May 8, 2026
You're filling out your taxes when it happens — green turns red, your tax estimates shoot up past zero. Insanity! You've paid your dues. Your employer withholds taxes from your paychecks. How does a refund turn into payment, seemingly overnight?
Imagine Sarah, a recently married mother of two. She expected to get a tax refund in April, but when she filled out her forms, it said she owed taxes. Why is that, and more importantly, what can she do so she's not taken by surprise again?
Why the government says you owe it money
Employers withhold taxes as if you only have one income stream for your household. If that's not the case, the government may say you owe it money in April.
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Sarah earns $40,000 a year working part-time for an accounting firm. Her firm assumes she only makes $40,000 a year from that one job. It doesn't automatically account for her spouse's income or the $30,000 she made at her new, part-time job at Starbucks. (1)
She can manually bump up withholdings by tweaking numbers on the W-4 form, but many don't do this. It's a common reason people owe money to the government, says the tax filing platform TaxAct. (2)
If Sarah were self-employed, she would owe self-employment tax on top of regular income tax. (2) Companies don't automatically withhold taxes for contractors — if you expect to owe $1,000 or more, you file quarterly taxes. (3) Under that umbrella falls Uber driving, Doordash delivering and eBay reselling. It adds up, too. As of writing, self-employment tax is 15.3% of net earnings.
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Watch out, the IRS could charge you for this specifically
You might owe more after marriage, your kid aged up or you got a new job.
Just married? If both of you work, you might land in a higher tax bracket together than you did apart, the IRS says. (4) If neither of you updates your W-4 to account for the other's income, you could end up owing in April. Take Sarah. Now that she and her spouse both work, they might land in a higher tax bracket together than they did apart.
Long-time parents? Kids that age up might disqualify you for certain deductions. Since Sarah's daughter turned seventeen last year, Sarah lost the Child Tax Credit for her daughter. (5)
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A new job could push you into a higher tax bracket. Let's assume Sarah files separately from her husband. Since Sarah makes $40,000 for accounting and this tax year earned an additional $30,000 for Starbucks work, her 2025 tax bracket has risen from 12% to 22%. (6) That means the top slice of her income is taxed at a higher rate.
Get ahead of April taxes
"If you owe taxes, don't wait," says Stacy Francis, a certified financial planner. "Updating your W-4 now spreads the impact across the rest of the year instead of creating another large bill." (7)
The W-4 tells your employer how much money to withhold from your paychecks and send to the government throughout the year. (8) Sarah can fill it out and send it to her employer's payroll department to change how much of her paycheck the company withholds.
The IRS recommends she use the official Tax Withholding Estimator. (9) The idea is to use it if you "are completing this form after the beginning of the year; expect to work only part of the year; or have changes during the year in your marital status, number of jobs for you (and/or your spouse if married filing jointly), dependents, other income (not from jobs), deductions, or credits." (10)
How long it will take: about 25 minutes, according to the IRS website. (9) Half an hour of checking boxes could prevent filers like Sarah from cutting a big paycheck to the IRS next tax season.
Article Sources
We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our ethics and guidelines.
Internal Revenue Service (1),(3),(4),(5),(6),(9),(10); TaxAct (2); Kiplinger (7),(8)
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Cole Tretheway has been covering money for four years. He started as an intern at The Motley Fool Money, covering best-of credit cards, savings accounts, and financial products. He's since expanded into wholistic personal finances, including the psychology of money.
