Paycheck Tax Question

You can leave it 0 and get a tax refund next year because the taxes deducted out of your check are higher. But, I think, why give the government the money to hold on to? You can take that money to the bank and actually earn interest, which you will not get from the government.[]

Oh yeah!  I remember now.  I asked my dad this last time I had to fill one of these out.  If I need to change it, do I just print out a different W-4, fill it out, and give it to my manager?

Your manager should be able to get a form to you. You can change your with holding status at any time, in case of marriage, children and so on, including your situation.[]

I do taxes in the spring, and just decided to take this season off. If you claim -0- the goverment will take a good share but you will more then likely get a refund in the spring.
 
If you want to use your money now, which I do,  I changed my withholding so that my money is in my bank, not the goverments. Last year I got back a whopping $65, but I owed the state $50 so over all I was pretty close to where I needed to be. Most people do not realize that we are a pay as you go society, you do not pay once a year. The returns are done every year to settle up and make sure that the goverment is getting their money.
 
This can help you figure out what you want to do:
[linkhttp://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html]http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html[/link]
 
Dawn
 

I think I will change it.  As a student, I could really use the extra money each month.  I doubt I will owe much in the end, if any at all.  I really don't make much money to owe a ton.

figuring out the withholdings is a tricky business. we have no kids, are married, and own a house. i claim 1 and my wife claims 0. guess what... we still end up owing come tax time. everyone said "get married and you will pay less taxes"...NOT TRUE! everyone said "buy a house you will pay less taxes"....NOT TRUE! things were much simpler when i was single and claimed 0. i never had to pay and always got a little present come tax time. [sm=2cents.gif]

Some people when getting married actually have to pay more taxes because they fall into a higher tax bracket due to combined income.

My advice: Only one of you work, have lots of children, and you should be ok with the taxes.......never mind that you will be poor, but your tax situation will have improved.......[][]

i think that is the problem we fall just into a higher tax bracket (ie. at the bottom of it). so we are paying the same taxes as people making much more money than us. according to the irs this is the bracket we are in...
$59,400 $119,950 $8,180 lus 25% of the amount over 59,400
we make closer to the lower end. i think the tax brackets have too wide a range. it doesnt seem fair that a family making $119K are in the same bracket as a family making almost half that amount. of course if i were on the higher end i may feel differently. [sm=2cents.gif]

I always get confused on how many allowances to claim also. Last year we had to pay a ton of money, because DH was claiming 2 allowances and I was claiming 1. I have no idea how that happened. My FIL is a CPA, so you'd think that he'd find a way to get us more money back, but that never seems to happen.
 
We're married with no kids and own a house also, which doesn't seem to benefit us at all. One benefit to deployment, though, is that none of the income DH earns while overseas is taxable, so we're in a lower tax bracket while he's gone. []

If he claims 2 you should drop yours to  0 .
 
Reason being, there are only 2 in the household, you and him.
 
Your accountant should have told you about that.[]

I think we dropped mine to 0 and his to 1. I know it's silly to give the government money, but I really like getting the check back! It's like winning the lottery. []
 
Unfortunately, we don't have a good accountant. But we can't figure out how to tell FIL that we want to use someone else. [8|]

No, it's more like loaning the money, then getting it back without interest.....lol...[]

The best way to understand what you are going to pay on your income is to know what you will or will not get for deductions.

This year if trend follows, married filling joint will get a combined deduction of $16700. This is a standard of $3300 for a personal exempton x2 and a standard deduction of $10100. You subtract that from your combined income, and the left over amount is what you will pay taxes on 10% to 15%. Example, if my husband and I made $30k for the year we would only pay taxes on $13300.

Those deductions are standard for married filling joint, it varies on single and the way you file. The only way owning a home is going to help you is if your itemized deductions totals more then $10100, then you can claim that amount instead of the standard. After you do this you get to take off your deductions for children, childcare, HSA and the rest.

Hope this helps, since im not doing taxes this year I am not up to snuff on the numbers for the year but this could give you a basis.

Dawn

Another thing to take into consideration is if you are still claimed by your parents.  I believe I saw a post indicating you are still a student.  If you are still claimed by them then you are probably better of just w/h at single and 0 so you don't owe at the end of the year.  You lose your exemption and have a reduced standard deduction if someone else is taking it already. 

I realize it is money in the bank now, but the difference really is small on a weekly to biweekly basis.  I am a CPA and I personally W/H at married but withholding at the single rate and 0 just to get that refund.  If I had to take the $10 per week and put it into a savings account it would never happen.  In fact, I have an extra $10 w/h from my check each week.  I know I am not earning interest but I can tell you that if that small of an amount where left up to me to save each week, it wouldn't happen and I wouldn't have a nice refund at year end either that I can count on and plan to buy something with every year.  I guess it really just depends on how you look at it. 

My FIL is a CPA, so you'd think that he'd find a way to get us more money back, but that never seems to happen.

ORIGINAL: lokis_mom

There are only so many deductions a person can take.  A lot of different things are reported to the IRS by the companies you pay it to or that pay it to you.  When you don't itemize and you are not self employed and you just file a regular 1040 w/o all the extra schedules, there aren't a lot of options for getting more money back unless you made a contribution to an item deductible on the face of your return like an IRA or an HSA etc etc.  But that means spending money to save money. 

Also, depending on how simple your return is, there are a lot of online places that you can go through and file your own return for free if your income is below a certain amount.  You could always do that and print it and compare it to what your FIL prepares and ask him questions on the differences.  If you go to [linkhttp://www.irs.gov]www.irs.gov[/link] come tax time they will direct you to some different ones.  You might even find that you can just do your own return.  Just a thought.