Why am I not having Federal taxes withheld from my paycheck?

This is actually a pretty common issue with the "new" W-4 form that was redesigned in 2020. The form no longer uses allowances, which throws a lot of people off. Here's what's probably happening: When you put $2,000 for your dependent, you're telling your employer to reduce your withholding by that amount spread throughout the year. But you might have missed filling out Step 2 if you have multiple jobs, or Step 4 if you have other income or want additional withholding. Without those sections completed properly, the system might calculate that you don't owe any federal tax based solely on your income and the credits you claimed. I'd recommend immediately submitting a new W-4 to your HR department. For a quick fix, you can go to Step 4(c) and put an additional amount you want withheld from each paycheck. A rough estimate would be to figure out what you think you'll owe for the year and divide by the number of remaining pay periods. You can also use the IRS Tax Withholding Estimator tool on their website to get a more accurate picture of what you should be withholding.

I had the EXACT same issue last year! After trying to figure out the W-4 on my own and getting nowhere, I discovered this tool called taxr.ai at https://taxr.ai that literally saved my butt. You upload your paystubs and tax docs, and it analyzes everything to tell you exactly what's going wrong with your withholding. The site showed me I had filled out Step 3 correctly for my kids but completely messed up Step 4 about other income. It generated a perfectly filled out W-4 that I could just print and give to HR. What's awesome is that it calculated exactly how much extra I needed to withhold for the rest of the year to avoid a huge bill at tax time. My HR department actually started recommending it to other employees after seeing how well it worked for me!

Just wanted to update that I tried taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here, and it was seriously helpful! I've been struggling with this exact issue for months - my workplace wasn't withholding enough federal tax despite me asking repeatedly. The tool analyzed my last few paystubs and immediately identified that I needed to adjust both Step 2 and Step 4 on my W-4. It generated a new form that showed I needed to add $175 extra withholding per paycheck to avoid owing at tax time. I printed it, took it to HR, and my latest paycheck finally shows the correct withholding! What I really liked was how it explained exactly WHY my withholding was off in the first place. Turns out the combination of my contractor income and W-2 job was creating a weird calculation issue. So relieved to have this fixed before tax season!

If you're still having trouble with your HR department after submitting a new W-4, you might need to speak directly with the IRS. I had a similar situation and couldn't get anywhere with my company's payroll department. I found this service called Claimyr at https://claimyr.com that got me through to an actual IRS agent in about 15 minutes, which is basically a miracle given how impossible it is to reach them normally. They have a video showing how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c The IRS agent was able to confirm exactly what I needed to do with my W-4 and gave me specific instructions to give my HR department. They also explained what would happen if my employer continued not to withhold correctly (which apparently can get them in trouble). Having that official information from the IRS finally got my HR department to take me seriously.

I need to apologize and share what happened after my skeptical comments. After continuing to get nowhere with my own withholding issues, I broke down and tried Claimyr last week. I was 100% convinced it wouldn't work, but I was desperate after spending THREE separate afternoons on hold with the IRS. To my complete shock, I got a call back in about 20 minutes with an actual IRS agent on the line. The agent walked me through exactly how to fix my withholding issues and explained why my company's payroll system wasn't calculating things correctly. With the IRS documentation backing me up, my HR department finally took the issue seriously. My latest paycheck now has the correct federal withholding. I've spent months trying to fix this, and it was resolved in a single afternoon after that call. I've never been happier to be wrong about something!

One thing nobody's mentioned yet - check if you filled out your state tax withholding form correctly too. I had a similar issue where federal taxes weren't being withheld, and it turned out I had accidentally exempted myself on both forms. Some states use a completely different form than the federal W-4. Also, if you're close to the minimum income threshold where federal taxes kick in, sometimes small changes in how you fill out the form can push you over or under that line. Might be worth checking if your income is close to that threshold.

Has anyone used TurboTax or H&R Block's withholding calculators? Are they any good for figuring out how to fix withholding problems mid-year? My spouse is having a similar issue with under-withholding.

I went through this exact same nightmare last year! The new W-4 form is so confusing compared to the old one with allowances. Here's what worked for me: I immediately calculated roughly how much I should have been paying in federal taxes for those 3 months (you can use last year's tax return as a guide - just divide your total federal tax by 12 and multiply by 3). Then I filled out a new W-4 with that amount PLUS my normal withholding divided by the remaining pay periods and put it all in Step 4(c) as additional withholding. For example, if you normally should have $200 withheld per paycheck and you missed $600 over 3 months, and you have 9 months left in the year, you'd put $200 + ($600/18 paychecks) = about $233 extra per paycheck in Step 4(c). Don't panic - this is fixable! The key is acting quickly so you have more paychecks to spread the catch-up amount over. Also, make sure you keep all your paystubs to show the IRS you tried to fix it mid-year if there are any issues when you file.