Hubby earned $5,500+ more than last year with his employer. I earned $740 less as an NEC (school board stipend and I work as an independent contractor for a family member). Last year we got over $1700 back from federal, and over $800 from state. This year we OWE $1035 to federal but are still getting over $800 back from state. Hubby said he did not change anything on his W4 (he claims 0 dependents so we always get money back). I'm not sure if the salary increase changed our tax bracket. I had his W2 uploaded from a picture so I deleted it. Based only on my NEC info, we would have gotten money back. As soon as I added his W2 information by hand, we owed. Is my NEC then to blame? It didn't affect us last year, though.
Before COVID, he was in a different line of work and made $30K more, yet we still got money back. My NEC payments were less this year, so I'm trying to figure out if his payroll taxes are to blame or if something else is going on. I had to care for my elderly dad who is battling major health issues and two of our three daughters (one is an adult) had medical issues last year as well, which resulted in large medical bills (high deductibles from health insurance). We do not have an HSA, and my dad doesn't qualify for Medical. Therefore we had to set up payment plans for the girls' medical bills, and we ate my tiny loss of income as I can't become my dad's paid caregiver. We have no other write-offs except the standard deductions and 2 child dependents.
