changes that began with the 2018 tax year that seem to continue to surprise some people. Personal exemptions of over $4000 per person were removed beginning with 2018 returns.

Was something different for 2020? Did you have less income due to the pandemic? Did you receive unemployment compensation? If so, did you have tax withheld from it?

There are a lot of variables that affect your refund or tax due including how much you earned, how much tax you had withheld, your filing status, the number of dependents you claim, your deductions and credits, etc. You may have lost Earned Income Credit or the Child Tax Credit— did a child turn 17? If you received the EIC last year, remember that changes in the amount you earn have a big effect on the amount of EIC you can get. (Sometimes earning more money means less EIC) Are you 65 or older ? If so, your standard deduction is higher. Everyone has a higher standard deduction now so it is harder to use itemized deductions.

And of course, always check your own data entries, looking for errors such as misplaced decimals or extra zeros.

https://ttlc.intuit.com/questions/1901008-why-did-my-refund-go-down-compared-to-last-year-s

Print out 2019 and 2020 and compare them side by side to see what is different. The line numbers are different so it is tricky and you have to read them very carefully.

**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**

Top15

It isn’t my fault that you don’t understand what I said. But let me clarify.

tried to file, was rejected.

I created a new account, did the same exact thing. Entered the info and checked it multiple times.

This time when I went to file, the return was significantly less, due to it saying I now owed 1660 in taxes. It did NOT say this before when I tried to file using the other account with all of the same info. I compared the info between the two return filings and they’re EXACT.

AMGRIZZ

Wow the same thing happened to me. I claimed zero dependents and still owe. This has never happened before and I want to know what is the difference now. It doesn’t make sense to me.

TSS5

YayTrump! Ever since his wonderful tax breaks that he gave us all, I owe every year. I have tried to adjust, claim zero through the year - single mom with 1 dependent and still owe. This year I claimed zero and had them take out an extra $200.00 per month and almost broke even.

jesswade75

Trump's tax law. He "reformed" our taxes. gave us back a little in each paycheck which we had to pay back. Each year things dwiddled away for us, and the rich got richer. People don't pay attention. I owe more than I can even keep up with. I'm getting scared with how much I owe and have to set aside more and more. I claim 0 and so does my husband.

ZoltanB45

As far as husband and wife working, that can be an explanation. Each job is withholding as if there is one source of income. Enter single on your W-4 and you won't get a tax season disappointment.

Diamondjones10

I claimed 0 because I don't have any child to claim. So, Why Im I owing taxes?

DoninGA

@Diamondjones10 wrote:

I claimed 0 because I don't have any child to claim. So, Why Im I owing taxes?

Look at your federal tax return, Form 1040. Your tax liability based on your taxable income is on Line 16. Your tax payments and credits are on Line 33. If the total of your tax liability is greater than your total tax payments you will have taxes owed.

You may want to increase the amount federal taxes withheld on your income by filing a new W-4.

Go to this IRS website for a tax withholding estimator - https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator

Cb2249

This is not how taxes work. The percentage you owe is the percentage you owe. Has nothing to do with "trump's tax plan" if you're employer isn't withholding what they're supposed to, it's their fault.

Deshaun54

This country is robbing U.S. Citizens blind I don't have **bleep** as it is and some how every since I started using turbo tax I always owe taxes before I used to use credit karma tax app and I use to get a return every year there is something Fishy with turbo tax I haven't figured it out yet but I feel like this turbo tax is not doing there best to help tax payers get the refunds back I wish there where more options for getting your taxes done by someone who is more concerned for the tax payer cause this is some bull**bleep** period!