W4 trouble

[rottielover]

Missouri:

Two years ago I got married, and we have no children. So we both filled out our W4 forms as married and 0. WHAM! come tax time we owed the IRS over $2000!!!!! We paid it, and then changed our W4's back to Single 0, last year we got a huge REFUND!

This is dumb, I want to fill out my W4 so that I get a small ( right around $200) refund.

The legal aspect of this question is - What happened to all that talk about "no more marrage penatly"??????? If you ask me there still IS a marrage penatly. What if anything changed in the tax laws so that I don't get bent over by the IRS anymore????

Thank you

 

[abezon]

The marriage penalty only applies if you do not itemize. It is being gradually phased out and will disappear in 2009. It will come back in 2010 if Congress doesn't renew it then. You can avoid the marriage penalty by buying a house and itemizing your deductions -- as long as your mortgage interest and property taxes and state taxes exceed twice the single exemption amount, you're not getting a marriage penalty.

Regarding the W-4s: there is a worksheet on the back of the W-4 form for 2-income families. If you follow it carefully & have a steady income stream, you should be close to the correct tax amount at the end of 2003.