How do I increase my take home pay? I live in San Diego, CA, single no children, and my annual income is 60k.

Question

I have zero excemptions. I have paid more than more than 14k in taxes this year so far. Also, I am not interested in buying a house/condo here. I plan to relocate within a year.

I am participating in my company 401(K) and I giving to my health plan flex spending plan. So, I got those areas covered.

Answer 1

you can change your W4 exemptions to single - 1 and you should break even tax-wise over a full year-probably a small refund - I wouldn't take any more than 1 exemption or you could wind up owing tax - nothing else you can really do to increase net pay

Answer 2

The simplest thing that you can do is add exemptions to your W-4 form. It would seem that you will be entitled to at least one exemption on your federal taxes. I believe the W-4 form allows you to select two exemptions based on being single with no children.

As a practical matter, you can put up to 10 exemptions on your form without having to prove your entitlement to that number of exemptions. However, in addition to entering false information on a government document, you will most likely underwithhold for 2008 which would cause penalties when you file your 2008 taxes. However, assuming that your withholding was at Single and zero for all of this year, then adding extra exemptions on your W-4 for the remainder of this year probably won't cause a penalty.

Look at www.paycheckcity.com to model the effect of increasing your exemptions.

Answer 3

You could claim 1 on your W-4 - you'd get more take-home pay, but that same amount less in a refund. Other than that, sounds like you're already doing what you can other than a raise or a 2nd job.

Answer 4

You should at least claim one (yourself) so that they are not taking as much out. You may want to consider investing in pre-tax deductions such as a 401k plan or HSA (health savings account) that you can sock money away tax-tree....