Federal Income Tax Withheld

[nberard10]

I was a parttime hourly employee for January 2022-April 2022. I claimed 0 allowances. My federal income tax withheld ended up being zero each paycheck. I am confused as to how that was. An example of my paycheck was a gross pay of $284.35 where I worked 23.50 hours for that 2 week pay period. Can you please assist? Now I owe federal taxes to the IRS but I thought the federal income taxes should have been taken out at the time I was given my check. The employer told me I didn't make enough money to have to pay taxes? I didn't think that was possible. It is a percentage rate taken out.

[ErnieS0]

Your employer is correct. Withholding does not take into account your whole income. It looks at things job-to-job unless you take the extra step to complete the Multiple Jobs Worksheet in the instructions for Form W-4.

If your only income came from a part-time job, it’s possible no tax would be taken out because you would not make enough to file if that was your only income for the year.

For example, the standard deduction for a single filer in 2022 is $12,950, meaning you would owe no tax if your total income was less than that, which works out to $498 bi-weekly. $284.35 is less than that, so no tax would be withheld.

However, when you add your part-time job to the rest of your income, it becomes taxable.

TurboTax has a free W-4 Calculator to help your complete a Form W-4.

[nberard10]

I see, so I had a full time job where I made close to 45,000 for the year 2022. Are you saying I would have to fill out an additional W-4 form that would have all of my jobs on it?

[Vanessa A]

Yes, if you have a Part-Time and a Full-Time job, you should give each employer a W4. 

On Form W-4, section 2, you can select that you have more than one job. There is a Worksheet on page 3 and a table on page 4 to help you figure out how much extra you need to have withheld.  You can choose to leave your PT job not withhold taxes and have the extra withheld from your FT pay or you can have your PT employer withhold taxes on that income by entering the additional amount you want withheld in Step 4c