Having correctly inputted the results from the employees 2020 w4 for an employee that makes $23,000 a year quickbooks has failed to withhold any taxes. This particular employee is left with a surprise 2021 tax bill of $3000. This employee files as married.  Most of our employees make very small amounts because they only work one or two days a week.

I did some tinkering around and found that if a employee is married It may be that we as employers need to check the box Two Jobs only (if there are only two jobs total, you may select this box).  It appears that the spouses job is relevant to this particular check box. Checking it seems to withhold at the same rate as single.

Quickbooks, if this is the case please revise this in the next update to say something like: Two Jobs only (if there are only two jobs total in the household, you may select this box. Otherwise you need to include the total of all other income in the household in the below Other income box). 

I think this may solve the federal withholding issue related to the 2020 w-4 issue in quickbooks.I am interested in feedback from both intuit/Quickbooks as well as other employers on this potential solution. I may encourage my employees to increase their Extra withholding for the remainder of this year to catch up on the taxes missing from this first quarter. 

Note: We are a nonprofit and are not required to pay into federal unemployment taxes so that box is correctly unchecked and has nothing to do with the matter at hand.