I owe

Forum|Forum|7 years ago
January 25, 2019
1 reply
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I am not understanding why I owe 200 when one of my w2 is giving 400? Shouldn’t it only be 200 I get back? I worked all year with a full time sm position. I’m so confused

BarbL

Employee

When you have multiple W-2 forms, the information on each separate form isn't an indicator of what your refund (or tax owed) will be. All of the income on ALL W-2 forms is added together, and your tax for the year will be based on that number. Once that tax amount is calculated, any tax withholding from ALL your W-2 forms will be subtracted. If you did not have enough tax withheld from your various jobs to cover all the tax owed, you will have a balance due. If you had too much tax withheld, you will receive a refund of the overpayment.

For example, assume you have 2 jobs and receive a W-2 for each.

Job 1 W-2 shows $1,000 earnings and $400 tax withheld.

Job 2 W-2 shows $20,000 earnings and $0 tax withheld.

When you enter the W-2 for Job 1, TurboTax will likely show that you are getting a $400 refund, because it assumes your total income is $1,000. Next, you enter the $20,000 income on the second W-2. The $400 refund will change to tax owed, because now TurboTax is calculating tax owed on your total income of $21,000.

So, even though one W-2 appears to provide a refund or one W-2 has a significant amount of tax withheld, it doesn't mean much. The total of all your W-2 forms is what matters.

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A

Ambercs157Author

Employee

It still doesn’t make sense to me because if I do them individual I get a whole bunch back. And when I do two it adds up them three I owe? And on two of them it’s from the same company. They took out 200-300 every check so I don’t understand how I owe money?

BarbL

Employee

You cannot do them individually, your tax is based on your total income form all sources. As your income increases, the tax rate you pay increases.

Additionally, assuming you are filing Single, you are eligible for a $12,000 Standard Deduction. This means the first $12,000 of your total income is not taxable. When you enter and calculate each W-2 individually, it will subtract $12,000 from EACH W-2 for a total of $36,000 in Standard Deductions ($12,000 x 3). This is not correct - you need to enter them all together so the $12,000 can be applied to your total income as required by the IRS.

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