How should my husband and I fill out our W-4?

Question

I don’t understand how to fill out a w-4 form. I’m married, but have been putting single on my w-4 form. What is the difference between claiming 0 & 1? I heard that 0 will allow you a larger refund at the end of the year but takes more taxes out of your check & putting a 1 will result in paying back the IRS but less tax taken out. Also, if taxes get taken out of our checks, why is it that sometimes we have to still pay back during income tax time? If I am married, can I still claim single on my w-4? If so, how many allowances should my husband put on his and what about mine? We have no kids. I also have a 2nd job so I’m not sure how I would include that or fill that one out as well. Is it true that if my husband puts 1 allowance on his, I can’t? How does filling out a W-4 as married affect our checks or w-2/refund at the end of the year? I just double-checked and my husband & I both claim 1 on our Federal & State for 2006 through now. Does that mean that when it comes for filing incom

Answer 1

Take yours and your husbands most recent paycheck stub or statement and use the withholding calculator at the IRS website to see if your withholdings should be

http://www.irs.gov/individuals/article/0,,id=96196,00.html

Answer 2

The "proper" way to do it is to sit down with both of your W4s and complete the worksheet on page 2 to account for both incomes. The number you get on that W4 is what you should claim together -- the one with the higher income claims the exemptions and the other claims zero. And since you have 2 jobs, it's really important that you do it that way.

You can select Married but Withhold at the Higher Single Rate if not enough is being withheld.

If needed, you can also tell your employer to withhold an additional amount.

Answer 3

You can find a self-calculating W4 at this site:

http://www.pdftax.com/

Answer 4

LEAVE AT ZERO (0) AND YOU WON'T HAVE TO PAY...