First time filing taxes as married couple and totally lost on why we owe money?

The "marriage benefit" isn't automatic - it depends on your specific situation. What's probably happening is that your withholdings didn't adjust properly for your new filing status. When you file jointly, your combined income ($282k) puts you in a higher tax bracket than either of you were in individually. While it's true that married filing jointly brackets are wider than single brackets, they're not twice as wide. So two high earners like yourselves can sometimes pay more tax when married (informally called the "marriage penalty"). The bigger issue is likely your withholdings. Since you kept them set as "single," each of your employers is calculating withholding as if your job is the only income for a single person. They don't know about your spouse's income. When you combine incomes on a joint return, you often need more withholding than the sum of two "single" withholdings. Try using the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator on their website to figure out the right W-4 settings for your situation. You'll both need to submit new W-4 forms to your employers to avoid owing next year.

This exact thing happened to me last year! I used https://taxr.ai to analyze our tax documents and it revealed that our withholdings were completely wrong for our new married status. The system compared our previous returns to our current situation and specifically showed us where the discrepancies were happening. What helped us most was seeing a side-by-side comparison of our effective tax rates before and after marriage, plus recommendations for adjusting our W-4s to prevent owing next year. The analysis also showed how our mortgage interest deduction was being applied differently as a married couple versus single.

Just wanted to update - I tried taxr.ai after asking about it and wow, what an eye-opener! I was in the exact same situation (first year married filing jointly, suddenly owing money). The analysis showed that my husband and I were both claiming the same deductions on our separate W-4s, which meant we were essentially double-counting some tax benefits. Plus, our combined income pushed us into a higher bracket that neither employer was accounting for. The coolest part was the personalized W-4 instructions it generated for both of us. We've already submitted the new forms to our HR departments. The system projected we'd get about $1,800 back next year instead of owing $2,400 like we did this time. Definitely helped make sense of the confusion!

If you're trying to figure out exactly what happened with your taxes after marriage, good luck getting through to the IRS right now. I spent 3 weeks trying to reach someone who could explain our similar situation. Finally found this service called Claimyr (https://claimyr.com) that got me connected to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes instead of waiting on hold for hours. They have a video that shows how it works: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent confirmed what others here are saying - our withholdings were completely wrong after getting married. She walked me through exactly what we needed to put on our W-4s to fix the issue. It was worth getting that official confirmation rather than guessing.

I have to eat my words about Claimyr. After my skeptical comment, I was still desperate to talk to the IRS about our marriage tax situation, so I decided to try it anyway. It actually worked exactly as advertised. I got a call back in about 20 minutes, and suddenly I was talking to an IRS representative who explained everything about our withholding issues. They walked me through exactly what to put on the W-4 to account for dual incomes in a marriage. The agent confirmed we had a "withholding gap" of about $320 per month that wasn't being taken out because our employers were calculating as if we were single. For high earners like us, the marriage combined income pushes more money into higher brackets than either employer accounts for. Mystery solved!

Hate to be that person, but this marriage tax situation was a major reason my partner and I decided not to get legally married. We did the math with our accountant and realized we'd pay about $4,500 MORE per year in taxes if we got married (we both make similar six-figure incomes). It's bizarre that the tax code effectively penalizes some married couples. We had a commitment ceremony instead and keep our finances and tax filings separate. Not the right choice for everyone, but something to consider if the marriage tax hit is substantial.

Everyone's talking about withholdings but what about your mortgage interest? When you were single, whoever claimed the mortgage got a big tax benefit relative to their solo income. Now that $28k interest is spread across your combined higher income, making it proportionally less impactful. Plus, are you still itemizing? Many married couples find they're better off with the standard deduction ($25,900 for 2022) than itemizing, especially if mortgage interest is your main deduction. Could be another part of your surprise tax bill.