<prompt> Human: I handle our household finances, which means I do the taxes every year. Last fiscal year we apparently went up a tax bracket and are now making 80k combined household. In the previous fiscal year we ended up owing 1k in taxes because my husband and I both did contract labor on and off during the year, and that income is not taxed up front. For the entirety of this past fiscal year, however, both of us were salary employees with taxes withheld from our paychecks. So, with that in mind, I was expecting to break even or maybe even get a small return. We filed for an extension because there were some other concerns regarding an ongoing legal battle with my husbands ex-wife, so Im only now sitting down to get our taxes done.Surprise! We owe 4k in taxes. This is not something I expected at all, Im completely shocked, Ive gone over our forms several times and I even signed up for TurboTax Ive always done my taxes by hand until this year to make sure I didnt miss anything. Nope. 4k tax debt.I have next to no knowledge on how the US income tax system works, so I dont know if this is normal for our tax bracket or if theres something we could have done differently. We dont have that kind of liquid cash on hand after last years medical bills, vet bills, and car troubles. Im sure Ill have to tack that onto my current payment plan with the IRS for last years tax debt if thats even possible, but I want to be sure this doesnt happen to us next year. What are some possible reasons why we ended up owing so much?Specific information: My income: 34.5k My tax withheld: 2.2k Husbands income: 45.4k Husbands tax withheld: 1.3k  <response>: Stop saying the word bracket. Youre simply not withholding enough to cover your liability.Going up a tax bracket is not a real thing in the sense that most people use it. Each bracket of income is taxed at a certain rate...so making more money only means that the additional money could be taxed higher.Based on your income stated, only the very top of your income is taxed higher than 15. Youre getting a significant advantage filing married.Just use the IRS withholding calculator...and please, stop filling out IRS forms by hand. Use TurboTax or some sort of tax software. 