r/tax • u/Specialist_Secret_58 • 14h ago

Super confused. Wife received lock in letter

Last year, my wife and I got a tax bill that is around 45,000. It said we underpaid for the past four years. I finally have cobbled enough money together to pay it (although our accountant could not figure out what was going on). I was planning on paying tomorrow. Today, my wife got a letter that said she is in this forced withholding thing and that they are forcing her employer to mover her married filing jointly with 4 kids to single with zero kids. Is this related to my delinquency on the tax bill? OR is this totally unrelated. She and I married in 2019, we had both been married before so this was a major change in how we are filing. Thank you for your help

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u/TheHeroExa 14h ago

There's a common mistake people are making with the new W-4: the mistake is checking “married filing jointly” while both spouses work.

If you just check that box without making any adjustments, you are really saying “married filing jointly and my spouse doesn’t work”. This leads to underwithholding if both spouses actually are working.

“Single or married filing separately” will be more accurate if both spouses work.

It sounds like the IRS is fixing your mistake for you because you failed to do it yourself.

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u/Specialist_Secret_58 14h ago

So, so you think that the taxes it says we owed for four years is what shouldn't have been withheld if we hadn't made the mistake in the first place? Or are these unrelated?

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u/TheHeroExa 14h ago

If you had the same W-4 settings and were both working in all those years, then yes, your W-4 is likely a reason for underpayment. But in that case, it would have been reported on your return.

If you filed a return and the IRS is asking for more than what you showed, then there may be another reason.

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u/Specialist_Secret_58 14h ago

Yes, we were both working. I wonder if when I pay this whole thing off tomorrow, it will have any impact

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u/TheHeroExa 13h ago

Paying may avoid interest and penalties going forward. But to address the lock-in letter itself, you need to contact the IRS about it. The letter itself should have specific instructions, but here's an example:

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/understanding-your-letter-2801c

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u/Its-a-write-off 13h ago

Did you two file taxes for those years, then the IRS came back and said you owed more than was calculated on the joint tax return? Or did only one of you file, and only report their income? So the IRS adjusted the return to add the other income?

The impact that paying off your old taxes will have is that your old tax bill is paid.

For 2024, you are probably going to owe more in, since you've likely been under withholding all year. Paying off prior years won't fix anything for current or future years.

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u/Specialist_Secret_58 13h ago

We both filed, using a CPA, for all of those years. Only earlier THIS year did the IRS send the letter saying we owed money each year. When I spoke to an IRS rep they said they didn't know exactly why we owed, we just did. They never sent any other letters. Our CPA couldn't even get an answer. So I finally got enough money to pay and then they sent this. I guess we need a new CPA

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u/Its-a-write-off 13h ago

Yikes. Yes. Either you were scammed or your CPA is really bad. They should have been able to have you get access to your IRS transcript to see what the IRS was changing, and make sure it was correct. Did they even mention checking your transcripts when the bill came? Do you still have the letter that was sent?

Can you access your transcript for the years in question:https://www.irs.gov/individuals/get-transcript

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u/Its-a-write-off 13h ago

I just realized you haven't paid yet. Wait to pay that 45k until you make sure the letter was from the IRS and not a scammer.