Witholding Tax Ques (married)

[janinegirly]

I recently updated my w-4 to reflect "married". My paycheck looks a lot higher this month due to decreased fed witholding--did I do something wrong? I''m not complaining but don''t want to owe either!

Thanks!

 

[curlygirl]

janine, I don''t think you did anything wrong. I just wouldn''t expect to get as much back in your returns as you have in the past. My accountant told me to not make any changes after I got married, and even after having a baby. I think it''s all about having the money now vs. later. But I''m no expert on this stuff--I''m sure someone else will chime in and give you better advice!

 

[labbielove]

yay for more $$!

"Generally" if you file your returns as married filing jointly you would need to have less withheld, so the fact your check went up makes sense to me. It really depends on your specific tax situation, but imo at this point in the year if you''ve been having a little extra w/h, and just changing status now, and you file a joint return you could be fine.

I am the type of person who would rather pay a bit with my return vs. having the government hold my money all year and get a large refund- but some folks prefer not to.

 

[Independent Gal]

Sorry to threadjack, but I''m wondering (which I guess is sort of what Janine is wondering too) whether you really save that much in taxes if you''re married, if, say, you have roughly the same income. Do you only have real savings if one of you makes way more than the other?

 

[Dee*Jay]

Date: 8/27/2008 11:03:34 AM
Author: Independent Gal
Sorry to threadjack, but I'm wondering (which I guess is sort of what Janine is wondering too) whether you really save that much in taxes if you're married, if, say, you have roughly the same income. Do you only have real savings if one of you makes way more than the other?

Actually my experience is that you pay MORE taxes if one of you makes more than the other because let's say that party A made $50K year, they would be taxed at x%. Party B makes $150K, they would be taxed at x+%. BUT add them both together and now parties A and B are both being taxed at x++% because the total income in now in an even higher bracket. There is supposed to be some sort of "equalization" that goes on, but I've never seen it IRL.


Janinegirly, did you change the number of exemptions too or just change the marital status? And even if YOU didn't change the number of exemptions some HR depts automatically go to 2 rather than 1 when the switch is made from single to married, so check on that too.

 

[LuckyTexan]

Welcome to the wonderful world of married filing jointly!

We went from OWING to getting THOUSANDS back. YAY!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Date: 8/27/2008 11:18:19 AM
Author: Dee*Jay

Janinegirly, did you change the number of exemptions too or just change the marital status? And even if YOU didn''t change the number of exemptions some HR depts automatically go to 2 rather than 1 when the switch is made from single to married, so check on that too.

Yep, double check your exemptions. When I worked two jobs back in college, I always kept my exemptions for one of those jobs at 0 just to be sure I didn''t end up oweing at the end of the year. It''s better to pay a bit more now than be stuck with a big bill later on.

Do you have a CPA? Get one and have that person do all the dirty work figuring out how to make you guys get the most out of your money.

 

[robbie3982]

Nope, I don''t think you did anything wrong. I noticed the same thing when I changed my W-4 last year. DH and I ended up getting a decent refund too since we got married in September.

 

[Allisonfaye]

We have been married almost 6 years and I don''t think DH ever changed his from single to married. I can''t remember what I did since I haven''t worked in almost 5 years. But he did that so they would continue withholding a higher rate just to get a decent refund. I used to be in the Don''t Give the Government a Free No Interest Loan camp but we always use the money to pay our property taxes and truthfully, we probably wouldn''t bank it anyway.