A spouse can NEVER be claimed as a dependent on an income tax return. You should file a joint return. Filing a joint return is almost always better even if one spouse had little or no income.
Married Filing Jointly is usually better, even if one spouse had little or no income. When you file a joint return, you and your spouse will get the married filing jointly standard deduction of $29,200 (+ $1550 for each spouse 65 or older) for 2024. You are eligible for more credits including education credits, earned income credit, child and dependent care credit, and a larger income limit to receive the child tax credit.
As for his W-4, by putting that $500 credit on there, he had a little more in his take home pay because he was having less withheld for tax. If he keeps that credit on his W-4 and you do not have tax withheld, you are likely to owe more, not less. Husband could remove that $500 credit from his W-4 and even have a bit more withheld from his paychecks to avoid owing at tax time.
https://turbotax.intuit.com/tax-tools/calculators/w4/
https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator
https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw4.pdf
**Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to offer the most correct information possible. The poster disclaims any legal responsibility for the accuracy of the information that is contained in this post.**
