On 2/22/07, William Bowen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > That's odd, I've always operated under the principle that fewer > allowances == higher withholding.
It does! When filing Single, your company withholds the full tax percentage to cover everything you owe. If you claim allowances, the withholdings are less, but if you itemize, you can make that difference up and still end up with money at the end of the year. So generally, you are balancing your allowances vs. your deductions to ensure you are where you want to be at the end of the year. Once you change that status from Single to Married though, it throws the whole thing into a shit spiral because suddenly your withholding percentage is drastically reduced...right off the top. But what you actually OWE in taxes, is NOT. Now it's becomes impossible for your deductions to make up for your allowances, because there now is a huge gap between what you owe, and what you've paid. It came as a frickin' shock to me. Make sure it doesn't happen to you. If you have filed as Married, you'll want to check your Federal withholdings on your next paystub, extrapolate that out for the entire year to get an idea of what your percentage withholding is, then compare that with your tax bracket %, adjusted for your deductions. With a wife and two kids, I'm supposed to claim something on order of > 9 allowances or the like--this according to the IRS calculator. That can work out just fine if your deductions make up for your allowances. That "Married" thing can really throw this off though...as I just discovered :/ Not being one to trust gubmint math I claim "4" on my W-4 and have > Married checked. Prolly should look into that, re-file my W-4 Do it. Go to www.irs.gov and run through their W4 calculator. My wife and I both filed as married, claiming only ONE allowance, and our estimated shorfall for 2007 was over FOUR GRAND. sucks dude... > > also, how are you doing your taxes? paper and pencil? or turbotax? > > I've been using turbotax (basic) online for the last 4 years and love > it! love it!! love it!!! > My dad is a trained VITA (voluntary income tax preparer) for H&R Block...so he's done my taxes for me for years. Problem is, i just hand him my tax info at the end of the year and he runs the numbers for me. My only change on my 2006 W4 was the marital status. There is no way it should have had the drastic affect it did...and the only way my dad would have known if would have been if i'd given him one of my pay stubs during the year...which didn't seem necessary. Oh well...thanks for lettin' me vent. -- She's a PhD in "I told you so" You've a knighthood in "I'm not listening" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Deploy Web Applications Quickly across the enterprise with ColdFusion MX7 & Flex 2. Free Trial http://www.adobe.com/products/coldfusion/flex2/ Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/message.cfm/messageid:228669 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
