How many allowances to claim on W4?

[The Iron Giant]

I'm looking to reduce the amount of our federal tax refund.

We're a family of 5 and this year we're getting back about $7300.

I went on the IRS website and used their calculator and it told me I should claim 16 allowances on my W4.

This seems kind of high - I currently claim only 2.

I'm also due a lump sum check of around $22,000 this year for some retroactive salary and I'm nervous how that will fit in to my tax bill.

Does anyone know how accurate their calculator is? I don't want to end up owing money.

 

[kellia]

We are a family of 5, we claim 10 on dh, I claim Married- 0. We still usually get back about $2000. The calculator is pretty accurate, just make sure you are figuring the income after taking out medical insurance, dependent or health flex accounts, and count house interest, etc. I went back to work about 2 years ago, so we've been upping the number we claim every year just a little bit, don't want to end up having to pay!!

 

[minnie1928]

I'm looking to reduce the amount of our federal tax refund.

We're a family of 5 and this year we're getting back about $7300.

I went on the IRS website and used their calculator and it told me I should claim 16 allowances on my W4.

This seems kind of high - I currently claim only 2.

I'm also due a lump sum check of around $22,000 this year for some retroactive salary and I'm nervous how that will fit in to my tax bill.

Does anyone know how accurate their calculator is? I don't want to end up owing money.

We too are getting a lot back, so I tried the calculator. It said that DH should change his withholding to 30!! We're upping his withholding by 1 each month until we get to an amount that we're comfortable with (he's paid monthly).

 

[Tina]

It may seem high, but its probably right. I'm single and usually get back about $5k. I set mine to 5 and I'm still getting back $2500 this year. It's a very good idea to use the tax estimator about midway through the year to make sure you're still on track. That way you can always adjust your W4 again, if needed.

 

[delmar411]

the calculator is correct. Dh has his set to 13 (or 16 I forget which) to make it the right amount for federal taxes removed from his paychecks.

 

[3boymthr]

Wow!

How weird is that.

We are also a family of 5.

DH and I both have ours set to 0, I have an extra $30 with-held every week and last year we got back $2,000 and that only because I had daycare with-holdings.

Maybe it's our salary level. But we don't make that much. But even when just DH was working (so our income was half what it is now) we still had to have his with-holding set to 0 and we have our medical and dental pre-tax and he has a 401(k) or we would have had to pay.

 

[edk35]

Well let me just say we got BURNED last year at tax time. My husband works over seas occasionally and made a lot of extra money. We had been claiming 10 for a few years and getting back just a little bit. We too are a family of 5. Well we were taxed heavily on his overseas money but we still had to pay back several thousand. So we went back down to 5. I will have to check out this calculator and see what it says for us.

 

[SandrA9810]

If you were retropaid for previous year work, You'll want to do an amended tax return for that year. Especially if that year your income was a lot less than this year. You don't want to tack on that much to your income and end up in a new tax bracket for this year.

You might want to talk with a tax person on that. But I think you have about 4 years to do an amended return.

 

[msmayor]

If you were retropaid for previous year work, You'll want to do an amended tax return for that year. Especially if that year your income was a lot less than this year. You don't want to tack on that much to your income and end up in a new tax bracket for this year.

You might want to talk with a tax person on that. But I think you have about 4 years to do an amended return.

I don't believe that is possible. Taxpayers are on a cash basis...which means you declare the income in the year received. You can't go back and amend a previous year unless the income was actually RECEIVED in that year.

 

[bumbershoot]

We're a family of three, and I believe at one point DH was claiming something like 9... We're on a quest to get it as exact as possible, as much in the paycheck as possible so no refund, but we don't want to pay much at taxtime. It's a constant quest.

 

[SandrA9810]

There seems to be a few tax experts around here, maybe they'd be more helpful. To me that sounds like what should be done... but the government always tries to get the most out of ya. so you might end up loosing some of that 7 grand with the added income.

 

[kydisneyfans]

For 3 of us we withhold 8 Federal and 16 State. We also have a flat amount taken out for Federal. We still end up with about 2K in returns each year, most of that from the state. We have large deductions due to high mileage driven for work.

 

[1PrincessMomma1]

We're a family of three, and I believe at one point DH was claiming something like 9... We're on a quest to get it as exact as possible, as much in the paycheck as possible so no refund, but we don't want to pay much at taxtime. It's a constant quest.

That's us but we claim 15 right now.

 

[The Iron Giant]

Thanks for the advice guys!

I'm going to change the withholding and keep my fingers crossed

 

[kwhite1022]

Thanks for the advice guys!

I'm going to change the withholding and keep my fingers crossed

Just be sure to check and see how you are doing half way through they year, you can always make an adjustment.

 

[Golf4food]

Yet another perfect example of how stupid, screwed up, and idiotic our current tax code is...

 

[disney4us2002]

Wow!

How weird is that.

We are also a family of 5.

DH and I both have ours set to 0, I have an extra $30 with-held every week and last year we got back $2,000 and that only because I had daycare with-holdings.

Maybe it's our salary level. But we don't make that much. But even when just DH was working (so our income was half what it is now) we still had to have his with-holding set to 0 and we have our medical and dental pre-tax and he has a 401(k) or we would have had to pay.

We're in the same boat as you. Actually, even with 0 and extra taken out every pay, we always end up owing. We can't live on less than we currently make and I don't know what else to do to fix the issue. It seems as though we pay our amount and several other people's as well.

 

[bettymae1121]

It's just DH and me, no kids. I claim 2 federal and 1 state, and I think DH claims 1 on both. We got back about $600 from Federal last year and $220 from state. We're happy with that, it's enough of a refund that we feel like we get a "bonus" every February, plus it gives us a cushion so if things change a bit year to year, we don't end up owing instead.