Wife and I forgot to change marital status on W-4. How screwed are we for taxes?

Don't panic! This happens more often than you'd think. The good news is you didn't do anything wrong by not changing your W-4s immediately after marriage. Your W-4 only affects how much tax is withheld from your paychecks, not how you actually file your taxes. You should definitely file as "Married Filing Jointly" for the year you got married. The single withholding rate is actually higher than married rates in many cases, so you might find you've been overwithholding all year. This could mean you'll get a larger refund than expected! However, if your combined incomes push you into a higher tax bracket, there's a possibility you might owe some additional tax. This is sometimes called the "marriage penalty" although recent tax law changes have reduced this effect for many couples.

I went through something similar last year and found https://taxr.ai super helpful for figuring out our situation. I was stressing about the whole W-4 marital status thing too. Their tax calculator let me compare what we would have owed filing separately vs jointly, and I could see exactly how our withholdings compared to what we actually owed. Saved me hours of trying to calculate everything myself and made it really clear which filing status would benefit us most.

Just wanted to follow up! I checked out taxr.ai after seeing it mentioned here and it was exactly what I needed. My husband and I were in the same boat with our W-4s still set to single, and I was able to run the numbers both ways. Turns out we're actually getting a decent refund by filing jointly! The tool made it super easy to see the difference between our withholding and actual tax liability. Saved me a ton of stress and now I'm not dreading tax season nearly as much.

If you end up owing money and need to talk to the IRS about a payment plan, good luck getting through on the phone. I spent 3 days trying to reach someone last year. Finally used https://claimyr.com and their service got me connected to an IRS agent in under 45 minutes. You can see how it works here: https://youtu.be/_kiP6q8DX5c. Literally saved me days of frustration and hold music. Hope you don't need it, but if you do find yourself owing a lot, it's worth knowing about.

I need to eat my words. After posting that skeptical comment about Claimyr, I decided to try it myself since I've been trying to reach the IRS about an issue with my previous return. I was honestly shocked when I got a call back connecting me to an actual IRS agent after about 35 minutes. Spent months trying on my own with no luck. The agent was able to help resolve my issue completely. Would have saved myself a lot of frustration if I'd known about this sooner.

One thing to consider - if you both have been withholding at the single rate all year, you might actually be in better shape than you think. Single withholding rates are generally higher than married rates, so you've probably had more tax withheld than necessary. When you file jointly, you might find you're due a refund rather than owing!

Has anyone actually calculated what the difference would be? I'm in a similar situation but make about $75k and my wife makes $65k.

Don't stress too much about this! I was in almost the exact same situation two years ago - married in March but didn't update our W-4s until the following January. My husband and I have very similar incomes to you and your wife. The reality is that having "Single" withholding all year actually worked in our favor. We ended up getting a refund of about $2,100 when we filed jointly because the single withholding rate had us overpaying throughout the year. Here's what I learned: Your W-4 status doesn't determine how you file your taxes - it only affects how much is withheld from your paychecks. Since you got married last February, you're absolutely eligible to file as "Married Filing Jointly" for that entire tax year, regardless of what your W-4s said. At your income levels, joint filing will almost certainly be more beneficial than filing separately. The standard deduction for married filing jointly is also much higher than single filers get. My advice: Don't panic, gather your W-2s when they arrive, and consider using a tax calculator to estimate your situation before filing. You might be pleasantly surprised!

I'm going through the exact same thing right now! My husband and I got married in March last year and completely forgot to update our W-4s. I've been losing sleep over this for weeks thinking we were going to owe thousands. Reading through all these responses is such a relief - I had no idea that single withholding rates are actually higher than married rates. It makes total sense now that I think about it. For anyone else in this situation, I found it really helpful to gather all our pay stubs from the year to see exactly how much was withheld. We used one of those online tax calculators someone mentioned earlier to get a rough estimate, and it looks like we'll actually be getting money back instead of owing! The key thing I learned is that your W-4 withholding status and your actual tax filing status are completely separate things. As long as you got married during the tax year, you can file as married regardless of what your paystubs show. Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences - this thread probably saved me from a lot more sleepless nights!

I'm a tax professional and wanted to chime in here with some reassurance. This is an incredibly common situation - probably one of the most frequent questions I get from newly married couples during tax season. The good news is that you're actually in a pretty favorable position. At your combined income of around $149K, filing jointly will almost certainly be more beneficial than filing separately. The marriage penalty that some people mentioned primarily affects couples where both spouses earn very high incomes (think $200K+ each). Here's what likely happened: Single withholding rates are designed to be more conservative (higher) because single filers don't have as many deductions available. Married couples filing jointly get a higher standard deduction ($27,700 for 2023 vs $13,850 for single filers) and more favorable tax brackets. So while your employers were withholding taxes as if you were both single all year, when you file jointly, you'll be taxed at the more favorable married rates with higher deductions. This typically results in a refund rather than owing additional tax. No penalties, no special forms needed - just file as married filing jointly and let the math work in your favor. You might want to update those W-4s for next year though to optimize your withholding going forward!