What is the percentage of your paycheck that the government withholds foir taxes?

Question

I am a high school student living in Montana who just got a job, and I was wondering what the government withholds, if there is a set amount.

Answer 1

As previous posters have stated, it depends on several factors, your total gross earnings (which is your hourly rate multiplied by the total hours worked in a week), whether you are paid weekly or biweekly, and your exemptions (most likely you are being claimed by your parents, so that will be 0 which unfortunately lets the government take as much as posisble). What you can do to find out exactly what you will be taxed is to look on the IRS website and download the Circular-E. It contains federal tax tables. Another thing to consider is state tax. I am not familiar with Montana's laws, but they may or may not also deduct state taxes from your check. The secretary of state for Montana should have that information readily available for you. Also, since you are just starting to work, some (not all) employers are not all complying with payroll laws. Familiarize yourself with the basics so that you know what you are entitled to. Go to the dol.gov website to see what the minimum wage requirements are for Montana as well as child labor laws, etc. etc. Welcome to the working world!

Answer 2

You would need to look at a W-4 worksheet. This article by Bankrate may help you....

http://www.bankrate.com/brm/itax/Edit/basics/Introduction/basic_1a.asp

Considering you will probably not be earing too much (under $10k), you may only lose about 10-15% in taxes and another 6.2% with FICA.

Answer 3

that depends on your income, and what you file(married, single, head of household). Expect between 23-45%. The more you make the more they take....

Answer 4

that would actually depend if your claming dependants and stuff, its usually something high like 19 percent but it might be about 10, 15 percent for you...