Extra Withholdings

[WHEREAMI]

My wife and I separated last year.  This year she is wanting to file married - separate which is resulting in me owing a hugh amount of federal taxes for last year.  I'm planning to adust my withholdings and pay extra withholdings each month.  When I did the W4 calculations online, the system generated a pdf that I can send in to my pension fund to adjust my withholdings.  On the generated form, the system automatically put $115 into the 4c cell based on my entered numbers (gross wages, federal tax withhold, etc).  Is the $115  an accurate number or do I need to change the number to what I calculate?

[Cynthiad66]

The $115 is an estimate based on the information you provided.  You can change it to whatever you want it to be.

[WHEREAMI]

Thanks for the quick response.   Let me ask my question with a little more detail. 

When I entered my numbers, I put in the expected gross amount for the year, the amount of federal taxes already withheld each month and accumulative for the year after two payments this year.  And the system came back with a number around $5k that I would owe if I didn't adjust my withholdings.  When I had the system fill in the information on the W4p form, it calculated the additional amount needed to be withheld in addition to the standard deduction, which was $115.  And put it in the 4c box. 

Can I assume this amount is correct and I won't owe any additional taxes for the balance of the year if I have an additional $115 withdrawn each month?  Or do I need to calculate the additional amount based on the $5k / 10 months of payments for the remainder of the year which would work out to $500 additional withheld per month?  Or is it some other number?

[ThomasM125]

I'm not sure about your calculations since I can't see them. I would suggest you look at your form 1040 for 2023 and what your tax amount is on line 24. Subtract any credits on lines 27 - 31 that you think you will have in 2024 and that will tell you what your federal income tax was for 2023. If your income will be similar in 2024, then that is the amount of tax you will need to pay in during 2024. Look at the amount of tax withheld on your pay stubs and annualize that amount and compare it to your tax in 2023. If you are short, divide the shortage by the number of pays you have left in the year and that will tell you how much additional tax to have withheld each pay for the rest of the year. If your income will increase in 2024, multiply the increase by 24% and that should be a good estimate of how much you need to increase your 2023 tax before you do your calculations.