First, thank you all for the answers, that helped clarify my question. So Box 1 is the number without 401K and HSA and box 3 is the number without401K. HSA is not even included in those boxes.
@Opus 17 @VolvoGirl To sum up why I am looking at these boxes is because I want to estimate how much additional taxes I need to pay per paycheck to avoid owing taxes and a fee for underpaying taxes at the end of the year (since there is a significant difference between my salary and my wife's, about 5X).
I tried using the IRS tax estimator but it gave me some numbers that did not make sense. It told me that I would be getting a refund when in reality I owe every single year and with this new role, I am going to owe a lot more. I also looked at the back of the w4 form to estimate how much taxes I need to take out and it didn't make sense either.
Since I took the new role mid-this year I was going to do the following (to estimate):
- Get my income from last year, and divide it by half
-Estimate my income for the rest of the year in my new role (a bit more difficult to do)
- Add up both incomes to estimate my end-of-year income
-View year-to-date taxes and estimate the taxes that will be withheld in my new role and add those up
- Get my deductions from last year (standard deductions, HSA contributions..etc, 401K) and calculate this year's projected AGI
- Use that AGI to estimate my end-of-year tax liability
- Subtract end of year tax liability from what I have currently paid
-Divide the difference by however many months left
This should give me a rough idea of how much more taxes I need to pay or at least I think it will but I hope that explains why I was asking these questions. I could be completely wrong so please feel free to correct me.
