Is it better to check married, but withhold at a higher single rate on the W-4?

Question

I recently got married and we are trying to figure out the best way to do our taxes. We were going to claim married and have my husband claim 1, and I would claim 0. We just don't want to have to pay in at the end of the year. So I am wondering if we should claim married, but withhold at the higher single rate and then both claim 0. Will that make a huge difference on how much they take out monthly?

Answer 1

Have done tax work for 36 years and applaud your way of thinking. The little bite out of each paycheck is a lot easier than a great big bite at tax time. You are both working so use the tables on the reverse of the form W-4, which is for two earner households. Single and zero should put you in refund territory at tax time.

Answer 2

I am assuming that you plan to file a joint return which normally would be best and that you will use standard deductions. Unless both your salaries are very large, normally the one with the smaller salary should claim O and claim 1 on the large salary. If you really want to be safe go to taxact.com and down load a free tax program. Do a practice tax return with the estimated withholding using those numbers. Keep in mind the first year you will have withholding amounts from when you were single and those should have been larger any way.

Answer 3

It's very difficult to answer without knowing all of your income & deductions. However, a good rule of thumb is that the higher income earner claim married 2, and the lower income earner withhold 0 at the single rate. Since it is so close to the end of the year, you can't hurt too much at this point & then can use your income tax return to guage for next year.

To see exactly what will be withheld, here are the official tables that employers use. Find your table--start about page 40 (i.e. married paid weekly/biweekly/monthly).
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p15.pdf

You can also use the online W-4 calculator at the following:
http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html