I need help with what to do about my taxes because I am a waitress and I want to try to make sure that I won't owe money at the end of the year. So what should I do?

[surgerygalore]

Hello!
1. Get a form W4 from IRS site and follow instructios to actually estimate the appropriate number of deductions you need to claim

or

2.  Get TT software early and do a what-if game, namely "guess your w-2 for the year (multiplying by 1.5 the income and taxes witheld on your end of August paystub by 1.5)  and your deductions and see what TT says: if you will owe taxes at the end of teh year, go back to W4 and/or pay estimates taxrs

hope this helps!

[Opus 17]

So the issue is with your tips, correct?

First, if you correctly declare all your tips to your employer, your employer is supposed to withhold the correct tax.  The only time you will run into trouble is if you don't report your tips to your employer but you do report them on your tax return (because then you will owe income tax, Medicare tax and Social Security tax and you will not have had enough withholding), or if your regular wages are not large enough to cover the tax you owe on your tips.

For example, suppose you earn $200 in regular wages and you declare $1000 in tips.  Your employer would be required to withhold $92 in social security and medicare tax and about $145 in federal income tax.  Since that's more than your wages, the most the employer could withhold is $108, and you would be short withholding for the week.  That could add up over the year.  

If you are regularly in the situation where you don't earn enough regular wages to cover the withholding on your tips, you can use the IRS withholding calculator to figure out how short you will be, and you can make estimated payments on the IRS web site to cover the difference.  Make sure you tell Turbotax about the estimated payments so you get credit for them when you prepare your tax return.

www.irs.gov/payments

You can probably also make estimated state income tax payments at your state tax web site.

Here is some information about tipping and taxes.

https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/tip-recordkeeping-and-reporting

https://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p3148.pdf

https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc761

Withholding calculator

https://www.irs.gov/individuals/tax-withholding-estimator

[fanfare]

Many (most ? ) employers don't report tip income correctly and don't subtract tipouts. This leaves you holding the bag.

[surgerygalore]

Hi again

perhaps another solution if your goal is not to owe money at the end of the year, yet you would not mind too much in getting a refund,

Then overpay a touch your taxes 

one way would be to enter zero deductions on a w4 form

or check the amount you paid last year and match it if your income is approximately the same, by making a payment on line to the irs and to the state

just ideas!