@flutetotoot wrote:
It will be on my W-2, and lets call it $30k. I guess I'm looking for the specific %s for fed, state, etc. I seem to be coming up with somewhere between 41%-46%. Harumph!
Remember that if you are over-withheld, you will get it back as part of your tax refund.
The IRS has two rules for bonuses, one is a flat rate (I think 25%) and the other is to treat it as regular income using the regular method. The problem is that puts you in a higher bracket. For example, suppose your regular wages are $10,000 per month, or $120K per year. If you are married and your spouse does not work, you should normally have 12% withholding (up to 22% if your spouse does work). If the bonus is taxed using the regular method, then that one check will look like your gross income is $40K per month or $480K per year, which puts you temporarily in the 32% bracket (plus 3.9% additional medicare tax, probably).
Unfortunately, you can ask your employer to use the flat rate method but you can't make them do it that way.
NYS charges between 6% and 6.85% withholding for income under $1 million per year, so your NYS income tax won't be affected by the calculation method, at most it will be 0.85% higher than it should be. But as before, if you are over-withheld, you will get it back as a tax refund.
