Can I elect to have no federal taxes withheld? Is there a minimum that my employer is required to withhold?

Question

To clarify, I know that the employer is required to withhold SS and medicare. I was specifically asking about the federal income tax. I was wanting to know if instead of having my employer take the withholdings and instead I just write a big check on April 15th.

Answer 1

You can elect to have no federal taxes withheld from your compensation. And no, employer is not required to withhold federal taxes if you specify nothing to be withheld.

Answer 2

An employer is required to withhold social security and medicare taxes at the same percentage for everyone (a total of 7.65% up to a certain amount).

You can avoid having federal income taxes withheld by claiming a very large number on your W-4. Under certain conditions, you can also federal income taxes withheld by saying on your W-4 that you are exempt. Neither of these things is a good idea to do. If you are not actually exempt, then you will have to pay the money to the IRS later, plus interest and/or penalties.

Answer 3

The employer is required to withhold social security and medicare. You are not legally allowed to file a false W-4 claiming more allowances than you are entitled to, to get them to withhold less income tax.

If you actually will owe no tax for the year, and had no tax liability for the previous year, you can file a W-4 showing "exempt" and they won't withhold income tax. But if you file this way and really do owe some tax, you can be fined in addition to having to pay the tax at the end of the year.

Answer 4

You can claim exemption from withholding if you are not dependent and, if
*Last year you had a right to a refund of all federal income tax withheld because you had no tax liability and
*This year you expect a refund of all federal income tax withheld because you expect to have no tax liability.

Claiming exempt on your W4 does not mean that you are exempt from federal tax or state tax if you have taxable income. It only means that employer will not withhold any income taxes from your paycheck.

Answer 5

DON'T DO IT!