How do you know how much to withold on your W-4?

Question

My father says that if I need more money, I can withhold less on my W-4 (which won't result in the same oh here's $3,000 come tax return time), but will give us access to more money.
So how do I know how much I can withhold without withholding too much? or too little?

RonJohn · Accepted Answer

My father says that if I need more money, I can withold less on my W2 (which won't result in the same oh here's $3,000 come tax return time), but will give us access to more money.

He's right.

So how do I know how much I can withold without witholding too much?

Use the IRS Withholding Calculator, and then file a new W-4 (and probably you're state's version of the W-4) with your employer.
From the website:

The IRS encourages everyone to use the Tax Withholding Estimator to perform a “paycheck checkup.”  This will help you make sure you have the right amount of tax withheld from your paycheck.
There are several reasons to check your withholding:

Checking your withholding can help protect against having too little tax withheld and facing an unexpected tax bill or penalty at tax time next year.
At the same time, you may prefer to have less tax withheld up front, so you receive more in your paychecks and get a smaller refund at tax time.

Hart CO · Answer

The instructions for Form W4 indicate that for the most accurate withholding in a multi-income household you should leverage their Tax Withholding Estimator.
It's best to follow IRS instructions rather than guess on your own, but I'd still monitor the impact of the update you make to confirm withholdings are in line with expectation (difference should sum over the year to roughly your average refund).

user102008 · Answer

The goal of withholding is to get as close to the actual amount of tax you will owe by the end of the year as possible. So ideally, you should have no refund and owe no tax when you file your tax return. If you find yourself consistently getting a large refund, that means you are consistently over-withholding.
From a rational point of view, it is disadvantageous for you to over-withhold because you are giving the government an interest-free loan until tax time. It is advantageous for you to under-withhold as much as possible, as that way the government is giving you an interest-free loan until tax time. However, if you under-withhold too much (specifically, if the withholding is below 90% of this year's tax liability and below 100% (110% for high earners) of last year's tax liability), you will trigger a penalty. So the optimal way to withhold would be to under-withhold a little bit, but not enough to have a penalty.
You would have to do some calculations to figure out how to adjust your W-4 so that you will reduce your current over-withholding to about exactly the right withholding, or maybe even a little under-withholding.
Another thing your father might be referring to is that, if you have a short-term need for money in the middle of a year, you can reduce withholding earlier in the year and increase withholding later in the year to make up for it. But you have to be careful to remember to change your W-4 again in the latter part of the year, and leave enough time for increased withholding to make up for the difference (W-4 changes might not take effect immediately).

How do you know how much to withold on your W-4?

3 Answers

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question