<prompt> Human: My wife and I both work and together earn around 175k; Her W-4 is Single with 0 exemptions and mine is marked Married with 0 Exemptions. So my understanding is that she should is overpaying and I should be right on target. Can someone explain simply why I had a huge tax balance to pay? Ive used the two-earner worksheet and the online IRS W-4 calculator, but it doesnt make sense to me. Why dont withholdings simply cover the taxes theyre intended. Why do have to specify additional withholdings?  <response>: Married really means Married and my spouse doesnt work. Youll generally have half as much withheld when you select that.You really need to work through the two earners worksheet on the back of the W-4 to get anywhere close to accurate. 