<prompt> Human: This is a question regarding California.When my wife and I were single we both regularly brought in roughly 2k each during tax time. Now we are married and we owe 2k!! This doesnt make sense to me. We both claim 0 exemptions for both federal and state. We also have fairly large deductions for mortgage interest 12k and property taxes 6k.For federal we owe 500 and 1500 for state.I thought that buy claiming 0 that all the appropriate taxes were supposed to be taken out and our deductions are just icing on the cake so to say...meaning money back in our pocket.Is this normal for a married couple with these standard type deductions or are we doing something wrong? Obviously i know that situations vary but are there some general things I should look at that might be causing this?Assistant: Yes, it is common for married0 to not withhold enough if both spouses work. The issue is not that you are paying more taxes, but that when you changed your w-4s you started withholding less and since you both work, your tax liability didnt go down any. The married status on the w-4 is designed for people who have a non-working spouse.Human: so if both people are working and we were to keep our filing status as Single, then they would take more money out thus benefiting us come tax time? By filing as Married they assume that even though we are claiming 0 we need more money every month for our personal marital life expenses so they take out less...thus screwing us tax time?  <response>: If people in this sub want OP to ask clarifying questions, dont downvote OP when he asks clarifying questions. Geesh. 