<prompt> Human: We are using the basic hr block software and it is showing that she owes 2000 this year. Nothing has changed since the last year where she got a small return same job, same tax bracket, marital status. Any ideas where we should first look to figure this out without calling an accountant? We file separately and none of our investements, property etc has her name on them as I had them before we were married...Thank you in advance PFEDIT: Lots of helpful responses thank you all! For those wondering why we file married as separate, it is because I have a ton of student loan debt in relation to her and have to use income based repayment and factoring in her salary of file jointly would make the Lon repayment unaffordable and the benefit of filing separate is more than paying a percent of combined AGI. It sucks. I wish we could file joint but that would be even more expensive than the tax consequences of MFS by about 3k per year. Filing single would save us an addtional 7000 total per year since Id be able to take advantage of REPAYE instead of IBR. edit 2: Major takeaways: 1. Check with holding after you get a raise. Her employer didnt change anything and she was only witholding at a 17 and should have been 25. She didnt change anything on the w4 since she started. So shell be taking to HR tomorrow about that. Now on the hook for the remainder. 2. Avoid getting married if you are using income based repayment and you and partner have widely differing loan burden and salary. Married filing separate is a ton of headaches, and literally nothing has changed since weve been married, in that I still own the same property as I did before and we lived together anyways. Filing single and holding off an official marriage as related to tax status would have saved us thousands, in addition shed be able to file a standard deduction as singled and Id itemize. Terrible law considering we were sharing our income prior to being married anyways. Only thing that changed with us was registering it with the state. These were not things we thought about when we were wedding planning as I was newly graduated with huge debt, hers is about 10x less than mine. Tax status was not on the top of my list of things to think about as a new grad. Keep these things in mind all, loans arent on your mind as much as a student but marriage is a major factor using income driven repayment plans. Assistant: You mentioned that you file separately and you own property. Did you itemize your return this year instead of taking the standard deduction?If you file as married filing separately and one spouse itemizes, the other must also itemize. If you itemized and claimed all the itemizable deductions, she would lose the 6,300 standard deduction. Depending on her tax rate, that could result in a 2,000 change.More about Married Filing Separately RulesHuman: I did itemize as I have captial gainslosses and own property - so she loses the deduction? She doesnt own any property or have investments or anything.Assistant: She loses the ability to claim the standard deduction, yes.Human: so she has to pay an extra 6300 in taxes just for filing separate?  <response>: this is to prevent double dipping on deduction. loading up and itemizing on one and then taking standard on the other. standard deduction is double for married filing jointly so you cant get around this by paying separately to meet the threshold. 