How should my wife and I setup our W4 withholdings to minimize paying the IRS at the end of the year?

jaesposito: How should my wife and I setup our W4 withholdings to minimize paying the IRS at the end of the year?
How should my wife and I setup our W4 withholdings to minimize paying the IRS and avoiding a refund?

For tax year 2006, my wife and I both had “Married +1” on our W4s. Now after having done our taxes, we owe almost $ 4,000 to the IRS without considering other deductions.

Some people have suggested that I file “Married +1” and my wife file “Married +0”. I have the larger annual salary than my wife.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Answers and Views:

Answer by Primdiva
Just do single-0, it will make for a refund

Answer by sunflare63
U file head of household and claim your wife as a dependent
and you may get a big fat check back.

Answer by Wood Smoke
www.irs.gov, individual, withholding calculator.
Follow this to the end and it should really get you close to your taxable amount.

good luck & bless

Answer by johnkmayer
One of you should have your withholding as “married but withhold at the higher single rate” i do that and normally pay less than 1000.00, you may want advice from a tax professional, but that’s what i do.

Answer by mmbmw2000
Claim 0 on both your w4s during the calendar year. The w4s set up the way you have them means you both receive more money in your checks thru the year. Don’t try the add 20 dependents during year because you are receiving money thru the calendar year so at tax time you will be paying again. Another thing to remember only itemize every other year not every year. The standard deduction is usually more than your itemized total. Always compare. I always pick up extra forms to save a copy for me as well copmare itemized to standard take the highest of the two. If you itemize this year next year you will have to pay taxes on the money you received if you itemize back to back years. To help u better understand you can read the tax booklet line item by line item.

Answer by fordman
I think your Friends have the right idea. However, I would claim married-0 on the one that has the higher income. I try to get mine pretty close to what I owe. That way I don’t have the government holding my money for a year interest free. In fact, I think I would claim married-0 on both incomes and see how you fair out next year. You can adjust your W-4 the year after that to compensate for a large refund or still owing taxes. Good luck.

Answer by Ray2play
Claiming single – 0 is the greatest deduction from your pay. Married + 1 is almost the other extreme. It sounds like what you really need are some more significant tax deductions. Its more about holding on to what you make as opposed to just deciding whether you are going to pay now or later.

Answer by Dave W
If you fill out the worksheet that comes with the W-4 and answer all of the questions correctly, that usually gets you close. I’m guessing that you must have outside income from interest, dividends, capital gains, etc. and didn’t adjust for that on the worksheet if you ended up $ 4000 short.

You can change to Married 0 or Married but withhold at higher single rate and that will have more taxes withheld, but you don’t know exactly how much unless you do some calculations.

If you know how much extra you want taken out above what you currently have, I’d suggest leaving the Married 1 alone and putting the extra amount you want withheld from each check on line 6. Just divide the total amount extra you want taken out for the year by the number of paychecks you will get between now and year end (remember that it might take a couple weeks for the W-4 to get processed).

Answer by Plrs X45
Just an FYI, I claim single, zero, and plus $ 25 and my wife claims married and zero and we dont ever get any real money back and we have kids and a house. Some of what you are asking depends on your gross income between the both of you (my wife and I have a total income that is high). Filing single is the best on your w4.