Today Deana from California is upset “Please help! My husband is getting reamed on withholding – like $200 each check. And he only makes about $700.
Our rent is a fortune; We have a new car. I’m disabled and stay at home. We also have a 4 month old. How many exemptions can he claim?
I have looked everywhere and have no idea. I’m going to cry because each paycheck is small and he works overtime they take out so much! Please help.”
Oh Deanna,
Your voice is so full of despair, I think I’m going to cry, too.
Actually, that’s not such a bad idea. A good cry, with friends, can be very refreshing. But, that’s enough now.
Let’s get to work. Assuming that your husband earns $700 per week, that means he earns about $36,400 per year.
You’re renting, so there’s no mortgage deduction.
Regardless of what else you do – he will have about $60 withheld from each check for Social Security and State Disability. That won’t change.
There are three of you, for exemptions.
So, using TurboTax’s nifty Tax Estimator
https://turbotax.com/tax_tips_and_resources/index.html?source=ttcom4home1&ttid=ttheeader
If you are not receiving any income of your own, including Social Security disability or anything else, odds are, your husband has probably already paid in enough to cover this year’s taxes.
So, prepare new W-4 Forms for him showing Married with 9 allowances. That will have payroll take little or nothing out of his paychecks, except for the SS & SDI.
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf
If your husband is getting paid less often than once a week, then, your family definitely should be using the Married-9 status.
This will give you about $135 more from each paycheck.
Take care of each other.
Naturally, you’ll find answers to all tax questions and lots of tax resources – free, where? Where else? At TaxMama.com !
- Ask TaxMama :: Where taxes are fun and answers are free
- TurboTax’s nifty Tax Estimator :: To test out how much your taxes will be this year.
- IRS Form W-4 :: Print this out. fill it in. Give it to your payroll department.
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