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I'm separated from my husband but we are still legally married. We have 3 children.

During tax season, since we are not divorced we file jointly to get the marriage break and the earned child income break.

On my W4 I usually claim 0, but put that I'm married filing jointly. For some reason I'm not getting federal withheld at all. I thought filing 0 dependents would get more taxes taken out so that we could get more on our tax return.

It seems like per the IRS 15t info on their website that if I put married filing separately I will pay more federal out of my check. I'm confused because I always thought that filing married and jointly you get more back, but for some reason like I stated the government is not taking out any federal.

Should I change my W4 to single or married filing separately, and not file jointly during tax season?

And why am I not getting federal taken out my check currently?

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    I am not in the US so can't answer the question, but I don't understand the motivation to pay more tax (have more withheld) in order to get a larger refund. That means the government holds more of your money for longer, rather than you holding it and being able to invest it / earn interest on it. If you can't trust yourself to hold onto the money and not spend it before the tax becomes due at the end of the year, then the aim should be to get your withholdings as accurate as possible in order to minimise the refund, not to maximise the withholdings in order to maximise the refund.
    – Vicky
    Commented Oct 4 at 12:48
  • Honestly it feels awesome to get 10 g's at the beginning of the year cause that's when I get the big ticket items like a car or new beds or vacays with my kids frfr the big lump sums help alot with clothes shoes debts etc but due to our separation he get half. That's the deal we got.
    – Cheryl Marquez
    Commented Oct 4 at 13:00
  • @Vicky many people would prefer to budget on a smaller amount and use the tax refund as "cushion" as opposed to getting it wrong the other way and having a large tax bill in April that they may not have the money to pay.
    – D Stanley
    Commented Oct 4 at 13:23
  • "enter 0" for what? Are you talking about allowances? Those aren't a thing anymore. You might be using an old W4 form.
    – Nosjack
    Commented Oct 4 at 15:54
  • @Vicky: in the US, if you underwithhold your taxes they may charge interest and penalty fees. Tax is really due quarterly, and withholding is the simplest way of making sure that you have paid on time. But that does require a bit of calculation to determine how much to withhold, or playing it safe and overpaying since you will get a refund check. (Of course, if you overpay, you have lost your own interest income on that money in the meantime. But the fees tend to bias things in that direction.) If taxes aren't being withheld, you make quarterly estimated tax payments or pay the same penalties.
    – keshlam
    Commented Oct 14 at 18:56

3 Answers 3

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Once you resolve why there are no Federal Income taxes being withheld by your employer, then look at adjusting your numbers to get the result you want.

There is a box on the W4 that allows to have have additional money withheld. Sometimes people with multiple jobs. or other non-W2 income. or if they want an extra large refund; use this box to have additional money withheld.

Now back to why you might be having no federal taxes withheld.

One issue you may have with the W4 is if you didn't follow the instructions for multiple jobs, the system may think that your income is the only income. If your income will be less than the married standard deduction plus your expected deductions, it could result in nothing being withheld.

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On top of the stress of going through a divorce with children, you then have to deal with the crappy US tax system. People in countries like the UK can show up at the tax office and be told how much they owe and cannot relate to our guessing. It sucks is all I can say.

The bottom line is that nothing is being withheld from your check because that is what the payroll tables say to do. This is in no means related to if you will actually owe when April 15th comes around. This is very frustrating and confusing.

If you can, your best bet is to put some money in savings for a potential tax bill in April. One thousand dollars will probably cover things. As so much is unknown in your life right now, it is difficult to plan beyond saving some money.

Once your divorce is settled, you can do some math to figure out how much you will need to pay for taxes each year. This is not easy and will depend on your divorce agreement (who gets what deductions) and salary. Once you have that final amount you can adjust your W4, so the proper amount is being withheld.

To be perfectly clear, you are not being dumb, or weird by not knowing how to properly fill out your w4. Its our tax system that is dumb.

The best to you and your children.

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    The US tax system isn't entirely dumb. But it is an accumulated rat's nest of special cases inserted to address perceived social needs. Congratulations, they think you're special. (Sigh.)
    – keshlam
    Commented Oct 14 at 18:59
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The IRS website has a tax withholding calculator that may help you.

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator

There are also a number of links about to information about withholding a W-4 forms.

Reading your post I was struck by this passage:

On my W4 I usually claim 0, but put that I'm married filing jointly. For some reason I'm not getting federal withheld at all. I thought filing 0 dependents would get more taxes taken out so that we could get more on our tax return.

In general you should aim for not having so much tax withholding that you get money back from the government when you file your taxes. You should actually aim to have to pay the government a bit of money though not so much that you trigger a penalty.

When you get money back from the government, you can think of it as you gave the government an interest free loan of that amount of money.

I try to have insufficient tax withholding so that when I file my taxes, I have to send them a check. During the year I have an account that I use for cash savings for emergencies and instead of paying an excess to the government, I instead put the money there.

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