First, i am not entirely sure this is the correct spot for my question.
I am married and I do not work full time or even the whole year.
In 2022, I worked 2 jobs at different times. The first part time job, I got my first paycheck and saw they were not taking out fed taxes. On my w4, i checked married filing jointly and other than the top basic info, i left the rest blank. This is what I have done my entire life. Also, in the past, I have claimed zero dependents to maximize my return. I actually have 3 kids, but they are grown now.
I quit that job and several months later, I started a new FT job. I filled out my w4 the same way and yep, no fed taxes were taken. I ended up calling HR and she told me that around 2021(?) new w4s started being used. And it was confusing A LOT of people.
She basically said that me, as the second person turning in a w4 ....(My husband being the first)...if i check married filijng jointly, the IRS automatically claims 3 .....THREE!....dependents for me and that is why no fed taxes were taken out.
She said that my best bet is to claim Single on my w4, and then at tax time, do the usual married filing jointly.
And after i changed it to single, they did indeed start taking out taxes.
My questionis: is this correct? did i misunderstand? THREE dependents? ....because the kids are grown and we just have ourselves.
