<prompt> Human: When filling out my 1040 on HR Block I get something like 3,000 back until I add my wifes income and then the return drops to 280. Her income puts us at 77,132 which I believe is causing us to pay more because of the jump in tax brackets.EDIT: I was going to delete this but I will leave it up for others to search and so it can help them in the future.  <response>: What confuses a lot of people, is your wifes income withholding was at a rate much lower than yours because she wasnt making much money. Therefore she had virtually no withholding. If you want to know how much you would have gotten back by yourself. Fill out another return with married filing separate. Then you will see you were never gonna get that 3000.00 . Its frustrating to see that Money disappear, but it never was really there in the first place. If it helps, next year, put your wifes information in first. It wont seem so bad. 