I got married in July. I haven't changed my W-4 at all since the event and neither has my husband. He feels we should leave our W-4's alone until Jan 2007. He also says that since we got married after July 1 we can file our taxes as Head of Household & with our individual dependents as we did for 2005 taxes. I'm concerned about penalties, audits, handcuffs :). Can we do this?? References to web sites would be great too...I've searched but haven't found a lot on this.
2006-09-21 09:19:09 · 7 answers · asked by The Steele's 3 in Business & Finance ➔ Taxes ➔ United States
If you are married as of Dec 31, you must file as married (joint or separate). You can change your W-4 as often as you want. The link below is an IRS calculator to help with W-4s. As long as your withholding is at least 90% of your tax liability, the IRS doesn't care what your W-4 says. They don't even see your W-4.
John J has W-2s and W-4s confused. The rest of his answer is even less accurate.
2006-09-21 12:18:59 · answer #1 · answered by STEVEN F 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The IRS tax code says that if you are married as of December 31st you have two options as filing status; married filing joint or married filing separate. So head of household is not a 'legal' option. Secondly, if both of you are working the best W-4 option is to select married but withhold at the higher single rate. By doing this your company will withhold the maximum amount of taxes and thereby minimizing any taxes due at the end of the year. If you two combined make a lot of money then you can instruct your HR/accounting department to withhold an additional amount from each paycheck. But swing by your accountant for the exact details etc.
2006-09-21 11:26:39 · answer #2 · answered by piths77 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
He is completely wrong on all acocunts.
Since you were married during the tax year neither of you can claim Head-0f-Household. You're choices are to file as a married couple lointly or file as Married-filing-seperately. In almost all cases I've seen using the Married-filing-seperately status results in a less favroable return for you both. Its usually only used when one spouse has a lot of tax debt that they don't want to saddle their spouse with.
Not changing you're W4's to reflect your correct status only means they took more tax out of your monthly pay.
I think you and your husband need to speak with a tax prefessional before this guy gets you into trouble.
2006-09-21 09:31:06 · answer #3 · answered by stevekc43 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
First of all, you can only have one head of household. You each can't be a head of household when you only have one household.
Filing together as a married couple offers more tax benefits. You can add all of your dependents on one tax return - you don't lose any benefits. Also, you could get married on Dec. 31st and still file as married, filing jointly for the 2006 return. Also, if you change your W-4 as married, filing jointly, the deductions on your paycheck will change and you'll probably take home more money in each paycheck.
2006-09-21 09:24:20 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
You can do this, even after January, but it is not often good financially to file seperately. Depending on your circumstances, you will probably want to file a joint return.
Also, you don't have to change your W-2 withholdings (I believe thats what you meant by W-4, W-4 forms are the ones you recieve that list the amount you have paid in taxes) even after January. If you don't change your W-2s you will pay more taxes throughout the year, but you will recieve a bigger tax refund come April.
2006-09-21 09:28:38 · answer #5 · answered by John J 6 · 0⤊ 3⤋
All the W-4 does is tell your employer how much to withhold from your paycheck. When you are single, more is withheld, so it's unlikely it will cause you any problems.
2006-09-21 11:40:02 · answer #6 · answered by misslabeled 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
taxact.com
2006-09-21 09:25:09 · answer #7 · answered by diaryofamadblackman 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋