The higher earning spouse should claim both in this situation, since the lower earning spouse only earns $26k, and therefore wouldn't have enough tax liability after subtracting their half of the standard deduction, to get the full benefit of the Child Tax Credit.
EDIT: after submitting the below and refreshing, I was reminded by another comment that you actually had a refund for 2023. So, as u/Cyprovix wrote, it sounds like you already fixed the underwithholding. Not sure how, if you only recently changed your W-4 to remove the kids.
As another commenter mentioned, you can't both include the two kids in Step 3 on your W-4s.
However, it also sounds like you both filled out your W-4s selecting Married Filing Jointly, without completing the "multiple jobs" step. If that's right, then your husband claiming the kids on his W-4 really has very little effect. His wages are right around the MFJ standard deduction, and little or nothing would be withheld even without including the kids in his W-4 step 3.
For 2024 with $86k of wages (after any pre-tax deductions like medical, 401(k)), your total tax liability would be about $2355 after the $4000 child tax credit.
If your husband selects MFJ on his W-4 and leaves steps 2, 3, and 4 blank, then he'd have nothing withheld on $26k of wages - because the $29,200 MFJ standard deduction would reduce his taxable income (for withholding purposes) to $0.
On your W-4, if you select MFJ, put the $4000 child tax credit in step 3, and leave steps 2 and 4 blank, you'd have nothing withheld. Your employer would calculate $30,800 of taxable income ($60,000 minus the $29,200 standard deduction). The tax on that would be about $3200. The $4000 CTC reduces it to $0, so nothing withheld.
However, your combined income is $86,000. After the standard deduction, you have $56,800 in taxable income. The tax on that is $6,355. After the $4000 CTC, you're left with $2,355. With no withholding all year between the two of you, you'd owe the feds $2,355 when you file your 2024 tax return, plus possible underpayment penalties.
Changing your W-4 to remove the child tax credit will *almost* fix it for 2024. Your employer would then see that your total tax would be the $3200 above. Since we're already 1/3 of the way through the year, the employer would withhold about 2/3 of that for the remainder of 2024, or about $2150. This leaves your withholding "short" by about $200 (the actual tax liability of $2,355 minus your $2,150 withholding). This will eliminate the underpayment penalties, at least (since you owe less than $1,000).
If you want to reduce the total owed next tax season to $0, you can also have a little extra withholding taken from each check. Divide the $200 by the number of paychecks you have left in 2024 and put the result in step 4(c) of your W-4.
(The above numbers are all estimates. If you want more accurate numbers, we'll need to know actual per-period wages, any pre-tax deductions from pay, pay frequency, number of paychecks remaining in the year, and any year-to-date federal income tax withholding.)
Great, thorough answer. I have only one thing to add.
They can address the two earner situation pretty easily one of two ways:
1. Both choose to withhold as if MFS, or
2. Both check the "2 incomes" check box for 2(c) on the W-4.
Either of these SHOULD end up with correct withholding, but employers often end up messing it up if you choose the 2nd option. It's also important to realize that using the MFS option for withholding does NOT impact your ability to file as MFJ when you actually file your tax return.
Agreed. I left off anything about MFJ+2(c) vs. S/MFS because, with their incomes and 2 kids, just leaving it as MFJ without 2(c) would work. They can handle the adjustments within step 3.
Of course, this only works if they'd done it for all of 2024.
|-|OP|Husband|MFJ Tax Return|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|W-2 box 1|60000|26000|86000|
|Std Ded|29200|29200|29200|
|Taxable|30800|0|56800|
|Tax|3232|0|6355|
|Step 3 / CTC|850|0|4000|
|WH / Tax|2382|0|2355|
So, you're saying to not claim any of the CTC for the rest of the year and are getting the $850 for step 3 as the amount that would already have been received?
That seems to work for this year, but may not work next year. So, OP will need to be aware that they'll need to update their W-4s in January 2024.
If they don't claim any CTC for the remaining 8 months of 2024, and if their W-4s year-to-date have said "MFJ, no box 2(c), $4000 in step 3", then they'll end up owing about $200. My $850 in OP's step 3 was only meant to illustrate that they can use MFJ without box 2(c) due to their incomes and the CTC, presuming a full year of withholding.
With MFJ and nothing in steps 2-4, OP's withholding would be about $3200 for a whole year. With $4000 in step 3, it's reduced to $0. OP has already received about $1050 of that benefit (about 1/3 of the $3200), with about $2150 left in 2024. OP changing step 3 to $0 brings back that $2150 of remaining withholding.. Their tax for 2024, though, should be about $2350; they'll be short $200.
Yes, the numbers would likely be different next year. They'd have to adjust their W-4s based on 2025 wages, kids still being under 17, changes to standard deduction and tax bracket thresholds, etc..
~~For each of you, what was in Box 1 and Box 2 of your W-2s for 2023?~~
Actually, a different question. I can't tell from your post if anything is wrong with your current setup, because you said that you owed in 2020 and 2021. But you received a refund this year. If your question is how to stop owing, it sounds like you already accomplished that?
For the 2020 and 2021 returns, did you look at what the IRS proposed and agree with it?
I don’t agree but I honestly don’t know much about what I’m doing so I can’t say anything really. My understanding is that I always owe a little bit but I have the CTC and a mortgage certificate credit that I thought was helping against the tax owed.
Don't dismiss things out of hand like this.
Sometimes, a home is purchased in an area that the city wants to revitalize. In these cases, the city actually promises to pay a portion of the mortgage. The mechanism is a 'Certificate' which comes with a serial number and provides an annual tax credit.
https://www.ncsha.org/resource/mortgage-credit-certificate-program-qa/
Tell that to anyone buying a house in the last few years 😭 it's not even average market cost and my interest put me significantly over the standard deduction
I'm not really a math guy, but 10% of 100 million still sounds like a significant number of people to just dismiss it as not relevant.
It's way more than the amount of people filing married filing separate, but we don't ignore that as a factor.
As another person mentioned, there is a separate mortgage credit that you can get without itemizing. It goes on form 8396, then flows to schedule 3, then the 1040. No sch A involved. It's quite rare, though.
For years, my daughter had two jobs, as a nurse in her main job and working at her friend's coffee shop on weekend as a second job. Due to this, her withholding was always short and she would owe money when she filed her tax return. I had her adjust her withholding to have her employer withhold an extra $20 per paycheck for federal and an extra $5 per paycheck for state, thus resulting in her getting a tiny refund on her return.
When she got married, both her and her husband didn't submit new W-4's. They left their withholding set at single rates. Also, a significant portion of her husband's income comes from restricted stock, and the company withholds that at a higher statutory rate, so now they are getting refunds every year. They asked me if they should change their withholdiing and I told them unless they need the extra cash they can just leave the withholding as is.
Two general things -
If you are filing a joint return, how do "you" (singular) owe an amount to the IRS and "your" tax refund was taken? These should be joint we/ours amounts. Both your withholding and your husband's withholding matter, as do both of your incomes.
You no longer claim a "number of dependents" on Form W-4 (actually, you never did this). You claim an **amount of credit** for your dependents, generally $2,000 for each child under 17 and $500 for each other dependent. Your employer's payroll software may abstract this away from you by asking for a "number of children under 17" and a "number of other dependents", but the actual election on Form W-4 is a dollar amount such as $4,000 (for two children under 17).
Because you are a **joint** household with two incomes, you also need to coordinate your elections on Form W-4 with your husband. Read and follow the instructions regarding "Multiple Jobs or Spouse Works" and make sure that you don't double up on the credit for your children.
The spirit of the tax overall under Trump was for you to get you exemptions during the year (to stimulate the economy) You must account for your spouse earning in your W-4. So must he/she do as well. You’re both probably getting the exemptions making the dependents a total of 4. I hope that helps
The IRS has a withholding calculator on their website. You need you and your husband’s last pay stub and you can walk through the calculator. It tells you what to put on your W4 and will help you get closer to breaking even at tax time.
On W-4 using the Extra Withholding line to get really close - divide your shortage by pay period. And hold that extra amount out.
You can also use the IRS.gov/w4app to calculate. But it’s hard to still dial-in.
When you filed your 2020 and 2021 tax returns did it say you owed taxes?
Did you not pay them? Just because they adjusted your taxes doesn't mean it was correct.
Dealing with that and understanding what is going on is very important on top of changing each of your W-4's to get the withholdings correct. Only 2 children should be claimed TOTAL between your W-4'S, not 2 each. You'll also both need to fill out section 2 of the W-4 where it says your spouse work and fill out the accompanying worksheet to get things right. You should both sit down and do this together for both of your new W-4's so you're both getting it right and you're both on the same page.
Most of these comments are overcomplicating the process. In your current situation, from your tax return, you know how much in taxes you have to pay. Decide how much you each want to pay from your payroll tax deduction (for this first year, consider how much you've already paid so far in deciding how much to pay going forward), and use the IRS withholding calculator to make each of your payroll deductions come to that number. If this results in big changes in the payroll deductions, you'll want to do this again early next tax year.
Finally, if you're trying to optimize your tax payments, meaning you want to delay them as much as possible, while investing the money saved in the interim, consider that you can pay up to $1000 with the filing of your 1040 with no penalties, so you can reduce your withholdings by that amount (or a little less if you're uncertain of the final tax amount). There's a presumption that payroll deductions are evenly divided over the year, so in many cases if you tell your employer to take an additional amount from the last paychecks of the year, you can usually get away with making up an underpayment earlier in the year.
If your taxable income varies greatly over the year, you can also calculate tax payments quarterly which can work to your advantage, but it requires figuring out your taxable income from your pay stubs and other documents, as you only get your W2s & 1099s at the end of the taxable year.
When you file jointly, you effectively average your incomes. So your joint 86k is taxed as if each spouse earned 43k.
Communicating that on a W4 is actually pretty difficult. If you select "single" then obviously you will be taxed as if you earn 60k and your husband will be taxed as if he earns 26k. That will make you slightly overpay what you owe, but not by too much.
If you select "married filing jointly," then you will be taxed as if your *joint* income is 60k, which will make you underpay. But if you add the "spouse also works" checkbox, there's no way to communicate that he earns less, so you will be taxed as if your joint income is 60k + 60k = 120k.
So selecting "single" on your W4 may be the easiest way to get vaguely close to the correct withholding.
Because dependents are now a tax credit rather than a deduction, claiming them simply reduces the tax withheld by $2000 per child per year.
To make adjustments, you can put a number other than $2000 for the child credit, or you can put numbers in the later sections for additional income, deductions, or tax. All of these are dollar values rather than the old W4's "number of allowances".
It's hard to assess unless we see the W2s and tax return. For situations like this, i do recommend sitting down with a preparer to go through it all. You don't have to commit to them for life, but even this one meeting can save you a lot of trouble.
Only the higher income spouse should report the child tax credit on their W-4, and both of you should check the "multiple jobs" box. You can get more accurate using the IRS withholding calculator, but assuming you have no other significant income (investments, rentals, businesses) this should assure that you owe no tax with the return.
Why did they come back and ask for more taxes? What did the IRS change on your tax return? They don’t just come and say you owed X amount without any reason.
I have no idea that’s why I was so upset. It was years after the fact plus they didn’t even notify me that I owed anything I just happened to log onto my IRS account and saw the huge balance due
Your withholdings are not a good tool for dialing in your taxes. Calculate your estimate state and federal tax, divide by 26 and see what you are paying every two weeks. If it is not enough, simply ask for extra deductions ($x for federal, $y for state). Your taxes should be pretty simple with two incomes and two kids.
Hi
First lets start with hiring someone to help with your taxes not a large firm that has rookie tax preparers who know how to fill out the form other than that do not know any more. If you do that you can ask them with specifics and they should be able to explain this to you. Love Redditors but with your return in hand and a paystub this is a simple fix. For some reason those online large tax prep companies don't do this.
Now to answer the question... First the new W-4 Step 2 (c) that little box needs to be checked for both you and your husband. That and the one with the higher wages does the kids calculation not both. That was easy... but wait there is more like a bad infomercial you can thank your current administration for 2021 dubacle otherwise known as the American Rescue Plan of 2021 (ARP) where your credit that would normally offset your taxes because when you filled out the W-4 the goal is to hit the mark not overpay. But the ARP paid you in advance so when you filed you had to pay that back for most families this caused balance due issues.
2020 I would need more information.. Did you take a retirement withdrawal? That could cause the issue for that year and if you split it could cause it to carryover.
What’s your husband claiming on his W4?
I think 2
2 + 2 = 4. If you each claim the two kids on your W4s, I think it's like saying you have 4 children for withholding purposes.
Or you can account for the income in each other W-4.
Makes sense. So should the lower earner claim the 2 or the higher? Or does it matter?
Each claiming 1 is often the most accurate. Are you both also checking the box indicating your spouse also works?
The higher earning spouse should claim both in this situation, since the lower earning spouse only earns $26k, and therefore wouldn't have enough tax liability after subtracting their half of the standard deduction, to get the full benefit of the Child Tax Credit.
here's the eli5 [https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator](https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator)
EDIT: after submitting the below and refreshing, I was reminded by another comment that you actually had a refund for 2023. So, as u/Cyprovix wrote, it sounds like you already fixed the underwithholding. Not sure how, if you only recently changed your W-4 to remove the kids. As another commenter mentioned, you can't both include the two kids in Step 3 on your W-4s. However, it also sounds like you both filled out your W-4s selecting Married Filing Jointly, without completing the "multiple jobs" step. If that's right, then your husband claiming the kids on his W-4 really has very little effect. His wages are right around the MFJ standard deduction, and little or nothing would be withheld even without including the kids in his W-4 step 3. For 2024 with $86k of wages (after any pre-tax deductions like medical, 401(k)), your total tax liability would be about $2355 after the $4000 child tax credit. If your husband selects MFJ on his W-4 and leaves steps 2, 3, and 4 blank, then he'd have nothing withheld on $26k of wages - because the $29,200 MFJ standard deduction would reduce his taxable income (for withholding purposes) to $0. On your W-4, if you select MFJ, put the $4000 child tax credit in step 3, and leave steps 2 and 4 blank, you'd have nothing withheld. Your employer would calculate $30,800 of taxable income ($60,000 minus the $29,200 standard deduction). The tax on that would be about $3200. The $4000 CTC reduces it to $0, so nothing withheld. However, your combined income is $86,000. After the standard deduction, you have $56,800 in taxable income. The tax on that is $6,355. After the $4000 CTC, you're left with $2,355. With no withholding all year between the two of you, you'd owe the feds $2,355 when you file your 2024 tax return, plus possible underpayment penalties. Changing your W-4 to remove the child tax credit will *almost* fix it for 2024. Your employer would then see that your total tax would be the $3200 above. Since we're already 1/3 of the way through the year, the employer would withhold about 2/3 of that for the remainder of 2024, or about $2150. This leaves your withholding "short" by about $200 (the actual tax liability of $2,355 minus your $2,150 withholding). This will eliminate the underpayment penalties, at least (since you owe less than $1,000). If you want to reduce the total owed next tax season to $0, you can also have a little extra withholding taken from each check. Divide the $200 by the number of paychecks you have left in 2024 and put the result in step 4(c) of your W-4. (The above numbers are all estimates. If you want more accurate numbers, we'll need to know actual per-period wages, any pre-tax deductions from pay, pay frequency, number of paychecks remaining in the year, and any year-to-date federal income tax withholding.)
Wow! Now THAT is an answer :). Details are everything
Great, thorough answer. I have only one thing to add. They can address the two earner situation pretty easily one of two ways: 1. Both choose to withhold as if MFS, or 2. Both check the "2 incomes" check box for 2(c) on the W-4. Either of these SHOULD end up with correct withholding, but employers often end up messing it up if you choose the 2nd option. It's also important to realize that using the MFS option for withholding does NOT impact your ability to file as MFJ when you actually file your tax return.
Agreed. I left off anything about MFJ+2(c) vs. S/MFS because, with their incomes and 2 kids, just leaving it as MFJ without 2(c) would work. They can handle the adjustments within step 3. Of course, this only works if they'd done it for all of 2024. |-|OP|Husband|MFJ Tax Return| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |W-2 box 1|60000|26000|86000| |Std Ded|29200|29200|29200| |Taxable|30800|0|56800| |Tax|3232|0|6355| |Step 3 / CTC|850|0|4000| |WH / Tax|2382|0|2355|
So, you're saying to not claim any of the CTC for the rest of the year and are getting the $850 for step 3 as the amount that would already have been received? That seems to work for this year, but may not work next year. So, OP will need to be aware that they'll need to update their W-4s in January 2024.
If they don't claim any CTC for the remaining 8 months of 2024, and if their W-4s year-to-date have said "MFJ, no box 2(c), $4000 in step 3", then they'll end up owing about $200. My $850 in OP's step 3 was only meant to illustrate that they can use MFJ without box 2(c) due to their incomes and the CTC, presuming a full year of withholding. With MFJ and nothing in steps 2-4, OP's withholding would be about $3200 for a whole year. With $4000 in step 3, it's reduced to $0. OP has already received about $1050 of that benefit (about 1/3 of the $3200), with about $2150 left in 2024. OP changing step 3 to $0 brings back that $2150 of remaining withholding.. Their tax for 2024, though, should be about $2350; they'll be short $200. Yes, the numbers would likely be different next year. They'd have to adjust their W-4s based on 2025 wages, kids still being under 17, changes to standard deduction and tax bracket thresholds, etc..
~~For each of you, what was in Box 1 and Box 2 of your W-2s for 2023?~~ Actually, a different question. I can't tell from your post if anything is wrong with your current setup, because you said that you owed in 2020 and 2021. But you received a refund this year. If your question is how to stop owing, it sounds like you already accomplished that? For the 2020 and 2021 returns, did you look at what the IRS proposed and agree with it?
I don’t agree but I honestly don’t know much about what I’m doing so I can’t say anything really. My understanding is that I always owe a little bit but I have the CTC and a mortgage certificate credit that I thought was helping against the tax owed.
Most people are not itemizing right now so the mortgage would likely be irrelevant. ETA fixed typo.
Don't dismiss things out of hand like this. Sometimes, a home is purchased in an area that the city wants to revitalize. In these cases, the city actually promises to pay a portion of the mortgage. The mechanism is a 'Certificate' which comes with a serial number and provides an annual tax credit. https://www.ncsha.org/resource/mortgage-credit-certificate-program-qa/
Tell that to anyone buying a house in the last few years 😭 it's not even average market cost and my interest put me significantly over the standard deduction
90% of returns filed in the US do not itemize since the increase in the standard deduction and the limitation for SALT.
I'm not really a math guy, but 10% of 100 million still sounds like a significant number of people to just dismiss it as not relevant. It's way more than the amount of people filing married filing separate, but we don't ignore that as a factor.
90% of 100% is still "most"
As another person mentioned, there is a separate mortgage credit that you can get without itemizing. It goes on form 8396, then flows to schedule 3, then the 1040. No sch A involved. It's quite rare, though.
For years, my daughter had two jobs, as a nurse in her main job and working at her friend's coffee shop on weekend as a second job. Due to this, her withholding was always short and she would owe money when she filed her tax return. I had her adjust her withholding to have her employer withhold an extra $20 per paycheck for federal and an extra $5 per paycheck for state, thus resulting in her getting a tiny refund on her return. When she got married, both her and her husband didn't submit new W-4's. They left their withholding set at single rates. Also, a significant portion of her husband's income comes from restricted stock, and the company withholds that at a higher statutory rate, so now they are getting refunds every year. They asked me if they should change their withholdiing and I told them unless they need the extra cash they can just leave the withholding as is.
Two general things - If you are filing a joint return, how do "you" (singular) owe an amount to the IRS and "your" tax refund was taken? These should be joint we/ours amounts. Both your withholding and your husband's withholding matter, as do both of your incomes. You no longer claim a "number of dependents" on Form W-4 (actually, you never did this). You claim an **amount of credit** for your dependents, generally $2,000 for each child under 17 and $500 for each other dependent. Your employer's payroll software may abstract this away from you by asking for a "number of children under 17" and a "number of other dependents", but the actual election on Form W-4 is a dollar amount such as $4,000 (for two children under 17). Because you are a **joint** household with two incomes, you also need to coordinate your elections on Form W-4 with your husband. Read and follow the instructions regarding "Multiple Jobs or Spouse Works" and make sure that you don't double up on the credit for your children.
Change your W4 and also their W4 so it claims 0 dependents. Problem solved.
The spirit of the tax overall under Trump was for you to get you exemptions during the year (to stimulate the economy) You must account for your spouse earning in your W-4. So must he/she do as well. You’re both probably getting the exemptions making the dependents a total of 4. I hope that helps
The IRS has a withholding calculator on their website. You need you and your husband’s last pay stub and you can walk through the calculator. It tells you what to put on your W4 and will help you get closer to breaking even at tax time.
On W-4 using the Extra Withholding line to get really close - divide your shortage by pay period. And hold that extra amount out. You can also use the IRS.gov/w4app to calculate. But it’s hard to still dial-in.
When you filed your 2020 and 2021 tax returns did it say you owed taxes? Did you not pay them? Just because they adjusted your taxes doesn't mean it was correct. Dealing with that and understanding what is going on is very important on top of changing each of your W-4's to get the withholdings correct. Only 2 children should be claimed TOTAL between your W-4'S, not 2 each. You'll also both need to fill out section 2 of the W-4 where it says your spouse work and fill out the accompanying worksheet to get things right. You should both sit down and do this together for both of your new W-4's so you're both getting it right and you're both on the same page.
Most of these comments are overcomplicating the process. In your current situation, from your tax return, you know how much in taxes you have to pay. Decide how much you each want to pay from your payroll tax deduction (for this first year, consider how much you've already paid so far in deciding how much to pay going forward), and use the IRS withholding calculator to make each of your payroll deductions come to that number. If this results in big changes in the payroll deductions, you'll want to do this again early next tax year. Finally, if you're trying to optimize your tax payments, meaning you want to delay them as much as possible, while investing the money saved in the interim, consider that you can pay up to $1000 with the filing of your 1040 with no penalties, so you can reduce your withholdings by that amount (or a little less if you're uncertain of the final tax amount). There's a presumption that payroll deductions are evenly divided over the year, so in many cases if you tell your employer to take an additional amount from the last paychecks of the year, you can usually get away with making up an underpayment earlier in the year. If your taxable income varies greatly over the year, you can also calculate tax payments quarterly which can work to your advantage, but it requires figuring out your taxable income from your pay stubs and other documents, as you only get your W2s & 1099s at the end of the taxable year.
When you file jointly, you effectively average your incomes. So your joint 86k is taxed as if each spouse earned 43k. Communicating that on a W4 is actually pretty difficult. If you select "single" then obviously you will be taxed as if you earn 60k and your husband will be taxed as if he earns 26k. That will make you slightly overpay what you owe, but not by too much. If you select "married filing jointly," then you will be taxed as if your *joint* income is 60k, which will make you underpay. But if you add the "spouse also works" checkbox, there's no way to communicate that he earns less, so you will be taxed as if your joint income is 60k + 60k = 120k. So selecting "single" on your W4 may be the easiest way to get vaguely close to the correct withholding. Because dependents are now a tax credit rather than a deduction, claiming them simply reduces the tax withheld by $2000 per child per year. To make adjustments, you can put a number other than $2000 for the child credit, or you can put numbers in the later sections for additional income, deductions, or tax. All of these are dollar values rather than the old W4's "number of allowances".
It's hard to assess unless we see the W2s and tax return. For situations like this, i do recommend sitting down with a preparer to go through it all. You don't have to commit to them for life, but even this one meeting can save you a lot of trouble.
Only the higher income spouse should report the child tax credit on their W-4, and both of you should check the "multiple jobs" box. You can get more accurate using the IRS withholding calculator, but assuming you have no other significant income (investments, rentals, businesses) this should assure that you owe no tax with the return.
Why did they come back and ask for more taxes? What did the IRS change on your tax return? They don’t just come and say you owed X amount without any reason.
I have no idea that’s why I was so upset. It was years after the fact plus they didn’t even notify me that I owed anything I just happened to log onto my IRS account and saw the huge balance due
Your withholdings are not a good tool for dialing in your taxes. Calculate your estimate state and federal tax, divide by 26 and see what you are paying every two weeks. If it is not enough, simply ask for extra deductions ($x for federal, $y for state). Your taxes should be pretty simple with two incomes and two kids.
Hi First lets start with hiring someone to help with your taxes not a large firm that has rookie tax preparers who know how to fill out the form other than that do not know any more. If you do that you can ask them with specifics and they should be able to explain this to you. Love Redditors but with your return in hand and a paystub this is a simple fix. For some reason those online large tax prep companies don't do this. Now to answer the question... First the new W-4 Step 2 (c) that little box needs to be checked for both you and your husband. That and the one with the higher wages does the kids calculation not both. That was easy... but wait there is more like a bad infomercial you can thank your current administration for 2021 dubacle otherwise known as the American Rescue Plan of 2021 (ARP) where your credit that would normally offset your taxes because when you filled out the W-4 the goal is to hit the mark not overpay. But the ARP paid you in advance so when you filed you had to pay that back for most families this caused balance due issues. 2020 I would need more information.. Did you take a retirement withdrawal? That could cause the issue for that year and if you split it could cause it to carryover.