You probably aren’t screwed, but: it depends on what your total income is for the year.
The way payroll withholding works is that each employer only knows how much you make at that job, so they withhold income taxes for that income. If you have multiple part-time jobs or are married and both spouses work, this can lead to under-withholding because your tax obligation is based on your income for the entire year.
The easiest way to deal with this is to use the Tax Withholding Estimator and follow the recommendations for what to enter on your W-4 forms. You usually will need to have some extra withholding and/or reduce the amount of credit you enter for your child on the W-4.
Also, FYI, the W-4 was updated in 2020, and there’s no option to choose 1 because you have a child.
If you are eligible to file Head of Household with one child under age 17, you won’t have any federal tax liability unless your total income for the year is more than $45k. So you don’t actually need to have any federal taxes withheld unless your annual income will be higher than that.
Your jobs don’t know about each other. Remember that. The best you can do to ‘fix’ your taxes is by changing your W-4 – that’s how you get withholding turned on.
That’s not going to be simple, because your different jobs don’t know about each other.
Or are you working only one job in 2025? Eventually, you’ll have made enough that they’ll start withholding… or maybe with that one kid, maybe you won’t have to withhold at all in 2025.
Remember that taxes are progressive in the US, and that the first… say 20k of your income (filing head of household) is not taxed at all. Then, about 15k or so is taxed only at 10%.
I don’t think you will have much of a tax liability IF you are Head of Household or single. BUT, keep in mind each paycheck would have withholding on it.
If you intended withholding, but don’t raise something until now, then that’s really on you.
Before 2022, I always had federal taxes withheld, but then my jobs stopped withholding it. My income, filing status, and dependents haven’t changed, so I was confused. When I looked into it, I found out it’s due to changes in tax law (I’m not going to pretend I fully understand it). I do have a tax liability, but since I file HOH and have dependents, the tax credits cover the tax owed, and I just get the remaining. You can change your W-4 to no dependents or single filing status if you want them to withhold it, and you would just get a bigger refund. But, without knowing your total situation, I’d say you won’t owe; you may just get a slightly smaller refund than you’re used to.